So what I am hearing is you agree on O2S…
For New Mexico I’d recommend Zia Ride’s Wild West Festival in Ruidoso. There’s a 40 mile option that links together two single track systems with lots of climbing/descending in town.
For Alaska, there’s a mountain bike series in the summer with races in Kincaid Park and Hillside put on by the Arctic Bike Club. But I recommend something more adventurous like Lost Lake. BKXC covered all these areas in his recent trip to AK on his YouTube channel. Or if you’re really adventurous you can do the Frosty Bottom.
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My vote for North Carolina goes to the Pisgah 55.5 MTB, since it is almost entirely singletrail. It’s bigger brother Pisgah 111K is twice as long, but has more gravel sections (which help to get through the day), but the same and a lot of additional singletrail.
The Pisgah stage race runs on many of the same trails as the Pisgah 111K, but covers a bigger range of Pisgah, I never done it, but rode most of the trials. Individual stages are much shorter then the two aforementioned one day races.
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OC is a classic Arkansas race with great trails, but it has a bunch of pavement and gravel roads.
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I really like the 5 points 50 outside of Chattanooga TN, it does have some gravel, but has a lot of singletrack.
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Its not a State but a Province The Quebec Single Track Challenge is an amazing race and experience. Once travel opens up again this should go on a bucket list!
https://quebecsingletrack.com/en
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I love a lot of the races around here in SoCal, but with as much fireroad as some take, I couldn’t recommend them as best. Grizzly 100 has a short road to service road (rocky, unlike a fire road) climb, otherwise is a ton of nice ST. The local race series uses too much fire road, always frustrates me. The local small time event is the best, and 97% (made that number up) ST, but the steep climbing puts off some people.
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Ore to shore is the best, Iceman is terrible and now overpriced. Need more big races in state. MG is a different beast.
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Agreed. I do Ore to Shore every year but it is quite far from metro Detroit. I make a whole trip out of it and it is more of a party weekend for me. Has there ever been talk of a race out at DTE or Poto?
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MICHIGAN
The title of this thread says it all… “Best Single Track Races in Every State”. The OP wants minimal and/or no gravel/road. The Ore to Shore has much of that as well as pavement thrown in. I’m not sure why so many in MI love the “XC” races that have poor trail courses and lots of gravel/road/transitions. I assume people equate their experience, the atmosphere (party) and/or difficulty as justification for “Best”. I understand that but when you actually look at the course/trail, these atmospheric races fail in comparison.
Over the past 4 years in MI, I’ve now completed 28 races (XCO, XCM, MTB 100s) to include the XCO Championship Race Series (CPS) each year. I have a good feel of what the best races are based on the course/trail alone. Ignoring all other factors, the best races in MI are:
XCO
- Pontiac Lake Challenge. The most “technical” trail of the XCO race series and requires bike handing as well as fitness.
MTB 100
- Lumberjack 100. Mostly beautiful singletrack in a National Forrest with 10,000 ft of elevation gain. Not technical but great trail conditions. Contains 3 laps that allow for easy refueling and support.
Party/Experience (plenty of gravel/road)
- Iceman
- Mud, Sweat & Beers
- Tree Farm Relay
Most Difficult (plenty of gravel/road and forced hike-a-bike)
- Marji Gesick
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North Dakota - Maah Daah Hey 100: really the only ND option, but is about as close to 100% singletrack as it gets, not the most technical though.
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Here are what I think are the best one-day singletrack races in my general region. All of them are marathon distances, but both Borah and Oremageddon have half-distance options.
Wisconsin: Borah Epic - https://www.borahepic.com/
South Dakota: Dakota Five-O - https://www.dakotafiveo.com/
Minnesota: Teravail Oremageddon - https://www.cuyuna.com/teravailoremageddon/
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South Dakota - Dakota 5-0 in Spearfish.
Shorter races Music on Main in Sturgis. 8 week Wednesday night FREE XC race series
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Michigan
Lawless 50 in Vandalia, MI
It’s not well known but it’s one of the tougher single track races in the Midwest.
Marji Gesick
An absolute brutal death march but the first 75ish miles are a total blast. You’ll want to shoot for 15 hours or less or it’s a long night on extremely technical terrain.
Illinois
Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club put on an endurance race in 2020 that was 20ish miles a lap and was a lot of fun, great event. Not sure if they’re planning another one but worth looking into.
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+1 for the Kickapoo endurance race. I’ve raced that course for the series race, but seem to have something that interferes with the endurance race every year.
PAMBA also hosts a state race series that has some great races.
In PA, we have the Wilderness 101 (https://nuemtb.com/wilderness-101/) in addition to the Rattlin Creek marathon (which sold out in 5 hours this year)…
Also posting to follow this because I DEFINITELY want this list when it’s posted…
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Tennessee- Cohutta 100. Has some fire road though.
Georgia- Snake Creek Gap TT. 50 miles of brutal single track in the middle of winter.
North Carolina- Off Road Assault on Mt Mitchell. Heartbreak ridge fully compensates for gravel and BRP sections.
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Id say cohutta 100 is at least half gravel roads
I’d second 5 points in Tennessee. Outside of the first 5 miles on pavement I felt like it was trail the rest of the time.
In Georgia I would go Fools Gold.
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