June Trip Pt. 1
The Big June Block, capstone of the 2025 season for Samuel and Jeremy, a tour of the Rockies starting in Canmore, Canada (the gateway to Banff) for the Canada Cup Continental Series race, then to Missoula Montana for the next stop of the US Cup series before heading down to Soldier Hollow, Utah for another Continental Series and the last US Cup race before National Championships in July.
Unfortunately, Isabella was unable to join for The Big June Block but had an incredible opportunity to help coach at a junior camp in Michigan. More stories from that in Part 2!
The first stop of the road trip in Canmore, Canada features one of the steepest, most technically demanding races in North America - most similar to the World Cup courses in Europe. The course is at the Canmore Nordic Center perched on the edge of a picturesque valley walled in by massive alpine towers. Just down the hill, the Bow river flows turquoise from the glaciers higher in the Canadian Rockies. Canmore itself is a quintessential active mountain town with every kind of outdoor activity, fairytale scenery, and a healthy population of grizzly bears (some years, bear spray is required on course during the race). If you haven’t visited Banff and this corridor of the Canadian Rockies, add it to your list. Maybe sign up for the Tour Divide, Banff to Mexico on a mountain bike!
This venue has a rich sports history in both development and competition hosting events like the Canadian mountain bike National Championships, MTB World Cups in the 90s, all kinds of winter sports, and the 1988 Olympic XC Ski and Biathlon. This past month, it hosted the 2025 Canmore MTB Classic, UCI C1 and Continental Series.
Unfortunately smoke from the Canadian wildfires threw a wrench in HART’s plans for Wednesday. AQI climbed steadily throughout the day and settled just under 180AQI around warmup time. High enough to be noticeable in the lungs just standing outside but not quite at the organizer’s threshold for cancellation. After careful consideration and comparing notes with previous years’ smoky conditions, Samuel and Jeremy decided not to start the C1 on Wednesday. For long term health and for performance later this month.
Skipping a race is never an easy decision for an athlete. Excitement, race nerves, and the weight of months of commitment for this one day rip around your mind. They ride on the wave of anxiety of missing an opportunity, people’s view of us after no-showing on the start line, and everything that comes with dreaming, commitment, preparation, and putting yourself out as an elite athlete in a niche sport. All this comes down on you while you incessantly refresh the air quality index and weigh the value of the race. For Samuel and Jeremy, the decision came down to prioritizing a good ride at the continental series on Saturday and setting themselves up for a good block of racing after Canmore.
Air quality map from Wednesday morning showing unhealthy conditions across the valley.
The next opportunity came quickly with short track on Thursday. The air cleared nicely and 46 Elite and U23 men toed the line for the 20min full gas race.
Jeremy had a great first lap, moving up to the lead group. Unfortunately, a tangle on the second lap at a hard bottle neck left him standing still for precious seconds and he was quickly at the back of the race again. Samuel made quick work of the traffic jams and moved up. He closed the gap to the lead group and sprinted a group for coveted top 10 spots. Samuel ended up 9th! Jeremy searched for another acceleration but came up empty, finishing 28th at the head of his chase group.
Jeremy recovering from the chaos of lap 2
Another UCI Top 10 for Samuel!
Cross country on Saturday featured one of the best North American courses for World Cup preparation. Steep climbs, steeper descents with roots, rocks, jumps, and drops, enough to push the limits of every rider. 21 Elites lined up for the Continental Series race.
It was a proper fight from the start and the boys settled in not far behind the leaders. Samuel rode a strong, clean race to finish 12th just a few seconds outside the top 10. Jeremy suffered a hard crash with two laps to go but got back on to finish 16th with a broken helmet barely staying on his head. Both riders improved their international standings with the UCI points from the Continental Series race.
The split second between losing the front wheel and hitting the ground. Jeremy hasn’t realized he’s not on his bike anymore.
Samuel and Jeremy wrapped up their stay in Canmore with an incredible adventure ride after the race weekend. With Carter from Dirt Camp Racing and Team Dad, Brandt, they rode up the mountains, got lost a bit, and found some of the most incredible trail! Flowy, fast, beautiful singletrack traversing the Canadian Rockies and overlooking the valley below from a thousand feet up. They think the trail was Cloud Line but there were a few u-turns made along the way. It was a great wrap to a week in a beautiful place and some good Father’s Day fitness for Brandt. For better or worse, the team did not get to see any grizzly bears this time.
Next, HART drove down through Banff National Park, across the border, and down to Missoula Montana where the big sky bows over the Clark Fork river in a much different mountain valley. Although still very much in the mountains, the surrounding ridges are much less abrupt than in Canmore and offer more opportunity to climb endless, winding logging roads deep into bear country.
The course at Marshal Mountain is a long-time staple of American XC racing. Race director Shaun has been investing in this opportunity for national and international racing since 2013 and the event has seen American names like Sepp Kuss, Christopher Blevins, Howard Grotts, Erin Huck, Lea Davison, and more since before they won bike races(for some). Samuel recently surpassed Evelyn Dong for the most race starts of any athlete at the Missoula XC having raced the event since 2015 and missed very few. Jeremy protests this record because, if Collegiate National Championships is counted, he has Sam beat.
Jeremy(left) and Samuel(right) at the start of the 2017 Missoula XC UCI Elite Men’s race.
Samuel (far left) sharing the podium with Christopher Blevins at the 2016 UCI Junior race. Jeremy was at the back of the race.
This year featured the first major changes to the main climb since the inception of the event. This is part of the evolution as Marshal Mountain becomes a proper, publicly accessible, earn-your-turns bike park. While the HART riders missed some of the challenging single track climbs from previous years, we are excited to see Marshal Mountain continue to be an opportunity for the cycling community to ride and race among the wildflowers and pines and to see it become a place for skills to progress and passion to ignite in the text generation. Definitely go explore those trails on foot or on bike if you find yourself in Missoula!
Preceding the race weekend, Jeremy and Samuel checked out the course changes with some juniors…and talked through pacing and fueling strategies with Accel Cycling.
Samuel chose the Trailcraft Timber, our lightweight hardtail, for the climbing heavy course. It flew up that hill and down!
The Missoula XC was a UCI C1, international points 15 deep, and a part of the US Cup series for our riders. The start list included many of the up and coming U23 riders racing up for the week, the Elite riders chasing the US Cup overall, and some very quick Canadians, Germans, and an Australian. Off the line, Samuel got into the lead group. Jeremy, foreseeing the challenge of five laps of the brutal climb, sat up and went to the back of the race to ride his own pace. By the top of the climb, Samuel was hanging strong in the lead group and Jeremy had passed about 10 riders without overreaching. After almost 4,000ft of climbing and some robotic pacing, Jeremy finished 14th, closing quickly on the 10th place group, but not quick enough. Samuel rode to another UCI top 10 with 7th place, adding to his long history of great performances at Missoula XC!
The following day, the HART boys lined up for the short track race with a good amount of climbing in its own right. Jeremy got off to a great start, chasing across early gaps to get onto the back of the lead group. Samuel had some bad luck at the start, getting caught behind riders missing pedals and bottlenecks on the first lap. Jeremy had a strong fight in the top 10 until the fatigue from the elevation gain the previous day hit him like a ton of bricks and he started to slip back. On the same lap, Samuel chased back from the lap traffic and blasted around, Jeremy unable to hold his wheel. In the end, Jeremy ended up 18th just behind Samuel in 16th.
Following the races, Jeremy and Samuel interviewed race director Shaun to chat a bit about what has kept him running the Missoula XC for 12 years through so many changes to racing in the US. He talked about the privilege of watching so many riders throughout their careers, seeing their success and improvements throughout the years and about the thriving cycling community that shows up for all their weekday events, kids camps, and just to ride trail. The interview is on our Instagram reels!
Jeremy got one more proper adventure ride in after the race weekend exploring the Rattlesnake Trails, taking random turns, exploring the wilderness with just his Trailcraft Maxwell, bottles of Skratch hydration, snacks, and a can of bear spray. He almost had to take a long hike after slashing a tire on top of Stuart Peak. Eventually he got it to seal and enjoyed some more singletrack before packing up for the next leg of the Big June Block.
Three major races in one road trip, two US Cups, two Continental Series races, lots of international points on the table. The Big June Block was a dream trip, one that HART hopes to repeat next year and into the future. Canmore and Missoula were a great start with some good performances, then a 8 hour drive south to Midway, UT, just outside of Park City for the last race of the block and conclusion of the trip.
Isabella had an incredible time at the camp in Michigan with stories to tell. Overall June was a great success and HART is happy we get to share it with you!
Check out Part 2 up next!
Until then,
-Jeremy Norris
