Racing to climb its way back in Cape

The Cape Mountain Bike Challenge will make its debut on Sunday.

Southeast Missourian

The Delaware Park Trail will be home to a rare event in Cape Girardeau on Sunday: a mountain bike race.

The Cape Mountain Bike Challenge, sponsored and run by Cyclewerx, will serve as the first area mountain bike race since racing ended in Old Appleton in 1997.

"I'm not sure, but I think it might be the first mountain bike race to ever take place in the city of Cape," said Dustin Gross, service manager at Cyclewerx.

The competition, the fifth of six National Off-Road Bike Association series races, will feature four classes of cyclists. First-timers will race about 4 miles, juniors/beginners will race 8 miles, sport racers will go 12 miles and experts will ride 20 miles.

Registration will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday before the start of the sport class race at 9 a.m. Experts, which include professionals and semi-pros, will follow at 10, and beginners and first-timers will take off at 1 p.m.

The beginners will be separated into three age groups, while all other men's classes will consist of a 35-and-under class and an over-35 class. Women's races will be open class.

"I would say there will be a lot of beginners," Gross said. "A lot of the local crowd is beginners. There's not many pros and semi-pros around here."

Gross said that while online registration hasn't generated much response, the race is expected to draw bikers from several states.

"It's hard to say how many people will be there," he said. "We're probably going to have people from this area, St. Louis, Arkansas, Illinois and Kentucky. We won't get Kansas City guys because there's another race going on in Kansas, but maybe some guys from Columbia."

The 1.8-mile Delaware Park Trail on the corner of Lexington and Old Sprigg was created last summer by Gross and Cyclewerx owner John Dodd with the help of the city of Cape Girardeau. Gross and Dodd, cycling fanatics and directors of the race, will not compete on Sunday.

"It's almost too difficult to promote a race and race in it at the same time," Gross said. "Putting it on for the first time, there's going to be a lot of things going on. This time next year, though, we'll be able to compete in it for sure."

Competitive cycling in the area was a popular trend several years ago, but the sport has faded since. Gross hopes that Cyclewerx's trail and today's race will turn the tide in Southeast Missouri. Cyclewerx also is aiming at sponsoring a road bike race next year in addition to the Cape Mountain Bike Challenge.

"In the past, the Cape area was always a good cycling spot," he said. "It kind of died off in the past year, but we're trying to bring it back.

"This has just been part of the whole vision that we had when we opened up the store," he added. "We want to bring cycling back into the spotlight."