Mountain bike kickoff race draws hundreds of kids in event that's as much community as it is competition

More than 400 kids and teens tore through Riverside State Park on Sunday to kick off a competitive, yet communal, season of rugged youth mountain bike racing.

Hosted by the Washington Student Cycling League, the event brought attendance from teams of fifth- through 12th-graders all across Washington and Idaho. Racers took on the trail system at Seven Mile Trailhead, whipping through hilly and rocky 5.25-mile loops that take riders about half an hour to complete.

The sounds of wheels spinning and the laughter of muddy kids in their element filled the park at the kickoff of the league's spring season.

"For some kids, this is their only sport," said race director David Williams. "Some kids are, you know, as soon as they can put the skis up, they're jumping on mountain bikes and racing."

The trailhead was packed with tents and campers tended by families whipping up large meals on camp stoves. Sweaty, grinning kids pedaled their bikes up and down the space, and spectators with bells and kazoos sprinkled themselves across the course - whooping and cheering for each competitor regardless of which team they're on.

"You can feel the love of everyone here; it's not like any other sport, I don't think," racer Elyse Edison, 17, said.

That's one of Mia Modad's favorite parts of the sport. Unlike soccer, another sport the 16-year-old plays, mountain bike racing is far more friendly while still being competitive, she said. With their first names printed on their race numbers attached to the front of their bikes, strangers encourage each young racer by name.

"Everyone's for you," Mia laughed. "Even on the course I'll be like, 'How do you know my name?' When they're like 'Go Mia!'"

Mia, of Moscow, Idaho, races on the Palouse Composite Mountain Biking Team. She's on the team with her younger sister Lizzie Modad, 14, and 13-year-old Caroline Hoehn, who is "like a cousin" to the sisters, they all said.

For the trio, biking is about doing it together. It's a great way to exercise and get outside, but "the community," Caroline said, is what's kept her feet on the pedals for nearly all her life.

"There's so much excitement when you race and then other people do it too, so you get to be with them," Caroline said.

Speeding through the woods while navigating the terrain and other bikers is a thrill like none other, Mia said.

"I think it's the best adrenaline rush ever, because your adrenaline is going for all of the uphill, but then you're bombing down the hill too," Mia said. "Running, for me, it's not quite as good."

While a thrill-seeking nature is also part of what propels 17-year-old Edison to race, she gets emotional when she thinks of how the sport enriched her life. It brought her leadership skills as the president of the Washington Student Cycling League's student leadership council. After getting up from more spills than she can recall, she's learned "tenacity," she said.

"My mom and I say a lot, like, either you win sometimes and you learn sometimes," Edison said. "I feel like I do a lot of learning, and sometimes that's hard to just keep trying and trying and trying again."

Above all else, Edison credits the sport to what got her through the COVID pandemic. In sixth grade when lockdowns necessitated online schooling, she struggled to make friends. All she wanted to do was feel she fit in somewhere, she said.

Enter the "Northshore Gnarwals," as her Bothell-based team is named. She joined in middle school, already an avid biker by virtue of her family's passion for the sport. Riding outside with kids her age gave her a much-needed avenue to meet like-minded peers since school wasn't providing enough socialization.

"It was a little weird because we're all wearing masks and stuff," she said. "But, like, we got to be outside and we got to ride bikes and we're all awkward middle -schoolers together."

"It was my intro back to, like, people," she said.

Now with the pandemic six years behind her and grown out of her "awkward" middle -school phase, Edison still holds close the circle of cycling friends she's made.

"It's a really good team," she said. "I think it kind of provides a place for kids who don't have a place maybe in traditional sports."

Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.