LOUDONVILLE — It won’t look the same as before, but a stripped-down Mohican MTB 100 mountain bike race will wheel into southern Ashland County on Saturday.
The new-look event, part of the National Ultra Endurance Race Series, will still be run, longtime race director Ryan O’Dell said. O’Dell submitted revised race plans to both the Ohio Division of Natural Resources and the Ashland County Health Department.
O’Dell was informed late Wednesday that he did not receive a park permit from ODNR. Consequently, the race will be shortened by 20 miles and will not include the 24-mile mountain bike trail inside Mohican State Park and the adjoining Mohican-Memorial State Forest. A contingency route circumventing the forest and originally designed in case of inclement weather and trail conditions will be used instead.
“We developed a full mitigation plan that we submitted to ODNR and to the local health department. We’re taking it seriously, but at the same time the racers have made it overwhelmingly clear that they want to race,” O’Dell said. “The first thing we did was allow anyone, for any reason, to defer until next year.
“We’ve lost two-thirds of our race because international racers and racers from states still in full lockdown can’t attend. Instead of 600 or 700 racers, we’re looking at 200.”
Gone is the mass start through the streets of Loudonville. In its place is a time trial-style start, with riders leaving Mohican Adventures Campground in small groups every couple of minutes.
“Our aid stations will look different because we are following state guidelines. We won’t have as many volunteers because we won’t need as many with the smaller race field,” O’Dell said. “Food at the aid stations will be individually packaged items and we won’t have interactions between the volunteers and the riders. There’s never going to be a situation where there will be 10 people gathered at the same time in the same place.”
Race officials have made other changes in an effort to adhere to current social distancing guidelines. Participants will go through a drive-thru to pick up their race packets and all racers will be subject to a temperature check before entering the course. The post-race party also has been canceled.
“Our registration director is a Cleveland-area nurse and will be doing temperature checks,” O’Dell said. “We’ve assembled our own volunteer medical team so as not to put any stress on local the local (Emergency Medical System) or hospital.
“If something very serious happens, we will get ahold of them … but we should be able to take care of any minor scrapes or bruises internally.”
Loudonville fire chief Mike Carey had some concerns about the village’s ability to host the event — even a scaled-down version — in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis.
“Every time they’ve had the bike race before, it has brought a lot of people to town. It’s not just the racers, but their crews and family members and fans. Right away, it is a health concern,” Carey said. “Typically we had a big kickoff downtown and we knew immediately we couldn’t do that.
“As we looked at a mass gathering, it something that wasn’t compliant with the state’s rules and we didn’t want to push the envelope.”
Carey also was concerned about his department’s ability to handle a potential increase in emergency calls given the current climate.
“If our normal call volume is X and we throw another factor in with the bike race it really would stress us out pretty good,” Carey said. “We explained to Ryan that, with our (personal protective equipment) shortages, it’s really hard and almost reckless to hold a big event.
“I told him I couldn’t support it and I wasn’t sure we could handle the logistics of it.”
O’Dell took into consideration the village’s concerns.
“Chief Carey is not in favor of the event. Of course the fear is we are going to burden them,” O’Dell said. “That is why we assembled our own volunteer medical team that includes EMTs and nurses and at least one doctor.”
While the field won’t be as deep as usual, it won’t be without its luminaries. Two-time Olympian Tinker Juarez is scheduled to compete.
“He’s from California and this will be his first race of the year,” O’Dell said. “He will be here to support the event.”
Like everyone else trying to navigate the new normal, O’Dell had to weigh the positives of moving forward with the event against any potential risks.
“I don’t know if there is a right or wrong answer. We’re trying to be smart and make decisions with the information we have,” he said. “People have been locked down for two months and they’re ready to get out. People are adjusting their behaviors. We’ve dealt with challenges before and this is just another thing we have to adapt to.”
