The 2025 Chequamegon Mountain Bike Festival was another test for Durango’s Cobe Freeburn and Ruth Holcolmb to see if they can hang with some of the best off-road cyclists racers in the world. The Durango Gen Z riders passed with flying colors.
Freeburn, 23, finished fifth on Saturday in the men’s elite Chequamegon MTB race after 40 miles through the woods of Cable, Wisconsin. Holcomb, 22, finished 10th in the women’s elite race on Saturday.
In addition to the Freeburn and Holcomb’s youth, their rides are impressive because neither are full-time members of the Life Time Grand Prix elite fields. Holcomb is a part of the Life Time Grand Prix U-23 program; Freeburn hopes to join the series next year. Results like his at Chequamegon won’t hurt his case.
“It was fun,” Freeburn said. “I was not really sure what to expect; I've never done it before. It was a fun race that was nice and tactical, fast and punchy. I didn't really know what to expect going into it so I’m really happy to end up on the podium.”
Freeburn finished in fifth in one hour, 56 minutes and 44 seconds. Alexy Vermeulen won in 1:56:35, followed by Kyan Olshove in second in 1:56:43, Brendan Johnston in third in 1:56:43 and Torbjørn Andre Røed in fourth in 1:56:44.
Chequamegon is a unique race on the Life Time Grand Prix schedule. It’s easily the shortest race on the schedule in terms of miles and time. Chequamegon is also unique because a lot of the race is on grass in the woods of Cable.
Freeburn was surprised by how hard and fast the race was. It fits his race style so it worked out. Freeburn enjoys races this distance because he doesn’t have to worry about eating and overall, there’s less to manage.
One of the reasons Freeburn didn’t know what to expect is because he wasn’t feeling his best after Leadville in August. He was tired and not feeling super fit. Freeburn started to feel better the week of Chequamegon.
For the most part, Freeburn was in the front the entire race. There were some tighter sections of the course which split the front group up. Freeburn was happy to sit in a large group and relax after a frantic start.
Vermeulen broke away from the lead group and had a 13-second gap with less than five miles left. After Vermeulen, there was a small gap between Olshove and Johnston and the rest of the lead group. Therefore, Freeburn and four or five other riders were left to sprint for fourth.
“Last year, I lost almost every sprint I did,” Freeburn said. “I was just trying to position well, mostly, and then I had a good idea of timing where a good place to sprint was. I really surprised myself there; it helped that it was such a hard race overall that all the other guys in the front were pretty tired. I was a tiny bit less tired than they were and I kind of times things well. I've also been working on my sprint a decent amount this year.”
Freeburn went with a regular flat bar mountain bike at Chequamegon. He wanted to keep it simple with what he knows he’s good on.
Next up for Freeburn is the 2025 USA Cycling Gravel National Championships in La Crescent, Minnesota, on Saturday. He’ll finish up his season and the Life Time Grand Prix season with the Little Sugar Mountain Bike race in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Big Sugar Gravel race in Bentonville, with both races in October. Freeburn isn’t sure what the Life Time Grand Prix series will look like next year. He does know that he’ll apply again to get in.
Holcomb finished in 10th in 2:22:31. Melisa Rollins won the women’s elite race in 2:14:05, followed by former Fort Lewis College rider Sofia Gomez Villafane in second in 2:18:39 and Alexis Skarda in third in 2:18:40.
The Durango native was the top Life Time Grand Prix women’s U-23 rider; she’s been the top U-23 women’s rider in the three Life Time Grand Prix events she’s done this year. Chequamegon was Holcomb’s best Life Time Grand Prix finish this season.
“It was good,” Holcomb said. “I knew it was going to be good one for me, because it's a little more what I'm used to, a little more like a normal cross-country race. I was definitely excited and it's a little flatter and I'm better when it's punchy like that … I definitely was hoping for maybe a little bit more. But, it's also a pretty tricky race that you have to know how to race.”
Saturday was Holcomb’s first Chequamegon. She was surprised on how hard it was. She thought it was flatter, but realized there wasn’t a lot of time for recovery because everyone was going full gas for the whole race.
“At almost every other race, you climb up a big hill, then you go down the descent and you get to rest down the descent,” Holcomb said. “While the hill is hard, you get full recovery. There's really no place for full recovery in this race. Having the race only be only two hours, the pace is just higher and everyone's attacking the whole time.”
Holcomb was in the front group for about the first 10 miles until a single-track section where the group split. She worked hard to get back to the front group after that, but Holcomb said she blew up a little bit doing it.
The Durangoan then caught on to a chase group and around 25 miles in, her chase group caught up at the Fire Tower Climb.
Like Freeburn, Holcomb’s race came down to a sprint finish. She was confident in her sprint finish; Holcomb waited for someone to make the first move and she sprinted hard for 10th.
Durango’s Payson McElveen continues to move up the Life Time Grand Prix standings after breaking his hip at the beginning of the year. McElveen finished ninth in the Chequamegon men’s elite race. He crossed the finish line in 1:56:45.
“The race was as tight and aggressive as ever, and I did my best with what I had on the day,” McElveen wrote on Instagram. “A top 10 in another crazy tight mass finish, which was good enough to move a little further up the leaderboard. It’s always tricky to make sense of the math in this series, but I’ve convinced myself I could back door a top 10 overall with a couple more solid rides, despite being a race short.”
McElveen made his way through the field during the race. He crossed the 1.4-mile split in 24th and made steady progress after that. He’s in 14th despite finishing only two of the four Life Time events this year.
Michaela Thompson had a solid ride, finishing the women’s elite race in 2:26:24 in 18th.
Fort Lewis College graduate Henry Nelson had a quality ride at Chequamegon, finishing 20th in the men’s elite race in 2:01:20.
Durango resident and Team Segment 28 rider Ruby Ryan finished the women’s elite race in 23rd in 2:30:22. Ellen Campbell was right behind her in 24th in 2:30:26.
“I'm a bit bummed; I'm just more so frustrated with myself,” Ryan said. “I had a really good start to the day, I was sitting in the top-15 group, top-10 group and I made the crucial split, which I knew you had to and I felt good. Then unfortunately, another crucial split that I didn't really realize I missed, and I got dropped off the group solo and I rode the next 20 miles solo … It wasn't a great race, but I know I'm fit and strong, so I just have to take the positives away from it.”
Ryan eventually caught on with another group. But, she was so tired from the work she did early in the race that she was dropped and rode alone again.
Toby Hassett finished 34th in the men’s elite race in 2:07:42.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
