Hundreds of young athletes compete at Rochester’s Gamehaven for 2024 Race Series

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – The Minnesota Cycling Association hosted the 4th weekend of its 2024 Race Series this weekend. The series featured a mountain bike race at Rochester's Gamehaven Scout Reservation.

Saturday's races were for middle schoolers and Sunday's event featured high school athletes with freshman, junior varsity, and varsity races.

About 900 student athletes took part in the event with mountain bike teams from Austin, Rochester and Winona among the 20 teams participating.

Rochester's head coach Matt Blanshan says that racing is a way for himself to teach his bikers how to overcome obstacles.

"We use racing as a tool to teach life skills and how to overcome obstacles and challenge yourself and learn about yourself every day," Blanshan said. "It's really important for me as a coach to see our kids do well and enjoy themselves."

According to the Minnesota Cycling Association, this is the 13th season of the race, housing more than 2,700 student athletes and 1,300 coaches from across the state.

"The biggest thing about the Minnesota Cycling Association is this is a no-drop, no-tryout sport," Minnesota Cycling Association Executive Director Josh Kleve said. "Every student athlete that wants to participate has the opportunity to go out and race, and we went through some painstaking efforts to make sure that it doesn't matter if it's the first right across the line or maybe a little bit farther back. Just the simple fact that they're out there competing and they finished the race is helping support their team."

The official results for the weekend's races will be posted on the Minnesota Cycling Association's website .