Bob Arnold has been watching the sky with worry. St. Louis saw the wettest April on record, and the Greensfelder Challenge mountain bike race, which Arnold is running for the 21st year, is set for Saturday, May 10.
“If we’re going to destroy a trail, we’ll cancel,” he says. “Especially since it’s a charity event for GORC.”
The race is the biggest fundraiser of the year for Gateway Off-Road Cyclists, or GORC—the nonprofit that, more than any other entity, makes it possible to mountain bike on public land in the St. Louis area. Powered by volunteer labor, they’ve built more than 110 miles of trail here and helped maintain more than 150 miles in eastern Missouri, according to GORC board member Bryan Adams. All proceeds from the Greensfelder Challenge go to GORC, says Arnold, who exhorts his racers to become members for $20 a year or at least show up to a work day or two. “You will seriously start to appreciate the trails we have,” he says. “I’ve worked for six hours on one berm and I couldn’t move for a month. Imagine building miles of trail in one day.”…