Race Report: 2025 Tahoe Trail MTB 100K

Race: Tahoe Trail MTB 100K

Date: July 19, 2025

AVRT racers: Rachel Hwang

Top Result: 1/23 Women

Course: 2 laps of 30 miles each, all dirt except the first road climb. Per lap, one small climb, small decent, large 1900ft climb, large descent.

Nutrition: 1500 mL hydration pack, 1 bottle hydration, 1 bottle water. 4 gels. Hydration - Tailwind. Gels - Torq (3 caffeinated, 1 uncaffeinated)

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15168855609

Race Recap:

Read the course and nutrition information above as it’ll provide context for the below.

I’ve done this race 3 times in the past, not that exciting, and almost did not sign up, but saw this year they decided to change the course.  I had never ridden it before, but saw it was 10k of elevation, and that enticed me to sign up.  I’ve always wanted to podium overall in a big MTB race, so that was my goal coming into it.  I had a feeling the 10k would lead to less sign ups, but really, I was just thinking “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Last minute, a day or two before the race, they changed it from 3 to 2 laps, totaling ~40mi and ~7.5k ft elevation.  Before starting, all I was hearing around me was how horrible this course was this year, and I started getting really worried.

The course is a mass start, down a small hill, then up a small hill, through the Northstar Village, all on road for about a couple miles, before throwing us onto a fire road climb.  All this was the same as years past, but then shortly after the fire road turned into really horrible dirt downhill.  It was an access road as if someone took a hoe and loosened up the dirt in clumps.  As if it couldn’t get worse, it turned into single track, with some technical bits causing people to unclip and walk (including me).  The uphills were stressful as I tried not to mess up and unclip and let 10+ people pass me, and the downhills were equally stressful as I tried to hold onto the wheel in front of me to not slow others down.  And, it was so, so incredibly dusty behind everyone.  This singletrack lasted for 11.48miles.  Too long.

This is where I knew the race actually begun.  If you guys don’t know, I take a while to warm up, and always start races slow, not intentionally, but literally do not have the power to keep up.  As soon as we hit fire roads, I smashed.  Again, I wanted to podium.  That was basically all I was thinking about.  I was so tired of losing all these other races, so tired of not trying my best and knowing I could've given more, and on top of that, just a long week at work.

Typically for long races like these, my strategy is to pace, but today, I just went hard enough to know I could keep the pace for at least one lap and didn’t think about the fate of the second lap.  I was third women at this point, and was pretty happy, thinking all I needed was to keep it and not let anyone pass.  I killed that first large climb and passed so many people, feeling so good.

First lap done.  I stopped at the feed zone to pour some water on myself, frantic as always, and kept going.  At this point, I still had more than half my water left so knew I wouldn’t have to stop.

Second lap first small single track climb sucked again but wasn’t as bad without the train of people.

Second lap big climb, I kept the pace up, still same thoughts in my head, tired of loosing, wanting to podium, annoyed with work, letting all my frustrations out.  As I started climbing, passing people, one guy said, “I think you’re third for the women.” “Do you know how far they are?” “Uh… pretty far” “That’s ok, I’m just trying to stay 3rd.” “But at that pace you’re going, maybe you can catch them.”  I genuinely was not thinking about catching them, but I kept the pace, and surely, I passed the first girl.  At the speed I was going and the speed she was going, I knew there was almost no chance of her catching me.  I knew because I’ve been the girl passed, watching others speed away slowly, but knowing I wouldn’t be able to match their speed.  Shortly after, I passed 1st.  At that point, I was overcome with adrenaline, not believing what I just did.  I kept pushing, but a few minutes later, the adrenaline passed, and there was no one left (women) to chase.  I had about 800ft of climbing left, and I started slowing down.  I had to keep reminding myself I would not forgive myself if I let them pass me because I let off the gas, just like all the other races.  So I pushed, and didn’t dare stop at any rest stops even though they had such good Honey Stinger products and I would've taken so many handfuls for later.  I pushed so hard I actually double leg cramped right at the top - good timing.  I raced my way to the bottom, and right before that finish line stretch, was overcome with emotions.  

I hardly ever looked at my power.  I got a power meter for my XC MTB literally for these long races to know what kind of power I was outputting, but today, I purely went on perceived effort and pushed myself.  My power did end up being pretty good, given that it’s so much harder to maintain a high power consistently on dirt.

A race I had done three times prior, two of the 100K,  placing 9th and 15th overall, I literally could not believe that I won. Sure, the competition wasn’t as stiff as years prior, and I can come up with many reasons why it made it easy for me to win, but it doesn’t matter.  I showed up and did it, and that’s one thing I’ve been struggling with this year of not feeling like racing because of X and Y and not pushing hard because of X and Y.  But I gave it everything that day and I left with no regrets.

At the finish line and post race, I was able to hang out with Marc and Nico.  I left feeling very grateful for the Alto Velo community, having teammates basically wherever you go, and people to chat with no matter the circumstance and ability.