Race Report: 2026 3CX Grant Grinder XCO - Men’s Cat 1/Expert

Race: 2026 3CX Grant Grinder XCO - Men’s Cat 1/Expert Age 19-39 

Date: September 12, 2026

AVRT racers: Michael Matthews

Top Result: Men’s Cat 1/Expert Age 19-39 1st/3 (Men’s Cat 1/Expert Overall 2nd/16).

Course: Mountain bike racing returned to Joseph Grant Park, a venue from the early 2000s. The course was all double track gravel road. The race would be a fitness test with some skill required to keep yourself out of a slide on loose gravel into a ditch at speed. It was a ~6.8 mile lap completed 3 times for Cat 1, with ~950 ft of climbing per lap. One longer climb early and a second steeper climb came before a straight run to the finish. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20149990363 

Nutrition: Normal breakfast and ~100g of carbs in a bottle for pre/in-race nutrition.

Event Recap: The Open/Elite, Gravel Bike, Juniors and Age Group riders all went off together this time. I got out front of the whole group before the first corner. By the time we were on the first climb we had a small front group of one each of gravel, elite, 19-39 (me) and 50-59 riders. Initially the gravel rider was climbing faster and the mountain bikers would catch up on the descents. The gravel rider lost it on one high speed corner but kept it upright and stayed with us. By the end of the first lap we had dropped the elite mountain biker and we paced well together until the first climb on the last lap. I couldn’t keep up with Chris (50+ mountain biker) and he and the gravel rider dropped me.

I definitely spent more time this season on my technical skills and sacrificed some raw fitness. Personally, I enjoy the more technical courses over a 100% dirt road mountain bike race. 

In the end it was another age group Cat 1 solo finish for 1st place!

PC: Seabright Photo

Paisley found something more interesting :P