Border battle: Rockford hosts Wisconsin Off-Road Series’ mountain bike race

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — America’s largest mountain bike racing series is coming to Rockford for the first time this weekend.

Atwood Park will host the Wisconsin Off-Road Series’ Border Battle at Atwood Trails, taking place July 19th and 20th, at 7000 Rydberg Road.

This marks the first time in the series’ 34-year history that the sports series will cross state lines into Illinois, and also serves as the Illinois Mountain Bike State Championship.

Atwood Park, which runs along the Kishwaukee River, provides around 5 miles of trails for riders to traverse.

The competition is expected to bring in over 50 teams, and more than 1,500 riders and spectators.

Matt Mason, of Lake Geneva, arrived early to spend some practice time on the trails.

“I love the competition. It’s a border battle, too, between Wisconsin and Illinois. So they’re going to take total times and see if they’re faster riders in Wisconsin versus Illinois. It’ll be interesting to see, you know, how that turns out. There’s some really strong riders in Illinois,” he said.

One of those Illinois riders is Jody Walker, in the elite-tier group. Walker has finished as high as second place in competitions this year.

“The trails are good. They’re flowy,” he said. “That helped me out in my riding style. Your body just has to be on point that day to really get a good result. Hopefully, my legs are nice and recovered from last weekend’s race, and hopefully I can get a good finish.”

Between the mountain bike races and the Ironman competition earlier this month, the city of Rockford is adding to its growing profile of high-end sporting events.

GoRockford’s Kara Davis said, “Last year we [brought] about 80 different sporting events to our community. And we just recently won an award by [the Sporting Events and Tourism Association] for the best sports organization. under 500,000 population. So we have some great momentum. We’re doing a lot.”

Crystal Lake native Derrick Benz said, “The great thing about mom bike racing is that there are different levels for every competitor, and there are different age groups. There’s even a 70-plus age group, and there’s 70 year old men out here doing this. And it’s just a good environment. People can come out, watch for free, and just check out what mountain bike racing is all about.”

Races start at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Admission is free, with race registration costs of $45 for adults and $35 for juniors. Camping is available for $15/tent or $25/RV per night, or $20/tent or $30/RV for the weekend.