Doug's story: Farmall Hill Mountain Bike Challenge

BaseCamp athlete Doug Rusho shared his experience at the 2025 Farmall Hill Mountain Bike Challenge in New York.

The aftermath of the Rattling MTB Marathon was ugly. Turned a training week into a rest week, and even towards end of that rest, mentally I had no desire to ride. But, finally snapped out of it, and got my mojo back. A few weeks of a solid Vo2max block, and a half rest week and we were back on the race course, with a adjusted attitude and expectations.

The Farmall race is a local Tuesday night series, on private land every May for the last 30+ years. The course has evolved greatly, but is still known as the "no recovery race." A bit of a misnomer from a terrain perspective, but absolutely true.

A better way to description is a giant 8 mile roller coaster. There are no flats, a "chutes and ladders" course if you will. The ups are steep, 15- to 60-second climbs, pretty much requiring match burning power even in the lowest gears. The descents are "steep flow," smooth, fast, with lots of sweeping turns and low berms. Sightly wider than single track, but requiring a lot of focus, not to mention a high concentration of trees, which would lead to high consequences if you lost a wheel or overcooked a corner.

I went into it with a "must have fun" priority goal, basically try to ignore the actual racing component. Process goals of consistent lap times, and no huge blow ups.

Started in the Expert field of 18 riders, and for the last race, the landowner starts it off by firing a real cannon. Super awesome, you actually felt the ground shake. Despite the adrenaline rush I went off the line fast but allowed myself to drift back, from the usual torrid pace. I had been watching the times from the previous race and new the front runners were out of touch no matter what. Before we even entered the single track, I had moved my way up through a few over exuberant riders and found my home.

Unfortunately that home is alone. No matter, I was busy focusing on my pace up the climbs, and getting my roller coaster legs on the descents. I was briefly joined by my teammate Erik, who missed pedals at the start, and had to work his way through. He stayed glued to my wheel for a few minutes, even when I would move over to let him by.

He finally passed, and said, "That was fun following," and slowly pulled away. From that point on, just me and the trail. Every once in a while I would see Erik ahead, but the course winds around so much, it was hard to figure out gaps. But, it did inspire me to stay on the gas and not have "too much fun."

Successful race as I knocked out a near perfect 3 laps, all at 31 minutes each. I was able to push all the way through and ended up finishing 7th overall and 2nd to Erik (who is 60, what a beast) by 2 minutes in the 40 and over category.

The video will give you a taste of the roller coaster, with spliced together pieces of the climbs and descents. It was also interesting when I watched a full lap of the video, my breathing rate never changed up or down. I guess it really is the no recovery race!