Jim's story: Churney Gurney

BaseCamp athlete Jim Rutkowski shared his experience at the 2025 Churney Gurney mountain bike race in New York.

Had a good race. I had a different mindset going into the race. I wasn't really nervous and just had a "it is what it is" attitude.

I was second into the woods at the start and actually had about a 5-10 second gap on the field with the first place rider.

On the first climb I had to move over to let faster riders by but ended up crashing and getting my rear wheel stuck on a rotted tree stump. After what seemed like an eternity to free up my wheel and getting passed by the majority of the field I just put my head down and rode my ass off.

I did have a little issue with one guy who wouldn’t let me pass and cut me off a few times. I got annoyed and basically rode him off the course on a tight uphill switchback.😈 Not something I would normally do.

Ultimately placed 11 out of 14, but in the race against myself, I kicked ass today.