Laura's story: Mohican MTB 100

BaseCamp athlete Laura Felicetti shared her experience at the 2026 Mohican MTB 100 bike race in Ohio.

This was TOUGH for me. Going in, I knew it would be. I knew I wasn't feeling great. With that said, Maia is a great coach, and she listened to how I was feeling, and we approached the week leading up to this race in the best possible way, because I felt okay on race day despite everything.

I'm not good at hard starts at the beginning of races. So what did I do? I went out hard. 🙄 I decided to go out harder than I normally would, because the first five miles of the race is all road. The roadie in me wanted to get into a fast group and draft. So I started hard -- and I paid for it.

When I hit the singletrack, I was exhausted. I crashed on the very first descent, because I was so tired. I picked myself up and kept going, but I was stressed, mostly because while I was stronger on the road than a lot of the people behind me, they were better on the singletrack. I didn't want to slow others down. So I pushed to stay on the wheel ahead of me, but I was so tired. And my Garmin was stuck on some weird screen that was not helpful in anyway. I was stressed because I wanted to know when I should eat.

I finally just stopped, fixed my Garmin, and let some riders go by. Eventually I found a group I was comfortable with. Things were going okay, even though I was tired and I hurt.

And then the rain came. Just in time for the wilderness loop – a loop of technical, muddy singletrack. Ugh. I crashed more than once. One crash could've been bad but fortunately was not. I hit a tree with my handlebars, lot my grip and took the bar end to my nose. I was stunned for a few seconds, then picked up my bike and kept going. I kept telling myself everyone crashes; it's how you regroup. Just SAIL. And I kept hearing Maia's voice in my head, telling me everyone gets tired.

So I just kept going. For the last ten or so miles, I could see people ahead of me, but not behind me. The riders ahead of me were all going about the same pace I was, so I just kept them in my sights and kept going. When I got to a lefthand turn and a woman told me I only had 8 miles left, I thought, Okay, I'm going to make it. When I crossed the line, I was so ready to be off my bike. 😊

This race was so much harder than Big Frog. The course is more technical. Although there is less climbing, the climbs are much steeper. And I went out too hard. I felt good for the first ten miles, then paid the price for the next 55! For me, this is where the mental training came in. I wanted to quit so many times, but I'm so glad I didn't!

Given everything, I'm happy with how this went. Every race is a learning experience. I tried something new, and I think I learned I probably need to dial it back a bit at the beginning so the entire race isn't so much of a struggle. Or maybe I'll get used to going out hard...

My goals were to win my category and podium in the women's overall. I did both. All in all, even though I'm still exhausted, I'm happy with my performance! Again, I couldn't have done this without BaseCamp or Maia.