Revelate Designs Ambassadors and professional backcountry mountain bikers and bikepackers Kait Boyle and Kurt Refsnider recently linked up in the Lost Sierra to race the annual Downieville Classic and, of course, tacked on a warm-up bikepacking trip in the region to explore more of the trails in the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) network. Here Kait and Kurt share more about the event, what draws them to it, and their 4-day bikepack to the event.

First, what is the Downieville Classic and when did you first learn about it?

Kait: The Downieville Classic started in 1995 and is a 4-day mountain bike festival and race to benefit SBTS. The 30-mile XC race is a point-to-point from Sierra City up 4,000’ to the Sierra Crest and then down 5,700 on singletrack to Downieville. Then the infamous Downieville DH race the next day starts from the Sierra Crest and descends 5,700’ down to Downieville. The combined races form the “All-Mountain World Championships” and must be raced on the exact same bike each day – same tires, same gearing, same everything. It’s a fun and unique format that challenges a rider to be a well-rounded mountain biker.

I remember hearing about it back in 2012ish when I started mountain bike racing. it was talked about by the OG singlespeed crew in Prescott and hailed as one of the classic, rugged, and worthy mountain bike events.

Kurt: The Downieville Classic has been on my radar since reading about it as a newbie teenage mountain biker back in the late ’90s – I remember a BIKE Magazine had an article it, and living in the flatlands of Minnesota, I couldn’t comprehend an XC race with a 5,700′ descent! It’s been one I’ve wanted to get to eventually, and now I really regret it took this long!

When did you first attend the Downieville Classic and what drew you to it?

Kurt: This was my first time! Kait raved about how much fun it was last year, and with nothing else on my calendar for July, a trip to northern California to ride legendary trails in a completely new-to-me area sounded like a fantastic time.

Kait: After a few year hiatus during Covid, Downieville was back in 2023 and I was quick to sign up. I was on a mission that summer to go try out all the events I had been wanting to do for a long time but just never had. Downieville was at the top of my list because it met my criteria of being an event that benefited the local trails and was a proper mountain biker’s race.

Kait, so you went last year, what were you hoping to get out of going back this year?

Kait: I had so much fun last year. The racing was a blast, and despite it being SO HOT (like 108 on race day!), I loved the mountain bike festival vibes. There’s no cell service in Downieville, so it’s like the old days of just making plans with people and finding them in the crowd or moving on with your day. The North Yuba River lined with giant old ponderosa pines is a sanctuary, and the expo and event festivities are so high-energy and fun to spectate. This year I wanted to be a part of it all again and add on additional time to ride more of the trails in the SBTS network as last year I had only ridden the race courses.

Kurt, after your first year, what did you think?

Kurt: The racing itself was a blast – there’s nothing quite like pushing an XC race bike to its limits on such a long and demanding descent, and we got to do that two days in a row! The puzzle of bike setup was a fun one and a world of creative compromises. My legs weren’t particularly fresh for the racing after four days of bikepacking, but I had a lot of fun, and all the cheering crowds along the way on Saturday made sure to let me know I was both the first person in baggies and the first one to smile as I passed! I also ran into so many California friends who I rarely get to see at events since I never make it out there.

Earlier this year, you both rode to Unbound in Kansas from your respective homes, then you just spent four days riding from Quincy to Downieville for the race. What inspired that decision and what was the trip like?

Kait: When Kurt and I were talking about going out there as a team, he had mentioned wanting some bikepacking in the area. A ride connecting some of the communities in the region, inspired by SBTS’s Connected Communities Project, had been lingering in the back of my mind since last year. It was pretty easy to decide to dedicate the weekdays prior to the race to some bikepacking in the region, and it was pretty easy to find more trails to ride than we had time to ride them! We decided to use the communities of Quincy, Graeagle and Downieville as a backbone for our ride, sleeping in towns at night, spending a day riding trails unloaded, and then taking alternate days to connect the towns. It was as close to bikepacking in the Alps as I’ve found in the U.S., being able to just carry a set of clean town clothes and eating and sleeping in each town. (If you’re curious about the route we followed, you can see it here in Ride With GPS.)

Kurt: I was really surprised at how different the riding was outside of each town – Mount Hough above Quincy is a growing network of mostly flowy singletrack on the side of a 4,000-foot-tall mountain. The Lakes Basin trails above Graeagle are a techy rock-lovers delight in a series of scenic glacially-carved cirques just below the Sierra Crest. And the trails leading down into Downieville are long, demanding descents that seem to never end, interspersed with some particularly rocky, rooty, or baby-head-filled sections. We also did a little recon for the forthcoming 5,000-mile-long Orogenesis bikepacking route, spending far too long in the Nelson Creek drainage trying hard to find a connection through. But alas, there’s not one.

The All-Mountain World Championship is the combined XC and DH races of the weekend, both raced on the same bike with the same set-up – what’s the best set-up for someone looking to give the All-Mountain category a shot?

Kurt: There were folks racing with big grins on their faces on all sorts of bikes – rigid singlespeeds, XC bikes, long-travel trail bikes, and everything in between. If you’re trying to go fast, a long-travel XC bike (is that what kids are calling a downcountry bike these days?) seems best for most folks – you get up the big climb on day 1 in a reasonable amount of time, and the downhills are long enough at ~15 miles that there’s still a fair bit of sprinting along the way. Kait and I both raced on Pivot Mach 4SLs in their longest-travel configurations (120/115 mm travel front/rear) on Industry Nine Solix M UL300 wheels. We ran Maxxis Rekon Race 2.4″ tires in the rear, Forkaster 2.4″ tires in front, and 34T chainrings. That worked great for us – Kait ended up 4th on the women’s side of things, and I managed a mid-field finish.

You both are known for racing full days and longer, yet Downieville race times are under 3.5 hours combined over the weekend for you both; what did you do with all that extra time?

Kait: It kind of feels like MTB racing summer camp because of that! Between warming up, racing, and then hanging in town at the finish line, the racing does take some time but the days prior are spent shuttling the descents with friends and afternoons are spent swimming and lounging in the shade. The festival includes live music, the infamous Big Air River Jump competition, a log-pulling competition, and this year Patagonia premiered their newest film, Fire Lines, a story about building fire resiliency in the Lost Sierra through trail stewardship.

Kurt: After a few really busy months, that “extra time” was my first downtime in quite a while. I really enjoyed just sitting in the shade, dunking in the river, watching a baby dipper begging for food from its parents in the same river, and just having a quick race to do each day. The shortness of the days, especially the DH stage, was novel for me!

Kurt, it looks like you got a little lost in the Lost Sierra the week following the event. What compelled you to stay and what did you find out there?

Kurt: Yeah, I had spent a lot of time staring at maps of the area, and there were a lot of lines on those maps that I still wanted to ride! I also had a list of a few more trails that I “needed” to ride before leaving according to various locals. So that’s what I did, including wrapping up 2 weeks there with an impromptu 2-day bikepack to connect the last of those trails on my list that were too big to do in just one ride. But SBTS is busily building more and more trail, so I’ll need to get back sooner than later to see all their progress!

Will you go back to Downieville?

Kait: So far each year I have said it is too hot to spend a week of July in the Lost Sierra, and then I’ve left the event with such a full heart and having had so much fun that I’m telling everyone I can’t wait until next year. So yes, probably! And I’ll probably justify it around trying to ride even more of the trails in the area. I have a long list of unexplored trails that I need to check out!

Kurt: Most certainly. After two weeks there, my head is swirling with some big ideas – maybe I’ll be able to pull some things together over the next year and get folks out there to join me for one of those ideas.

Check out one of Kurt’s favorite bag combos: the Cranny and the Gastank!