Raised by the Trail
Twenty-year-old ultracyclist Jacob Hora doesn’t worry about the weather when he’s riding his bike long distances. It’s a trait he attributes to growing up in Teton Valley.
“A lot of my [cycling] peers complain when the weather is bad,” he says. “For me, it could always be worse. It might be snowing, but at least it’s not windy. It might be windy and snowing, but at least it’s not thirty below … It is what it is, and you just do it.”
Fostering Grit
Jacob, who is also a collegiate mountain bike racer, attends Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where he trains with his varsity cycling team, attending seven to ten races a year. He also competes in three to five ultraraces annually, and says he shines in events over twenty-four hours long (which equates to a little over three hundred miles of riding).
“The feeling of finishing one of these events is next level,” he says, when asked where he gets his drive. “There’s something very different about putting it on the line for an hour and putting it on the line for six days … When you recount the distance your legs pushed you, it’s just an amazing feeling, even if you didn’t get the time you wanted. I rarely run into a rider who is disappointed. You’re just stoked that you finished. That’s why we’re all out there.”
Like many other Teton Valley kids who grew up in cycling families, Jacob started riding a Strider scoot-bike when he was three, and just learning to walk. He got his first pedal bike when he was five, and started racing when he was twelve. In the seventh and eighth grades, Jacob rode his bike every day from his home in Victor to the Teton Valley Community School (now Mountain Academy of Teton Science Schools)—about six miles round-trip.
Jacob attributes his mountain biking passion to his dad, Derek, with whom he would often ride when he was younger. He says the Teton Valley Composite Mountain Bike Team was the driving force behind his interest in racing.
“They have a way of getting kids introduced to racing, while making it fun and not intimidating,” he says.
By ninth grade, Jacob had picked up a few sponsors, a private coach, and a trainer and was doing it all—gravel biking, mountain biking, and fat biking in the winter. That’s when he met Jay Petervary, organizer of the local Backyard Series races, including the Fat Pursuit fat bike winter event in Island Park. Jay became Jacob’s mentor and racing partner, and the two completed Jacob’s first 450-mile ultrarace as a team when he was just fifteen.
“I was, for sure, the youngest one doing those races; I’ve always been the youngest one,” Jacob says. “We would ride for the majority of the day, then sleep for five hours, ride and sleep again, and then finish early the next morning.”
As Jacob explains, there is no junior category in ultraracing. Still, he’s logged a couple of podium performances in the male division—in the Fat Pursuit and in the Ascend Armenia, a 1,200-kilometer, self-
supported ultra-distance bikepacking race, where he finished third. Jacob has raced in six foreign countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Greece, Armenia, Canada, and, as of this past February, New Zealand.
When asked how Teton Valley helped him develop his love for the sport, Jacob says, “We have a strong cycling community. We also have different trail systems for different skills. The level of progression is really nice. A lot of other places don’t have easy zones or progressive lines.”
Captured at on 7 Sep, 2024 by Brian Kohagen., @idahobikebrian, NICA Race #3 Grand Targhee
Captured at Ski Resort on 16 Aug, 2025 by Brian Kohagen., @idahobikebrian, NICA Race #1: Grand Targhee Resort
Establishing the Lines
Chris Brule, executive director of Mountain Bike the Tetons (MBT), is all about breaking down the barriers to entry for youth mountain biking, from ensuring the valley has approachable trails and bike parks to designing programs for the youngest enthusiasts.
The organization offers successive programs according to age: Teton Junior Riders (ages 4 to 5), Teton Riders (ages 6 to 9), and Teton Ride Crew (ages 9 to 12).
“As mountain biking progressed in the valley, we saw a need to start earlier,” says Chris.
He explains that MBT’s youngest program, Teton Junior Riders, “is all about learning to ride on dirt—teaching the foundations of riding and riding in a group setting.” Participants should be able to ride a two-wheeled pedal bike with hand brakes and be proficient on the pavement. This group mostly rides the Victor Bike Park and light, easy singletrack with little elevation gain.
The next age bracket, Teton Riders—MBT’s most popular program —expands the students’ skill development and “teaches trail respect.” This group utilizes a wider range of trails on both sides of the hill.
The Teton Ride Crew program “provides technical skill growth, while introducing more of a team aspect, as well as trail stewardship,” Chris says. This group rides more advanced trails in Horseshoe Canyon and down Mill Creek, and participants looking to dabble in competition can sign up and train for the Mike Harris Mini Enduro race.
Chris explains that MBT is an official Sprockids Leader, a program offered by Giant Bicycles and Liv Cycling, that sends instructors to train MBT’s coaches, including head coaches Andrew Howe (Teton Valley) and Noah Rial (Jackson), on their curriculum.
“We’ve seen a lot of kids progress through the program since we introduced it in 2018,” says Chris.
In addition to offering youth lessons and maintaining the region’s robust singletrack network, MBT’s flagship family-friendly venue is the Victor Bike Park. MBT completed a Phase 1 revival—a $100,000 project—that expanded the park’s footprint to add a skills loop, and rebuilt the existing dirt jumps.
Phase 2, a $175,000 project for which the organization has raised partial funding, includes redesigning and reconstructing the pump tracks.
“The goal is to develop a resource that involves an asphalt pump track that’s more inclusive and progressive, and requires less maintenance,” says Chris.
In Phase 3, MBT will partner with the City of Victor and the Victor Skatepark Foundation to add infrastructure like bathrooms, water fountains, a pavilion, shade structures, garbage cans, and landscaping.
The [Victor Bike Park] is definitely meant for all ages,” says Chris. “My kids started riding the park when they were two years old on kickbikes … There are also fifty-year-olds riding the jumps and the pump tracks. It’s a great place for early- and late-season riding and developing skills.”
MBT is poised to provide future outreach programs to local public schools, offering safety information for elementary and middle-school-aged kids, as well as teaching basic bike repair, which they have already incorporated into their Teton Riders program.
As far as the best singletrack riding for kids, Chris says the Southern Valley Trails are fantastic. “The trails are not super technical, and there are smaller loop options.”
He also says he loves taking his kids up to Grand Targhee. Ava, age seven, is already participating in the MBT programs, and he says the social aspect of riding “makes a big difference.”
Chris’ son Thatcher, age three, is just learning to pedal a bike, and Chris says the key is to “keep it light” and have ample gummy bears and chocolate in his pack.
“It can be challenging to get the kids out the door,” he says, “but once they’re on their bike, it’s all good. It’s kind of like skiing—it’s an investment in their recreational future.”
Building Community
Inclusivity forms the backbone of the Teton Valley Composite Mountain Bike Team (TVC). This group of sixty-seven kids, grades sixth through twelfth, trains all summer long in preparation for the NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) races that start in the fall. Still, kids don’t have to compete to be on the team—they don’t even need prior mountain biking experience.
“We train any level at any age,” says John Kromis, TVC’s head coach. “We’ve had high schoolers come in who have never ridden a bike before—it’s cool to watch them progress so fast.”
There is no separate registration for competitive versus non-competitive team. Often non-racing kids experience the excitement at the season’s kick-off race at Grand Targhee and end up wanting to join in.
Team director Jerai Moulton says TVC’s biggest draw is word of mouth, and the team kids and their parents form one big “mountain biking family.”
“Our stoke and energy are so high, people really love to be part of the TVC community,” she says. “And when you love something, you want to bring other people in to share that.”
The team trains on the Southern Valley Trails and at Grand Targhee, with optional high school race-
training days. And if you’ve ever shared the trail with them, as I have, you’ve heard their hoots and hollers as they come around the bend. The stoke truly is contagious, and being part of this team is an important part of their development as both athletes and people.
Frank Trotter, coach and father of TVC team members Anika, age fifteen, and Tyler, age seventeen, agrees.
“Prior to our kids joining NICA, they had a narrow friend group, and then the team expanded their friends tenfold,” he says. “That was so valuable in the development of our kids, because now they have a family through the team. It really got them out of their box.”
Jerai says it’s fascinating to see the older athletes’ influence on younger riders, and that the spirit is always positive.
“It’s cool to watch the kids if they are ‘sessioning’ something, because everyone gets off their bike and cheers on that rider. It’s like that support of ‘catch me if I fall,’” she says. “It creates a really safe place to learn and grow.”
Part of TVC’s vision of “empowering youth in cycling” involves removing the financial barrier. The team offered three scholarships last year and is prepared to offer more, should demand increase. TVC also provides loaner bikes and has mechanics on hand (like Frank, a former team manager and lead mechanic for Giant on the pro mountain bike circuit) who encourage upgrades and help source parts.
“Last year, we had kids show up on unsafe bikes, and others that were on bikes that were too small, ” says Jerai. “It’s great to have the loaner fleet to take the pressure off of parents who may wonder if their kid is going to take this seriously.”
John Kromis says it’s “awesome” to watch the team at their home race weekend at Grand Targhee. He notes that, while the TVC team is not the biggest, “we are definitely the loudest.” To which Jerai adds, “the kids take pride in wearing their jerseys and screaming for everyone, not just their teammates.”
Even though TVC is not directly affiliated with the high school, the kids still get high school varsity letters. To earn their letter, they need to volunteer at trail days. As such, the team spends time digging, shoveling, and building trails for the community. Jerai says being a trail steward means “having some skin in the game.”
“There are all the highs and lows,” says Frank, “and when your kids are on the podium, it’s pretty amazing to see that the work they put into it paid off on the course.” He says his best days on the trail involve ending practice with a Mill Creek downhill lap with his kids.
Similar to skiing expectations, some of these Teton Valley mountain bikers didn’t have a choice early on when it came to getting on their bike. But today, Anika and Tyler, along with Jacob and the entire TVC team, show that a little power of suggestion, combined with amazing resources and camaraderie, can create a lifelong love of cycling—one that cannot exist separately from place.
