Enhance Cycling P/B Nebraska Medicine

I woke up the morning after Gravel Worlds and did what half of Lincoln and Omaha cyclists were probably doing at the same time: opened Strava with coffee in hand and started scrolling. PRs everywhere. Distance PRs, time PRs, first-ever-finished-this-distance PRs. It's one of my favorite parts of race weekend, honestly, not the podiums, but that quiet morning-after moment of seeing just how many of our own riders pushed past what they thought they could do. Proud doesn't really cover it. Every single person who came out, competed, or just rode their bike through whatever the weather decided to throw at them this year earned that scroll of PR notifications.

A Weekend at the Biggest Race in Our Backyard

Gravel Worlds has grown into the largest cycling event in our area, and this year, its 17th running in Lincoln, Nebraska, was no exception. What started back in 2010 as roughly 100 riders on an unmarked 150-mile course with nothing but cue sheets and grit has turned into a globally recognized weekend that now pulls in cyclists, runners, and triathletes from across the country. It's a genuine point of pride that an event this size calls our part of Nebraska home.

We spent the weekend at the Exposition, and we want to say a real thank-you to the Gravel Worlds Foundation for having us. It's not something we take for granted: getting a table in front of that many riders is a rare chance to showcase what our team pulled off this year and to talk face-to-face with people about what we're building next. That's exactly what we used it for: sharing this year's fundraising numbers, and putting the spotlight on the Linoma Line, our own gravel ride in Ashland, Nebraska next July. It's a 50k/100k on, flat, fast, and on gravel, with every dollar raised going straight to Nebraska families facing a cancer diagnosis through Scare Away Cancer. If our first year raising $8,000 is any indication, we think this one has real legs, and it was a great crowd to introduce it to.

The Long Voyage Kicks It Off

As always, the weekend didn't really start on Saturday. It started Friday evening, when the 300-mile Long Voyage rolled out from the Sandhills Global Event Center at 5 p.m. Self-supported, no team vehicles, no drop bags, just riders and the road for up to 30 hours through the night. Watching that field disappear into the evening is still one of the wildest parts of the whole weekend, even from the sidelines.

Questionable Skies and the Wet Route Call

Weather was the story of the weekend before a single official mile was raced. Late storms rolled through overnight and left organizers genuinely unsure which routes would even be rideable for the long-distance events. By the time the sections of minimum maintenance road out toward the finish were bogged down, the call came in: wet routes for both the 150 and the 75, trimming some of the technical sections that just weren't safe to run. It marked the first time in Gravel Worlds history the event pulled out a wet-route option for those distances.

Saturday morning didn't do much to settle anyone's nerves, either. Driving over from Omaha to Lincoln, you could see lightning out on the horizon the whole way in, which is not exactly the calming pre-race scenery you're hoping for. Thankfully, the storms pushed through and cleared out before the different waves actually rolled off the line, leaving humid but rideable conditions for the day.

How Our Team Rode

Erin Renze led the way for us in the 150, and led is the right word: she came across the line in an outstanding 9:57, blowing past her own 10-hour goal and taking third in her age group in the process. That's the kind of result that makes the whole team's morning.

In the 75, Eric Biehl put together a strong ride to finish 92nd out of 452 with a time of 4:09. Right behind him, Matthew Copeland turned in a 4:11 (on a single speed, no less), good enough for third place in that specialty field. Randy Root brought it home in 4:28, Hannah Augustine crossed in 4:34, and Morgan Cutler absolutely crushed her race with a 4:47, and Ashley Podwinski rounded out the group in 4:55.

The 35-mile field was just as strong for us. Christian Iten took the podium with a 1:42, followed by Heidi Boschen in 2:03, Shannon Winter in 2:05, and Susan Prince in 2:23.

It wasn't just bikes, either. Derek Augustine represented us on foot in the half marathon, finishing in 1:47.

Every one of those times represents hours of training through a Nebraska summer, and every rider who lined up, whether they're in this recap by name or not, is a reason we do this. Here's to the storms that didn't stop us, the routes that got rerouted around them, and the next twelve months of Strava PRs waiting to happen. See you at the Linoma Line.

Race Report - Iowa Gravel Series Glenwood Gravel
Enhance Cycling Team headed south to the Loess Hills on August 8 for the Glenwood Gravel Grinder, the race that started it all for the Iowa Gravel Series. Held out of Glenwood Lake Park in Glenwood, Iowa, this is the event that launched the series back in the day, and it still carries that same low-key, community-first feel: neighbors on the course, and miles of "roads (and not roads)" carved through the bluffs.

The Course

Riders had two distance options this year:
50 km (31 miles) with roughly 2,000 feet of climbing
100 km (62 miles) with roughly 3,400 feet of climbing
The 100 km field rolled out at 7:30 a.m., with the 50 km group following at 8:00 a.m. Both routes wound through the Loess Hills' signature terrain: steep, punchy climbs on wind-deposited soil, fast gravel descents, and just enough pavement to catch your breath before the next rise.

How we Rode

Hannah Augustine had a standout day, crossing the line in second place, a strong result on a course that doesn't give anything away for free in the Loess Hills' rollers. Garrett Widholm also put in the miles and crossed the finish, adding another finisher to the team's growing gravel resume this season.

Nice work to both of them for representing us out there.

Up Next: Soldier Cutoff Hillduro

Glenwood was stop five of eight in the 2026 Iowa Gravel Series. Next on the calendar is the Soldier Cutoff Hillduro on September 19, 2026, based out of Pisgah City Park near the Loess Hills State Forest, about six weeks out.

It's a bigger day in the saddle: 50 km (about 35 miles, roughly 2,000 feet of gain) or 100 km (about 56 miles, roughly 4,000 feet of gain), tracing the valleys of the Little Sioux River and Soldier River Cutoff around Preparation Canyon State Park. Organizers bill it as some of the best climbing prep the series offers before the season winds down with Fairfield Harvest Rush and Toppling Goliath in October.

Welcome home to Gravel Worlds

It is one of the best week of the year on the gravel calendar. Gravel Worlds is back in Lincoln, August 19 through 23, and the whole gravel family is making its way home to Nebraska. Riders are flying in and driving in from all over the country and beyond, and there is nothing quite like the energy that fills the state when they do.
This year we are especially excited, because we are going to be at the Expo, and we would love to see you there.

Come find us at the Expo!

The Gravel Worlds Expo is indoors at the Sandhills Global Event Center, with 70+ vendors and non-profits, the latest gear and apparel, food, music, and that unmistakable gravel community energy. It runs across two days:

Thursday, August 20: 12pm to 6pm and Friday, August 21: 10am to 6pm

We will be there both days, meeting and greeting folks as they come through. Stop by, say hello, and let us tell you a little about what we do and how we are trying to grow the sport and support riders right here in Nebraska.

Just as much, we want to listen. One of the best parts of gravel is the myriad of stories that bring people to it. The rider chasing their first 50k, the family that turned a race weekend into a tradition, the person who found this sport at exactly the right moment in their life. Everyone arrives at the gravel seas by a different road, and we would love to hear how you found yours. Come tell us your story.
A week worth showing up for.

Even if you are not racing, there is a ton to soak in during the week. A few highlights from the schedule:

Wednesday, Aug 19: Welcome Party and Q&A with the Gravel Worlds team at The Rooftop at Bierhaus, 5:30pm to 8pm

Thursday, Aug 20: Expo opens (12pm to 6pm), plus yoga, the

Thursday Night Gravel group ride, and the BaseCamp race-prep panel

Friday, Aug 21: Expo (10am to 6pm), community rides, live music, the Kids Race presented by WOOM, and the Long Voyage 300 send-off

Saturday, Aug 22: Race day! GW150, GW75, GW35, and the GW10 fun ride roll out in the early morning, followed by the After Gravel Festival, live music, and the legendary sword award ceremony

Sunday, Aug 23: Gravel Worlds Run Series

However you spend the week, come be part of it. Cheer at a corner, ride a shakeout, wander the Expo, or just show up and feel the atmosphere. This is what makes Gravel Worlds special.

Thank you to the Foundation

None of this happens without the people working behind the scenes to keep gravel welcoming and growing. A big thank you to the Gravel Worlds Foundation for supporting us and for everything they do to give back to this community and this sport.
Welcome home to Gravel Worlds. We will see you at the Expo!

Get more website visits

Two weeks until Gravel Worlds - we're very excited to be at the expo again this year next to our friends Omaha Velo and hope to get to meet all the riders and families that will be checking in! We love hearing the stories and listening to the different paths that brought you to gravel riding! See you there?

Two crews, one range, zero days off

Some weekends the team just scatters into the mountains, and this was one of them.

Steve Hanell and Justin High took on the Copper Triangle, one of Colorado's classic rides. It's a 79-mile loop out of Copper Mountain that crests three passes over 10,000 feet, Fremont at 11,318, Tennessee at 10,424, and Vail at 10,662, with a punchy climb up Battle Mountain thrown in for good measure. That adds up to around 6,500 feet of climbing at altitude, on a route that runs past the old Climax mine, through Leadville, and by Camp Hale, where the 10th Mountain Division trained in World War II. The ride doubles as a benefit for the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's, so the suffering goes to a good cause.

Conditions were the usual high-country deal: mid-60s to low-70s down low, cooler and windier on the passes, and just enough monsoon in the forecast to keep everyone honest about starting early.

Chris and Reinie sat the ride out and went straight up instead, hiking Quandary Peak. At 14,271 feet it's the tallest thing in the Tenmile Range, which is the same range the Copper Triangle circles, so both crews spent the weekend on the same stretch of mountains from very different angles. The East Ridge is about 6.5 miles round trip and 3,400 feet of climbing, with mountain goats for company near the top. Calling it a rest day would be generous.

Now everyone's back on home roads and trading long climbs for tight corners. We're looking forward to the ONE Cycling Series crits this week, USA Cycling-sanctioned racing powered by the Omaha Sports Commission, in Aksarben Village on Saturday and downtown Papillion on Sunday. It's fast, it's loud, and it's free to watch, so come find us at the barriers.

From the first ride to the first podium and beyond.

Reinie Benoit
Justin High

Crit 101: Use your Voice - How a Crit Pack Talks Its Way Through

Part of the New Racer Safety Series:

If you're new to racing, the first thing that surprises you isn't the speed. It's the noise. A crit pack is loud, full of riders barking two-word warnings, hands dropping to point at cracks in the pavement, elbows flicking before anyone moves. To an outsider it sounds like chaos. It's actually the opposite. It's a field of forty people keeping each other upright.

Here's the thing to understand before your first Tuesday night: the pack moves as one nervous system. You can only see the wheel in front of you and maybe a shoulder or two beside you. Everything else (the pothole thirty riders ahead, the rider peeling off the front, the touch of wheels back in the field) reaches you as information passed hand to hand and voice to voice. In a crit, your hands and your voice are how that information travels. If it stops moving, people go down.

So this one isn't really about fitness or bike handling. It's about being a good citizen of the pack. See it, say it. Point at what you're avoiding, call what you're doing, and pass the word up and back. A hazard has to travel faster than the wheel it's about to reach.

Point at hazards

Point down at holes, cracks, debris, and cones so the riders behind you can steer around what they literally cannot see. In a tight pack, nobody past the front wheel has a view of the ground. The rider two rows back is trusting your hand more than their own eyes, because their eyes are full of your back. A quick point costs you nothing and saves the person behind you a flat, or a fall.

Call it short and loud

Two words carry over wind and traffic. Full sentences get lost. So keep it to the essentials:

"Hole left."

"Slowing."

"Inside (a positioning call on turns)."

Volume and brevity are the whole job. Nobody's grading your diction. If you find yourself explaining, you've already lost the person you were trying to warn. Yell the two words that matter and move on.

Relay the message

When a call comes from the front or the back, repeat it so it reaches the whole field. This is the part new racers forget, and it's the most important one. The rider who needs the warning most is usually the one who can't hear the original: buried in the middle, wind in their ears, no line of sight to the front. A call that dies three riders back didn't do its job. Pass it along like it's your own.

Signal before you move

Flick an elbow or point where you're going before you pull off, move up, or swing wide. A move nobody saw coming is how one rider's small adjustment becomes everyone's problem. Predictability is a courtesy, and in a pack it's also a safety feature. Telegraph your intentions and the riders around you can make room instead of reacting

Why it matters at Baxter

Baxter's lot has short sightlines and a narrow run to the line and the hazards are present. The field can't see the road for itself, so it depends on riders passing hazards up and back. That's not a nice-to-have on this course. It's the whole system. Silence in the pack is its own hazard. If everyone goes quiet, nobody knows what's coming, and on a tight parking-lot circuit that catches up with you fast. The loudest fields are usually the safest ones.

And if someone yells at you

They will, eventually. Someone will yell at you out there. Don't take it personally. They're usually just trying to make the race safer, and in the heat of a corner it comes out sharp. Let it go and keep riding your line.

If a rider genuinely goes over the top (dangerous, aggressive, out of bounds), don't try to sort it out on the bike. That's how a bad moment becomes a crash. Let a referee or the race director know after, and they'll take care of it. The Criteriums at Baxter are meant to provide a place where you can develop skills and master techniques to make you comfortable competing in the larger local events like the TIRC and Papillion Twilight Crit where the speeds will be higher and the fields larger.

Come race with us

Tuesday Night Worlds Criterium Series: Tuesdays ·during the Summer months at Baxter Arena, UNO Lot 26 Co-hosted by Omaha Velo & Enhance Cycling Team.

New to racing? Every new racer lines up Cat 5 where you can ask to have an experienced rider take some laps with you to show you the ropes. Bring a USA Cycling license (one-day licenses available at on-site registration, bring ID) and come find out what a pack sounds like from the inside.

Get more website visits

We're so proud of everyone who came out to support Scare Away Cancer yesterday at the LinOma Line. We have secured a contract with AI to calculate the Team Award - and in the meantime we wanted to share a few pictures of the day as we collect them from our several photographers on site. Once again, thank you all, for being amazing.

This is an AWESOME race through the loess Hills of Iowa. Sign up you won't regret it!

2026 Soldier Cutoff Hillduro - Cycling Event Race registration and more information

The sun is rising on a beautiful race day in Ashland Nebraska. Over a hundred of our friends and fellow Riders are out here doing The LinOma Line Gravel 50k/100k supporting our local charity, Scare Away Cancer.

Scare Away Cancer