The name says it all. Come one, come all, and put your skills to the ultimate two-wheeled test on whatever (steel, aluminum, carbon, or titanium) steed you rode in on. Welcome to the Run What Ya Brung Trials, where anything and everything goes, so long as you—and your bike—make it through in one piece.
Designed to test your balance, strength, endurance, and bravery amidst the heckling gauntlet of a rowdy crowd, this creative cycling competition has become the social centerpiece of the annual Canaan Mountain Bike Festival.
Entering its 17th year, the Canaan MTB Festival is held in the mountain bike-centric town of Davis and is the brainchild of local cycling legend Sue Haywood. Haywood modeled the grassroots festival after the Shenandoah MTB Festival in Stokesville, VA, of which she has fond memories during her formative days as a pro racer. “It was a really special community event,” Haywood says. “Everyone camped together, there were big group rides in the day and group meals at night. There was trail work and plenty of partying and loads of inspiration.”
Nowadays, the Canaan MTB Festival features group rides, skills clinics, trail work, and a fundraiser for the Blackwater Bicycle Association (BBA), the local chapter of the International Mountain Bicycling Association. The event is meant to showcase the town of Davis’s offerings of lodging, camping, restaurants, and, of course, old-school trails. “Our fest is very grassroots and organic,” Haywood says. “It’s all about getting people stoked and engaged by rolling out the red carpet for our mountain bike visitors.”
The “observed trials” style of riding originated in the mid-1980s and was modeled after the amazing feats of motocross trials courses. Observed trials take place on segmented obstacle courses strewn with rock gardens, tight turns, and large boulders. Each section is marked out with taped lines that riders and their wheels must stay inside of. One rider at a time attempts each segment, with the goal of making it through without dismounting. “You can stop, you can balance in place, but you cannot put your foot down. If you do even one miniscule dab, it’s a point against you,” says Roger Bird, an OG racer who now calls Wisconsin home. The goal, akin to golf, is to complete all the segments with the lowest score.
Top right: A rider keeps it between the tape. Photo by Dylan Jones. Bottom: Fashion is just as important as performance at the Run What Ya Brung trials competition. Photo by Chris Jackson
Bird was a regular in the Davis mountain bike scene during the 1980s. In those days, national-level events, like the legendary Canaan Mountain Series, required riders to compete in a variety of disciplines. “If you wanted to do well on the overall standings, you had to be able to do everything on a bike, including trials,” says Bird. The best riders had a full quiver of athletic skills, including the ability to stay balanced at a complete stand-still (called a track stand), ratchet the pedals to avoid pedal strikes, modulate the brakes, hop on the rear wheel, and pivot on the front wheel.
“You often have to hold the brakes and hop the bike when pedaling isn’t even an option, since you might be in a wet stream bed or on top of a three-foot boulder,” Bird says. “You essentially have to assume the role of an acrobat, because the balance is a bit of a high-wire act.”
The Run What Ya Brung Trials event started in 2013 and was originally held in the backyard of the late Eric Erbe, a beloved local who was famous for his brute strength and love of moving big rocks—a perfect skillset for creating trials courses. Riders aren’t allowed to practice any moves before they compete, creating an exciting and sometimes nerve-wracking spectacle. One memorable course segment called The Alligator Pond had a skinny wooden beam precariously placed over a kiddy pool filled with murky water. “That was a standout moment,” says Haywood. “It wasn’t the hardest move, but nobody wanted to get wet in this pond.”
Jim Trigonis at the Canaan Mountain Series trials. Photo by Roger Bird
Trailbuilder Zach Adams has been instrumental in designing the course segments. He’s also the official scorekeeper every year—something Haywood says is a “really important job, you’ve gotta be able to count all the dabs and keep track of the points.”
“A dab is a dab is a dab,” reiterates Adams. Every touch of the ground or an obstacle with your hands or feet counts as one point against you. If you put a foot down and reposition, that’s a dab. A hand planted on a tree is a dab. And they can add up quickly. Riding outside of the tape and coming back is three points against you. It costs five points to stop and restart the segment. Finally, there’s a penalty of 15 points for skipping a segment. “I don’t think we’ve ever had anybody skip a segment, everyone always wants to at least try to complete it,” Adams says.
After Adams tallies the riders’ scores, he hops on his bike to ride each segment. Judging and competing requires laser-focus. “It’s tough, especially when there’s a lot of chaos going on like people screaming and stuff. I kind of get tunnel vision when it’s happening, but the key is to not take it too seriously,” he says. The event is, as Adams puts it, “really loosey goosey. The point is for it to be a fun spectator activity.”
Whereas traditional observed trials requires specific bikes that are made for jumping around, Run What Ya Brung is a trials event that anyone can do on any style of bike—so long as they have the skill. “Trials gets so specific to where you just can’t do the moves on a regular bike,” says Adams. “It’s super creative, but it’s inaccessible to most people.”
Adams’s course segments range from slow and balance-oriented, to fast and flowy lines that require power and endurance. “How you set the tape really matters,” he says. “Do you roll through something? Do you have to stop and move each wheel individually? How much power do you need for the lead-up? Is the move exposed? How does the segment look? Some rocks are more intimidating than they are challenging.”
Sue Haywood rocks an apropos tattoo before dropping down a rock slab. Photo by Boyce McCoy
For the past two years, the event has been held at The Thunderdome, a natural playground that features giant boulders, rocky crevasses, and steep lines perfect for riders of all styles to show off their skills. The arena is part of The Thumb, a trail system just east of Davis on Camp 70 Road that is maintained by BBA. “People that ride here in Canaan tend to do well because it’s a lot of the slow, balance-oriented technical riding,” Adams says.
“It’s fast, it’s crowded, it’s intense,” says Bird of the Run What Ya Brung Trials format. “And, quite frankly, it’s a lot of pressure. I think the intimidation factor keeps some of the more amateur riders away.”
That intimidation wasn’t enough to deter Peter Denbigh, who took home the win at last year’s event. Denbigh, who lives in Staunton, VA, showcased his style and grace on the course, completing segments with controlled hops, wheelies, and the lowest number of mistakes. “I’m 45 now, so I never thought I’d be the old guy, but here I am and I gave it a shot,” Denbigh said. “Thank goodness none of it was too crazy. It was so fun.”
David Krut wheel hops over a rock crevasse at The Thunderdome. Photo by Dylan Jones
Denbigh started mountain biking in 1992 when his parents, who were ski instructors at Canaan Valley Ski Resort, started hitting the trails in the summer. Denbigh was in the crowd during a trials competition on Camp 70 Road and immediately fell in love with it. He tried to mirror the moves, and paid the price. “I shed lots of blood, sweat, and tears over the course of many years, but I stuck with it and started figuring some things out,” Denbigh says.
There was something about the ridiculousness of the style that kept him trying. He competed in the Canaan Mountain Series trials, taking home the win in the intermediate class a few times. “It’s slow, technical, and goofy,” he says. “There’s no reason you need to take the path we choose to take from point A to point B, other than that it’s for the fun of it. It’s like riding the path of most resistance.”
Haywood has competed in Run What Ya Brung every year, resulting in many memorable performances, including last year’s crowd-favorite over-the-bars spill. But she’s sitting this year out to finally enjoy the event as a spectator. “Trials is a really important part of the festival because it’s just so much fun,” Haywood says. “You really see the riders’ personalities come out, their personal styles, strengths, and weaknesses. You can see the triumph, the defeat, all right there laid out for everyone to see.”
As for Denbigh, he’ll be back to see if he can be a repeat champion. “It’s just a great way to celebrate life and mix things up a bit,” Denbigh says. “I love Sue and that whole Davis crew. It just feels like home there, and it’s really fun to come and play with everyone.”
Fan favorite John Martin explodes through some patriotic explosives. Photo by Boyce McCoy
For locals like Adams who call Davis home, the event is an annual reminder of how special the mountain community is. “It’s cool to see so many people from all walks come out to watch biking,” he says. “Racing isn’t really something that people get too excited about coming out to watch, so seeing hundreds of people surrounding 13 riders in the woods is pretty cool, the atmosphere is off the charts.”
Dylan Jones is a has-been mountain biker who used to think he was good enough to compete in the Run What Ya Brung Trials until he went and tried some of the segments when no one was looking. It didn’t end well.
