Metro Roundup: Popular mountain bike race returns to Oak Mountain for 29th running

Oak Mountain will once again host some of the nation’s best mountain biking athletes this summer.

The 29th Annual Bump N’ Grind Mountain Bike Race series is scheduled for June 9-11 and will feature five different races on the mountain biking trails throughout Oak Mountain State Park.

More than 500 athletes are expected to participate in the 2023 Bump N’ Grind, an annual event that has grown into one the longest mountain bike races in Alabama and one of the longest races in the nation. 

The event has been organized each year by the volunteer efforts of Birmingham Urban Mountain Pedalers (B.U.M.P.), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the building and maintenance of mountain biking trails throughout greater Birmingham. Now a multi-day event attracting athletes and spectators from all over the country, Bump N’ Grind is a far cry from the race’s humble beginnings, when trails specifically designed for mountain bikes were few and far between.

“Early on, the race really didn’t have a lot of trail to work with,” said Jacob Tubbs, Bump N’ Grind race director and a B.U.M.P. board member. “So, the story of B.U.M.P. and the story of mountain biking in general is sort of intertwined.”

"We transformed from 'Hey, you know, let's just ride our bikes through whatever trails are in the woods,' to 'Let's do purpose-built mountain bike trails,'" Tubbs said. “Single-track trails that are built by hand to ride bikes on was a new concept in the early ‘90s.”

Trailblazers in the world of mountain biking, B.U.M.P. volunteers have established 37 miles of mountain bike-specific trails throughout Oak Mountain, some of the first such trails in the Southeast. The work to complete the current trail system was all done by hand, volunteers spending hours to create trails with shovels, picks, hoes and axes, which took years to complete. 

The early few editions of Bump N’ Grind were held on a grueling 10-mile loop that took racers up a steep incline and back down multiple times. Today, the course for the main race on Sunday is almost 23 miles long, most of it on mountain biking-specific, single-track trails, which, Tubbs said, sets Oak Mountain apart from most mountain biking race courses in the nation.

“There is very little dirt road or asphalt in it,” Tubbs said. “That’s very unique to be able to have a huge lap of 20 plus miles and have all of it except for 3.7 miles of it be on trail.

“We get people from all over the country who come to our race because it's so unique,” he added. “You get this big loop tour of a giant, beautiful park and you're in the woods on a trail the whole time.” 

For fans of mountain biking or anyone interested in watching these athletes in action, B.U.M.P. has worked hard to make the races spectator friendly. Tubbs acknowledges that traditionally, mountain biking may not have been the most exciting sport to watch live. However, he says the improvements to the main course as well as the supporting events will be fun to watch, especially the new Short Track XC to close out racing on Saturday. 

“The course is fun, it has a lot of little twists and we’ve thrown in a couple of jumps that are fun to watch and fun to ride,” Tubbs said. “It’s high speed because the course is pretty short, so these guys are going to go wide-open and you will not believe how fast some of these guys and girls can haul.”

Tubbs added that the Bump N’ Grind would not be successful without the support of local government, including the city of Pelham and Shelby County Manager Chad Scroggins, and the countless hours B.U.M.P. volunteers have put in to ensure the event and Alabama’s system of biking trails can be enjoyed by bikers of all skill levels.

“We are blessed with a combination of natural resources that you need to make great mountain biking in Alabama,” Tubbs said. “We also have a generous state park system, generous municipalities close by that support us and have made a lot of this possible.”

The 2023 Bump N’ Grind proceeds go to B.U.M.P. for the creation and preservation of bike trails throughout Alabama. Learn more or register online at bumpngrindraces.com.