Northern Michigan Voices is a series by 9&10 News reporter Olivia Fellows in which she interviews a person in the community about a story or experience from their life. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and we want to give you a voice, Northern Michigan! To submit your own story pitch, see the bottom of this article for more details.
In this edition, Olivia interviews Kyan Olshove, a Traverse City native who has spent years training to achieve his lifelong dream of becoming a professional mountain bike racer.
Hear from Olshove on how he prepares both on and off the bike for some of the country’s most challenging mountain bike races while he seeks sponsorships and success.
Q: Tell me a bit about yourself and your background.
OLSHOVE: I was born and raised in Traverse City, and there’s always been a really special mountain bike community here. I grew up riding with my dad and with my friends, and eventually, I got accepted on in Norte in its early years through their high school program worked my way up and really started to develop a love for the sport. I decided after the Iceman 2019 race that I wanted to look into pursuing a career in mountain biking and explore it a little bit. I applied for the USA Cycling development team and I got on the next year and that set me up to race the whole circuit around the United States and even a couple of races in Europe.
Q: Growing up in Northern Michigan, how did the local environment influence your passion for cycling?
OLSHOVE: Our mountain biking community goes a long way back, into even the National Off-Road Bicycle Association nationals (which) was at Sugar Loaf back in the day and a lot of local guys were a part of that. I feel like they’ve really kept it alive throughout the years, and I think Northern Michigan specifically has really good mountain bike trails. We’re super lucky that the Department of Natural Resources lets us have so much single-track biking back in the Vasa. I think about the people who are keeping the sport alive, and you could pretty much hit a group ride every night of the week if you wanted to during the summer and that’s what I really like about Northern Michigan, specifically our mountain biking community.
Q: Can you describe your current training routine and how you prepare for races? What do you find most challenging about the work involved in growing your skills?
OLSHOVE: In racing, there are so many elements besides just fitness. You can always be growing and getting better at like cornering and how to go over roots and other things like that. The technical aspect, especially for me, growing up in Michigan, we didn’t have many technical trails so starting out going from racing in Traverse City and around Michigan to being out in the mountains was a really big bump in the road and like a big learning curve that I had to adapt to really quickly.
I don’t think I’d ever ridden over a rock garden more than once or twice before I went out and had to just race on them. Learning how to handle that kind of stuff like steeper terrain and the more rugged stuff that you find in the mountains was challenging. Fitness-wise, there are so many different philosophies on how to get faster, and everyone’s different. Often, I was learning about myself and what works for me might not work for everyone. It might not be the generic training methods, but figuring out, what things really helped me personally to improve was great. I’m always learning about that, always trying to experiment and learn more about how I can train better.
Q: Do you have any role models in the cycling world or beyond who inspire you?
OLSHOVE: Of course, I like all the top World Champion bikers, especially Nino Schurter, who is a world champion. He was always somebody I looked up to. But I’d say my biggest role model throughout the years was probably Jordan Wakeley. He is a local legend out of Grayling, and he was always winning races when since I started racing, so it’s always looked up to him. Also, Alexey Vermeulen I would say is a big, big role model for me. He’s won one Iceman three times now.
Q: What goes into your training out west and how do you stay motivated as you prepare for a competition?
OLSHOVE: There are a lot of different styles of racing. For the past four years, I really focused on Union Cycliste Internationale racing, which is the Olympic (branch) of the sport. It’s the pathway where you can work your way up to the Olympics. It starts with really low-level UCI races that are hosted all over the United States.
If you work your way up and get enough points eventually you can get into some World Cups. From there, you can ride the rankings, and go all the way up to the Olympics. That was my goal― to just to see how far I could take it. My goal today is probably to make it into a couple of World Cups, and I have raced a few of them, and it’s just amazing how technical they are, the things that our bikes are capable of and what the people riding them are capable of is just insane. Getting to see that level and seeing firsthand this stuff that people are doing is just mind-blowing.
Q: Are there any races or competition memories in your career so far that come to mind that stand out to you? If so, why?
OLSHOVE: Racing the World Cups was really cool. To be able to see all the guys in the, even race against some of the ones I watched on TV, was really amazing. I think the biggest thing that really kindles the fire for me is the Iceman race still, and its really because it’s my hometown race and also because the atmosphere there is unlike anything else that I’ve experienced. The Iceman is probably the biggest standout for me, and I would say the goal for this year is to win that Iceman race.
Q: Do you feel Northern Michigan offers enough resources or support for aspiring professional cyclists and are there specific local routes or trails that are your favorite for biking?
OLSHOVE: I don’t think there are many places in the world that offer enough cycling support, and mountain biking is just such a new sport that really it’s hard to build that kind of program, especially in such an expensive sport. I mean, it’s not with the price of mountain bikes these days. It’s not super accessible. In Northern Michigan, we have a great community and a lot of resources, but I think we can do better as other states could. I would say Colorado and California would be the best as far as, having those pathways to work your way up from the high school level to the semi-pro level.
Q: In your experience, how much of your career has been spent not only riding but also learning the mechanics of the specific bikes that you use and training your body for competition?
OLSHOVE: There’s always more to learn. As far as the mechanics go, and all the other aspects of the sport are, I would say, almost just as important as the training you do on the bike. Making sure your equipment is dialed in and you’re watching your nutrition I’ve learned in the past few years is just one of the most important things you can have dialed in. If you have a good nutrition plan, that can make 100% of the difference.
Off the bike, I would say that’s just as much of an aspect as the actual training. As far as fitness, it varies depending on the season, in winter I’m putting in around 20 hours per week including gym work, so that’s on the bike and off the bike. Outside of that, I’m just trying to earn some money, rest up as best as I can and recover for the next workout.
I really like what my coach is giving me now. It’s a simpler version than I think a lot of people do, but I think being able to do the simpler exercises as quality as possible is better than doing a ton of super weird exercises and maybe not knowing the form quite as well. It’s especially helpful when I don’t have a personal trainer, I’m just going to the gym and figuring the workouts out by myself, with YouTube videos and whatnot. I’ll do like squats and deadlifts and all the generic leg workouts and core workouts, but also some balance exercises.
I’ll warm up on the rowing machine and do some activation exercises like hip stability which is really important and core stability. A lot of the exercises are core-focused. For that, I’ve got dead bugs and elevator planks and all that fun stuff. Cycling is a very forward-momentum-based sport, so you’re always facing or leaning forward and there’s not much side-to-side movement.
A lot of cyclists can become pretty imbalanced in their side-to-side movements, so that’s one thing that I work on is trying to get tthe mobility exercises down and trying to stay strong in the ways where you’re not working muscles on the bike which really helps with being able to balance while riding.
Q: What advice would you give to other young cyclists in Northern Michigan whether old or young who want to improve?
OLSHOVE: The motivation will come and go, but my advice is that staying disciplined and consistent is really important. Also, if you don’t love training, you’re not going to push yourself as hard. I encourage everyone, even if it’s not going to be the ideal training route, to go explore and go have fun and ride with their friends and really do what makes them happy.
With the training, the fitness gains that come from that will come if you do it in a smart way that will be better than if you just keep cranking out rides on the trainer and really stay focused on stinging new zones every single day. I usually pick a couple of days a week to goof off a little bit more, and the rest of the day, stay really strict about training. If you don’t have those soul rides, as some of my friends like to call them, you’re gonna burn out.
Q: What is your take on fat-tire biking? Are you a fan?
OLSHOVE: I absolutely love it. I think Traverse City does a better job than anyone else on the amount of time and effort they put into making our fat bike trails really fun and worth riding on. Fat tire biking was really popular six or seven years ago, but it kind of died in a lot of places especially a lot of places without snow. In Traverse City and all of Northern Michigan, it’s still very much alive. It’s so much fun, I recommend it to anyone who’s looking to go out and experience the woods from a different angle, especially in the winter. It’s so cool.
Q: When you’re not on a bike or training, what do you enjoy doing?
OLSHOVE: I love being just outside and doing fun Northern Michigan activities. I love going swimming, and this is a this is a cycling activity, but night rides with my friends are really fun around town. I love doing that, putting lights on your bike and riding around. I love to go on hikes. I love my job at the River Outfitters, so shout out to them. I just love experiencing Northern Michigan, especially the nice weather in the summer months as much as I can.
Q: Looking to the future, what are your short-term and long-term goals as a biker?
OLSHOVE: I just love riding my bike, and I would love to get paid to do it. I’m not there yet. I’m really, really thankful to have my sponsors who are both local and some bigger brands supporting me and helping me get to these events.
My short-term goals I would say, for this year, are just to get my foot in the door and help make a bigger name for myself in the United States, like racing circuit in the racing scene, and hopefully gain some relationships with some bigger brands. Then, of course, win the Iceman race, I would love for that to happen but there’s no telling when or if that’ll happen. It’s just a race, so you never know.
With long-term goals, I would say I would love to just make my way up the ranks and get paid to ride my bike. And I would love to make, I would love to race in World Championships someday, maybe do some, some European World Cups, as well as do well in the lifetime Grand Prix, which is what I’m focusing on for this year.
Have an interesting story of your own? Email Olivia and provide a brief summary of your story, and we will contact you if we’d like to tell your tale. We’re interested in all sorts of stories, too! Sad, happy, exhilarating, inspiring or educational— we’d like to know about your story and share it with the community.
Note: We will ask for photos as well (or take one if possible), it helps immensely if you can have pictures ready.