Mountain bike participants ride the course during Bend Dirt Fest on Saturday in Bend. 07/12/25 (Joe Kline/The Bulletin)

The inaugural Bend Dirt Fest was exactly what Mike Ripley hoped it would be, despite only a few months of planning.

More than 120 competitors competed in one of three races the Bend Dirt Fest offered on Saturday — a half-marathon trail run, a 54-mile gravel grinder or a 36-mile mountain bike course through the Deschutes National Forest west of Bend.

“The foundation has been laid for a monster event in 2026,” said Ripley, race organizer and owner of Mudslinger Events. “The goal was to create an event that embraced the adventure of Bend, Oregon. Where someone could roll out of bed, go run a half, head over to the Athletic Club, grab their bike — gravel or mountain — and have a great day.”

The Bend Dirt Fest took the place of the Oregon 24 mountain biking event, which was originally scheduled for its 16th edition on Saturday. In the Oregon 24, riders raced around a 13-mile loop as many times as possible in a 24- or 12-hour period while camping at Wanoga Sno-park. The U.S. Forest Service informed Ripley in April that he could no longer host the event due to the dispersed camping situation that it created.

So Ripley came up with the Bend Dirt Fest, to be held on the same date for which the Oregon 24 was scheduled.

Ideally, Ripley said, an event like the Bend Dirt Fest would be launched in the winter so that word could start spreading and plans could be made for participants to make the trip to Bend for the races.

And yet, despite the late start, Bend’s newest multi-sport event was viewed as a hit.

“I think it will definitely grow a lot,” said Grace Perkins, a Bend resident who was the top women’s finisher in the half marathon with a time of 1 hour, 35 minutes, 13.9 seconds. “I’m surprised (Bend) doesn’t have more events like this because everyone does so many different activities. It is fun to have a multisport event where you can have a team and get all the activities going.”

Perkins also won the popular Pole Pole Paddle multisport event in May.
Colton Gale, a 34-year-old from Bend, won the 13.1-mile trail run in 1:22.56.7.

All three races started at the Athletic Club of Bend and utilized singletrack trails and dirt roads to the west. The gravel and mountain bikers shared the Wanoga area, while the half-marathon course was separate.

The gravel race featured nearly 4,000 feet of elevation gain over the first 30 miles, before becoming mostly downhill over the last 24 miles.

The mountain bike course included more than 3,000 feet of climbing in the first 22 miles before turning to a downhill ride over the final 14 miles.

Matthew Bird, a 29-year-old from Adelaide, Australia, won the gravel grinder race with a time of 2:35.08.4. Kristina Gray, a 54-year-old from Sherwood, had the fastest women’s gravel time, finishing in 3:16.24.2.

“I had a bit of a travel dilemma and ended up taking five days off the bike, so I needed a leg-stretcher before next weekend,” said Bird, who will try to repeat at the High Cascades 100-mile mountain bike race next Saturday on some of the same trails. “It was a really good course, with a nice vibe around the event and it was good, hard racing for three hours.”

Joe Giannetto, a 35-year-old from Bend, won the mountain bike race by nearly seven minutes, finishing in 2:21.33.6. Maya Holzman, a 41-year-old from Bend, had the fastest women’s time, finishing in 3:03.41.

“It was super successful,” Ripley said of the Bend Dirt Fest. “I couldn’t be more stoked with it. Then next week we have the High Cascades 100, our biggest event.”