April 17, 2025 • 18 mins
Bentonville, Arkansas was recently spotlighted in The New York Times for its transformation from a business hub to a world-class cycling destination. In this episode, host Nat welcomes local leaders in the cycling industry to reflect on the national attention and share a deeper look into how we got here.
Together, they explore what makes Bentonville’s trail system unique, how the shift to a leisure destination is fueling economic development and a look ahead at a visitor's experience in the MTB Capital of the World.
What we discuss:
🚵♀️ Bentonville’s Cycling Culture Evolution
🌱 Community Impact & Inclusivity
🚀 The Future of Cycling in Bentonville
A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nat Ross (00:10):
Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit
Bentonville.
I'm your cycling host, Nat Ross.
Today I'm joined by Scott Kingand Aimee Ross from the Runway
Group.
We're talking about howBentonville became the epicenter
of the cycling world, and thisis all related to a new article
in the New York Times that'sspurring a lot of interest in
(00:30):
the community here, so I wouldlike to welcome both of you to
the podcast.
And yeah, Scott, I think let'sfigure out in terms of the
audience here what Scott Kingdoes and kind of talk about how
you're related to cycling spacehere in the industry in
Bentonville Cool.
Scott King (00:51):
Well, I'm Scott King with the Runway Group.
I have a couple different rolesthere that are pertinent to
this conversation.
I'm Chief Experience Officer,where I look after a number of
things, primarily in cycling.
I could talk more about that ina moment.
And I'm also Chief BusinessDevelopment Officer, where I'm
leading a team with Amy and someothers to go make a case to the
(01:11):
cycling industry to call thishome.
Nat Ross (01:13):
Okay, Aimee Ross, you and Scott are in the same office
building, so tell us a littlebit about what you do.
Aimee Ross (01:20):
Yeah, so, as Scott mentioned, part of the business
development team as it relatesto how we're looking to build
Northwest Arkansas as ageographic home in North America
for the cycling industry andI've been fortunate enough to
have going on 20 years ofcycling industry experience that
(01:40):
I can bring to this role and tothe community to help really
make this charge forward.
Nat Ross (01:46):
Well, the exciting thing is is this article just
came out at a not couldn't evencome out at a better time,
because the momentum that youguys have been feeling and
experiencing is the truth.
It's really happening here.
So I think, scott, a lot of uswould like to hear about how
this development over the pastdecade has been going on.
Peel back the curtain a tad bit.
Talk about from your industryperspective what makes the trail
(02:09):
system, the system of what wehave here for cycling in general
the playground.
What makes it an establishedcycling destination or a
desirable place to come ride?
Scott King (02:20):
Yeah, well, besides the just the miles of trail and
roads that we have, which thereis a lot, and that's all.
All those details are out there, but I think the thing that's
sometimes overlooked until youcome here is that all of that is
so integrated into where youare, in the sense that when you
(02:41):
arrive, you probably come by car, maybe by van, or maybe you fly
in, but you take a car to whereyou're going to stay and then
you get your bikes out and thenyou don't get back in the car
until you're going to leave.
You ride everywhere, you rideto the ride, and that kind of
integration into the place is, Ithink, one of the things that
makes this so unique, and it'ssomething we hear over and over
(03:02):
from every visitor and everylocal who moves here.
It's like man, I just can getout of, I can leave my house and
go ride, and that's reallyspecial.
Nat Ross (03:10):
Yeah, no doubt on that piece A lot of folks.
Even the article alludes tothat.
So in the New York Times, amy,they also mentioned the
transformation from businessdestination to a leisure
destination in the article andwe want to know how this shift
has impacted the economicdevelopment beyond the tourism
dollars.
Aimee Ross (03:30):
For years Bentonville has been known as
the home of Walmart and I thinknow that we're a self-proclaimed
home of the mountain bikecapital of the world, that
really helped make that shift byhosting events here, thanks in
part to businesses like VisitBentonville doing that work.
We've kind of started to cointhis experience as a leisure
(03:54):
traveler, where they come forbusiness but then they stay over
the weekend for leisure, andyou know, I've heard numbers,
it's kind of a mullet.
Scott King (04:03):
Yeah, it's like the rotten party effect.
Aimee Ross (04:06):
You know, you hear the numbers over the years where
it used to be that like, hoteloccupancies during the week was,
you know, upwards of 90% andwould drop into the teens over
the weekends.
And that's just not the caseanymore.
It's still very heavily focusedduring the week with that work
traveler.
But now that they're stayingover and then the additional
(04:28):
visitors coming in, you knowthat capacity numbers are
growing.
It allows us to create moreopportunities for new hotels and
short-term lodgingopportunities.
Scott King (04:38):
It's cool too to see how many people are coming
during the week to ride,particularly in the spring break
time of the year and also inthe fall season, when you'll
look up and you'll see justdozens of people showing up in
groups to go for a gravel rideor a trail ride or whatever.
Yes, the hotel occupancy isstill predominantly business
(04:58):
during the week, but there'smore and more people that are
riding throughout the week.
I think the other piece aboutthis that's kind of cool to
think about is kind of thisbusiness to leisure.
But there's also this businessto leisure back to business,
because the cycling industry isdoing more and more business
here.
So it's not the Walmartbusiness that we're going back
to business, because the cyclingindustry is doing more and more
business here.
So it's not the Walmartbusiness that we're going back
to, which is obviously still abig part of the heartbeat of the
(05:20):
community, with 15,000employees that are all kind of
in this new campus, which isamazing, but there's a whole
influx of the cycling industrynow too.
So that's kind of a cool add-onto the business to leisure to
business.
Aimee Ross (05:33):
Makes a good case for the work that Scott and I do
on a regular basis as well.
Nat Ross (05:37):
Well, yeah, I mean the templates here just over the
decades, the businessdevelopment and now focus with
cycling.
And honestly, john Carroll wasmentioned in this article from
coming to visit and he had noexpectations that he would be
here for four nights.
So what are you hearing fromvisitors about their
expectations versus reality oncethey land?
Aimee Ross (05:58):
I think one of the cool things is and this isn't
meant to sound negative is thatpeople don't know what to expect
when they hear Arkansas Like,the bar is still set pretty low.
And so when we do get visitorsthat are coming specifically,
you know, for cyclingexperiences, no matter how much
(06:18):
you tell them how great it is,they still don't really
understand until they're here.
And once they're here and thenthey buy in and believe it and
really like, feel the culturethat's here.
It definitely changes thatmindset.
Scott King (06:33):
So it it's always like, because Arkansas still has
a little bit of a stigma, wealways win yeah, the other thing
that's cool about that is maybesomebody comes for a long
weekend cycling visit and theyrealize there's a lot more to do
than cycling.
There's incredible art and orthis music, or there's a great
(06:53):
restaurant scene, and so so theymight say, well, I'm coming
back with my family next time,and so it was a three-day visit
or a four-day visit.
Then there's a week visit, andthis is something we've seen in
our research over the last fewyears is most mountain bike
trips are three or four days.
That's all anybody gets allpass for.
It's like they're going to gowith the family, just with the
(07:15):
girls or the guys for a biketrip.
It's a long weekend, but ifyou're going to keep someone for
a longer period of time,particularly in a kind of a
travel destination, you need tohave some for the whole family.
Absolutely Right.
And so I think a lot of timespeople come for that long
weekend then they realizethere's museums of all sorts,
there's all this other culture,and then they bring the whole
(07:36):
family back and they stay longer.
Nat Ross (07:38):
Well, scott, touching on that community impact and
then the way that it includesall the groups, the article does
talk about how a third of theresidents ride at least monthly.
How does this kind of localengagement?
How does that shape thebusiness development strategies?
Scott King (07:56):
does that shape the business development strategies?
Well, we see this a lot in thecycling industry and I think
maybe it's unique in some cases,but in other maybe not, in that
I mean, in the cycling industry, so many people that work in
that industry are activeparticipants themselves.
It's kind of a passion-drivenindustry.
So people who want to workthere are generally cyclists too
.
So, because of the to work,there are generally cyclists too
(08:17):
.
So, because of the fact thatthere's so many locals that are
riding, it's an easy place toattract and retain talent.
And so many of the people thatwe're talking to, from a
business development standpoint,see it as an easy place to
bring a company because theiremployees will be one of those
people who are riding theirbikes all the time.
Absolutely Right, yeah, true,it makes our job easier when
there's such amazing trail, justso accessible and gravel and on
(08:40):
and on.
So it's a key component of theargument about well, this is a
great place to kind of dobusiness.
Aimee Ross (08:46):
Yeah, and there's a term saying you know, visitors
want to visit where locals wantto live, so we definitely have
that going for us.
Scott King (08:54):
Yeah, I think it's worth unpacking that for just a
bit too.
One of the design principlesearly on with the trail and with
the experience in general, wasbuild for the local.
I've concentrated initially onbuild for the local.
Another was build with thebeginner in mind, right, so
build an amazing beginnerexperience so that you have a
good first-time experience.
And then, thirdly equallyimportant, is build for
(09:21):
progression right, so you can gohave a great beginner
experience, but you can alsothen progress on your skills,
which has been a key aspect ofthe trail building for the last
decade.
Aimee Ross (09:28):
We have something for everyone.
Nat Ross (09:30):
Yeah, and addressing the inclusivity.
What does that look like?
What more can you do?
What are you guys thinkingtowards future forward?
Aimee Ross (09:38):
There's groups like this that form in different
communities across the country.
But the power that's beenbehind that, because of all the
(10:07):
things that Scott justpinpointed as far as the
experience building for thelocal building, for the beginner
building, for progression, it'sallowed groups like Women of Oz
Mountain Bike Organization toform and FEMS Gravel to create
opportunities.
Latinas in BC All Bodies onBikes.
They relocated their businesshere and home base here.
You have organizations likePedal it Forward that provide
opportunities forunderprivileged families and
(10:32):
students and locals to getaccess to bikes, to make that
opportunity in which that theycan participate in this cycling
culture that we've continued tobuild.
Scott King (10:46):
Yeah, we fundamentally believe in the
transformative power of thebicycle and we think that that's
something everyone should haveaccess to, like everyone, and so
whatever we can do to continueto promote that is positive in
our opinion.
Nat Ross (11:01):
Sure, and I understand it's not all about competition
and racing, but the articletalks about events like the
Lifetime Grand Prix and cyclingtrends.
So what does that look like forBittenville, since the
pioneering element's been, thegroundwork's been laid and we're
looking to the future?
Aimee Ross (11:18):
Yeah, you know Lifetime came in about a handful
of years ago now.
There had been a lot ofgroundwork laid, with a lot of
local organizations kind oftrying their hand at putting
together some some communityfocused events that it's
attracted, you know,participants from all over and
many of those are still going.
(11:39):
But it's also helped us reallyin the sense of how we develop
different opportunities andevents.
You know we have things likerule three, where it's you pick.
You know we have things likeRule of Three, where it's you
pick one bike to do both or allthree methods of tarmac, gravel
and single track.
That's an experience that's veryunique to Bentonville.
Other places are trying it outnow.
(12:01):
You see it as you go out, butit is something that we have an
abundance of access to and thenit opens the door for us to
think about, like kind of that,what's next and how we can
continue to foster.
You know other opportunities ona global scale, like hosting
World Cups, world Championships.
I mean Fayetteville didCyclocross World Championships.
(12:23):
It's only a matter of timebefore Bentonville has their
hand in one of those as well.
Scott King (12:29):
Yeah, I think the other one, a couple more that
are notable to point out.
Obviously we're building a bikepark.
The part of my life I wasmentioned to earlier is
developer for a bike park, whichwill bring an important gravity
component into the kind of mixhere.
There's also a lot happeningwith BMX in the area and there's
obviously all the things thatare happening in Tulsa with BMX
(12:50):
racing.
There are some folks in townthat are really interested in
the BMX freestyle side of thingsas well.
All of that in preparation forupcoming games in LA in 28.
I think there'll be a lot ofboth of those will be a lot of
energy and it's just anothercomponent of cycling.
I like to say all the wheels,you know their, there's their
diameter, we like to ride themand sometimes we ride them in
(13:13):
places we're not supposed to interms of like the rule of three.
You know we kind of mix updifferent things but, um, I
don't know, it's just kind ofthe.
The fun part of it is we.
I think one of the cool thingsis we have a clear understanding
of kind of cycling history andculture, and then there is the
way it happens on the ground,right, and that to me, the rule
of three was a great example.
(13:34):
That's like, oh, there's apiece of single track, if we
were to ride that, I couldconnect these two gravel roads
and the next thing, you know,you've kind of got this new
event that happens, and I'mreally excited to see what
happens when, um, we have agravity park and a lot of folks
who have ridden at parks in theeast and west when they go will
have direct access to that here.
(13:54):
What does that do to our level,talent and the youth that are
coming up and having access tojust another type of terrain?
Aimee Ross (14:04):
And we'll see what happens.
Benville, never ceases to amazeme that they reach out and try
to grab things that are maybe alittle bit different or
something than another communityhasn't really thought to lean
into as a way to help elevateitself in that cycling culture.
National mountain bike team andit's brought, you know,
world-class athletes, olympians,world champions, to the
(14:31):
community, some of which havedecided to to move here and live
here full-time.
You know that's a testament toall the development that's
happened over the past.
Nat Ross (14:42):
You know, two decades well part of the community is
that fun disruption, and therule of three is the perfect
example.
It's spearheaded here and itcan expand elsewhere.
The template is replicable,scott.
I think that economicsustainability is another
element that we'd like to learnmore about from you.
Scott King (15:00):
Well, I think in this case, from a business
development standpoint, there'swhat we're doing with the
industry Obviously the trail andtourism is a piece that we're
always driving towardssustainability.
With that, amy and I are morefocused on the cycling industry
piece and we like to think thiscould be a great place in North
(15:21):
America to have a geographichome for the industry.
There's not currently in thecycling industry, there's not a
Silicon Valley or Detroit or aWall Street or Hollywood.
Aimee Ross (15:33):
Yeah, exactly.
Scott King (15:33):
There's not one home base.
It's grown organically over theyears across the US and we're
not suggesting that everybody'sgoing to pick up and completely
relocate here.
But we do believe there's powerand synergy when the brands have
some presence in town and thatcan take a lot of different
shapes but from that presencekind of becomes a whole lot of
(16:02):
energy, a flywheel effect, asthey would say, to actually move
the industry forward.
And sometimes that is talentmoving between businesses and
everybody gets frustrated whenyou lose a good talent.
But you also realize there'smore talent out there who could
come work for you and that justslowly ratchets up the talent
and the new ideas come out ofthat.
And then ideas bring capitaland innovation happens out of
that.
So the whole cycle of aninnovation cycle happens when
everyone's kind of in one spot.
I saw that very clearly yearsago when I worked in Silicon
(16:25):
Valley and also saw it in Austin, how it developed there, and so
some of those ideas are behindwhat we're trying to do with
this recruiting process.
And it all goes back to thatthing we talked about earlier,
which is attract and retaintalent, because this is such a
great place to live and work.
Aimee Ross (16:41):
Mm-hmm, and the startup ecosystem in the cycling
spaces is incredibly strong.
Nat Ross (16:49):
Great.
The examples are just allabound here.
And the godfather of all thiskind of Tom Walton, when he said
that Bentonville has thereplicable model.
And what does that mean for theother communities?
What does that template looklike?
How can they get involved?
Scott King (17:07):
Well, visit Bentonville actually hosts a lot
of different communities whocome and want to learn from us,
and I think that one importantthing to remember is there's a
template, but everybody's goingto have to take that and make it
their own right.
So we have a set ofcircumstances here that are
unique to us and everybodydoesn't have those circumstances
(17:31):
.
But we do believe they can comeand learn and we're a very open
book about that.
We do a lot of benchmarkingourselves, we travel to lots of
different places, talk to lotsof different people and we kind
of go into the process with avery kind of open mind and we
also are welcoming to people whowant to come and talk to us and
learn from us as well.
Aimee Ross (17:54):
So, like I said, there's a template but I think
that template has to be appliedvery specifically to every place
and I think it goes back tolike inspiration.
Everybody always wantssomething to look towards, to be
inspired, to get motivated toactivate on, and Bentonville
does that very clearly.
Especially when you host thosevisits and they get to see
firsthand the, the cyclingculture that's here and the
(18:17):
opportunities to Scott's pointthey put it back in their
community and make it theirsabsolutely well.
Nat Ross (18:23):
there's so much to unpack here and we can just send
folks to visit Bentonvillecomto get more information.
And, scott and Amy, you guysare a wealth of knowledge and
there's so much work that you'vebeen doing and so much work in
the pipeline.
So thanks for coming on theshow and we look forward to
learning more about what'sbehind the curtains and what you
guys are up to.
Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit
Bentonville.
I'm your cycling host, Nat Ross.
Today I'm joined by Scott Kingand Aimee Ross from the Runway
Group.
We're talking about howBentonville became the epicenter
of the cycling world, and thisis all related to a new article
in the New York Times that'sspurring a lot of interest in
(00:30):
the community here, so I wouldlike to welcome both of you to
the podcast.
And yeah, Scott, I think let'sfigure out in terms of the
audience here what Scott Kingdoes and kind of talk about how
you're related to cycling spacehere in the industry in
Bentonville Cool.
Scott King (00:51):
Well, I'm Scott King with the Runway Group.
I have a couple different rolesthere that are pertinent to
this conversation.
I'm Chief Experience Officer,where I look after a number of
things, primarily in cycling.
I could talk more about that ina moment.
And I'm also Chief BusinessDevelopment Officer, where I'm
leading a team with Amy and someothers to go make a case to the
(01:11):
cycling industry to call thishome.
Nat Ross (01:13):
Okay, Aimee Ross, you and Scott are in the same office
building, so tell us a littlebit about what you do.
Aimee Ross (01:20):
Yeah, so, as Scott mentioned, part of the business
development team as it relatesto how we're looking to build
Northwest Arkansas as ageographic home in North America
for the cycling industry andI've been fortunate enough to
have going on 20 years ofcycling industry experience that
(01:40):
I can bring to this role and tothe community to help really
make this charge forward.
Nat Ross (01:46):
Well, the exciting thing is is this article just
came out at a not couldn't evencome out at a better time,
because the momentum that youguys have been feeling and
experiencing is the truth.
It's really happening here.
So I think, scott, a lot of uswould like to hear about how
this development over the pastdecade has been going on.
Peel back the curtain a tad bit.
Talk about from your industryperspective what makes the trail
(02:09):
system, the system of what wehave here for cycling in general
the playground.
What makes it an establishedcycling destination or a
desirable place to come ride?
Scott King (02:20):
Yeah, well, besides the just the miles of trail and
roads that we have, which thereis a lot, and that's all.
All those details are out there, but I think the thing that's
sometimes overlooked until youcome here is that all of that is
so integrated into where youare, in the sense that when you
(02:41):
arrive, you probably come by car, maybe by van, or maybe you fly
in, but you take a car to whereyou're going to stay and then
you get your bikes out and thenyou don't get back in the car
until you're going to leave.
You ride everywhere, you rideto the ride, and that kind of
integration into the place is, Ithink, one of the things that
makes this so unique, and it'ssomething we hear over and over
(03:02):
from every visitor and everylocal who moves here.
It's like man, I just can getout of, I can leave my house and
go ride, and that's reallyspecial.
Nat Ross (03:10):
Yeah, no doubt on that piece A lot of folks.
Even the article alludes tothat.
So in the New York Times, amy,they also mentioned the
transformation from businessdestination to a leisure
destination in the article andwe want to know how this shift
has impacted the economicdevelopment beyond the tourism
dollars.
Aimee Ross (03:30):
For years Bentonville has been known as
the home of Walmart and I thinknow that we're a self-proclaimed
home of the mountain bikecapital of the world, that
really helped make that shift byhosting events here, thanks in
part to businesses like VisitBentonville doing that work.
We've kind of started to cointhis experience as a leisure
(03:54):
traveler, where they come forbusiness but then they stay over
the weekend for leisure, andyou know, I've heard numbers,
it's kind of a mullet.
Scott King (04:03):
Yeah, it's like the rotten party effect.
Aimee Ross (04:06):
You know, you hear the numbers over the years where
it used to be that like, hoteloccupancies during the week was,
you know, upwards of 90% andwould drop into the teens over
the weekends.
And that's just not the caseanymore.
It's still very heavily focusedduring the week with that work
traveler.
But now that they're stayingover and then the additional
(04:28):
visitors coming in, you knowthat capacity numbers are
growing.
It allows us to create moreopportunities for new hotels and
short-term lodgingopportunities.
Scott King (04:38):
It's cool too to see how many people are coming
during the week to ride,particularly in the spring break
time of the year and also inthe fall season, when you'll
look up and you'll see justdozens of people showing up in
groups to go for a gravel rideor a trail ride or whatever.
Yes, the hotel occupancy isstill predominantly business
(04:58):
during the week, but there'smore and more people that are
riding throughout the week.
I think the other piece aboutthis that's kind of cool to
think about is kind of thisbusiness to leisure.
But there's also this businessto leisure back to business,
because the cycling industry isdoing more and more business
here.
So it's not the Walmartbusiness that we're going back
to business, because the cyclingindustry is doing more and more
business here.
So it's not the Walmartbusiness that we're going back
to, which is obviously still abig part of the heartbeat of the
(05:20):
community, with 15,000employees that are all kind of
in this new campus, which isamazing, but there's a whole
influx of the cycling industrynow too.
So that's kind of a cool add-onto the business to leisure to
business.
Aimee Ross (05:33):
Makes a good case for the work that Scott and I do
on a regular basis as well.
Nat Ross (05:37):
Well, yeah, I mean the templates here just over the
decades, the businessdevelopment and now focus with
cycling.
And honestly, john Carroll wasmentioned in this article from
coming to visit and he had noexpectations that he would be
here for four nights.
So what are you hearing fromvisitors about their
expectations versus reality oncethey land?
Aimee Ross (05:58):
I think one of the cool things is and this isn't
meant to sound negative is thatpeople don't know what to expect
when they hear Arkansas Like,the bar is still set pretty low.
And so when we do get visitorsthat are coming specifically,
you know, for cyclingexperiences, no matter how much
(06:18):
you tell them how great it is,they still don't really
understand until they're here.
And once they're here and thenthey buy in and believe it and
really like, feel the culturethat's here.
It definitely changes thatmindset.
Scott King (06:33):
So it it's always like, because Arkansas still has
a little bit of a stigma, wealways win yeah, the other thing
that's cool about that is maybesomebody comes for a long
weekend cycling visit and theyrealize there's a lot more to do
than cycling.
There's incredible art and orthis music, or there's a great
(06:53):
restaurant scene, and so so theymight say, well, I'm coming
back with my family next time,and so it was a three-day visit
or a four-day visit.
Then there's a week visit, andthis is something we've seen in
our research over the last fewyears is most mountain bike
trips are three or four days.
That's all anybody gets allpass for.
It's like they're going to gowith the family, just with the
(07:15):
girls or the guys for a biketrip.
It's a long weekend, but ifyou're going to keep someone for
a longer period of time,particularly in a kind of a
travel destination, you need tohave some for the whole family.
Absolutely Right.
And so I think a lot of timespeople come for that long
weekend then they realizethere's museums of all sorts,
there's all this other culture,and then they bring the whole
(07:36):
family back and they stay longer.
Nat Ross (07:38):
Well, scott, touching on that community impact and
then the way that it includesall the groups, the article does
talk about how a third of theresidents ride at least monthly.
How does this kind of localengagement?
How does that shape thebusiness development strategies?
Scott King (07:56):
does that shape the business development strategies?
Well, we see this a lot in thecycling industry and I think
maybe it's unique in some cases,but in other maybe not, in that
I mean, in the cycling industry, so many people that work in
that industry are activeparticipants themselves.
It's kind of a passion-drivenindustry.
So people who want to workthere are generally cyclists too
.
So, because of the to work,there are generally cyclists too
(08:17):
.
So, because of the fact thatthere's so many locals that are
riding, it's an easy place toattract and retain talent.
And so many of the people thatwe're talking to, from a
business development standpoint,see it as an easy place to
bring a company because theiremployees will be one of those
people who are riding theirbikes all the time.
Absolutely Right, yeah, true,it makes our job easier when
there's such amazing trail, justso accessible and gravel and on
(08:40):
and on.
So it's a key component of theargument about well, this is a
great place to kind of dobusiness.
Aimee Ross (08:46):
Yeah, and there's a term saying you know, visitors
want to visit where locals wantto live, so we definitely have
that going for us.
Scott King (08:54):
Yeah, I think it's worth unpacking that for just a
bit too.
One of the design principlesearly on with the trail and with
the experience in general, wasbuild for the local.
I've concentrated initially onbuild for the local.
Another was build with thebeginner in mind, right, so
build an amazing beginnerexperience so that you have a
good first-time experience.
And then, thirdly equallyimportant, is build for
(09:21):
progression right, so you can gohave a great beginner
experience, but you can alsothen progress on your skills,
which has been a key aspect ofthe trail building for the last
decade.
Aimee Ross (09:28):
We have something for everyone.
Nat Ross (09:30):
Yeah, and addressing the inclusivity.
What does that look like?
What more can you do?
What are you guys thinkingtowards future forward?
Aimee Ross (09:38):
There's groups like this that form in different
communities across the country.
But the power that's beenbehind that, because of all the
(10:07):
things that Scott justpinpointed as far as the
experience building for thelocal building, for the beginner
building, for progression, it'sallowed groups like Women of Oz
Mountain Bike Organization toform and FEMS Gravel to create
opportunities.
Latinas in BC All Bodies onBikes.
They relocated their businesshere and home base here.
You have organizations likePedal it Forward that provide
opportunities forunderprivileged families and
(10:32):
students and locals to getaccess to bikes, to make that
opportunity in which that theycan participate in this cycling
culture that we've continued tobuild.
Scott King (10:46):
Yeah, we fundamentally believe in the
transformative power of thebicycle and we think that that's
something everyone should haveaccess to, like everyone, and so
whatever we can do to continueto promote that is positive in
our opinion.
Nat Ross (11:01):
Sure, and I understand it's not all about competition
and racing, but the articletalks about events like the
Lifetime Grand Prix and cyclingtrends.
So what does that look like forBittenville, since the
pioneering element's been, thegroundwork's been laid and we're
looking to the future?
Aimee Ross (11:18):
Yeah, you know Lifetime came in about a handful
of years ago now.
There had been a lot ofgroundwork laid, with a lot of
local organizations kind oftrying their hand at putting
together some some communityfocused events that it's
attracted, you know,participants from all over and
many of those are still going.
(11:39):
But it's also helped us reallyin the sense of how we develop
different opportunities andevents.
You know we have things likerule three, where it's you pick.
You know we have things likeRule of Three, where it's you
pick one bike to do both or allthree methods of tarmac, gravel
and single track.
That's an experience that's veryunique to Bentonville.
Other places are trying it outnow.
(12:01):
You see it as you go out, butit is something that we have an
abundance of access to and thenit opens the door for us to
think about, like kind of that,what's next and how we can
continue to foster.
You know other opportunities ona global scale, like hosting
World Cups, world Championships.
I mean Fayetteville didCyclocross World Championships.
(12:23):
It's only a matter of timebefore Bentonville has their
hand in one of those as well.
Scott King (12:29):
Yeah, I think the other one, a couple more that
are notable to point out.
Obviously we're building a bikepark.
The part of my life I wasmentioned to earlier is
developer for a bike park, whichwill bring an important gravity
component into the kind of mixhere.
There's also a lot happeningwith BMX in the area and there's
obviously all the things thatare happening in Tulsa with BMX
(12:50):
racing.
There are some folks in townthat are really interested in
the BMX freestyle side of thingsas well.
All of that in preparation forupcoming games in LA in 28.
I think there'll be a lot ofboth of those will be a lot of
energy and it's just anothercomponent of cycling.
I like to say all the wheels,you know their, there's their
diameter, we like to ride themand sometimes we ride them in
(13:13):
places we're not supposed to interms of like the rule of three.
You know we kind of mix updifferent things but, um, I
don't know, it's just kind ofthe.
The fun part of it is we.
I think one of the cool thingsis we have a clear understanding
of kind of cycling history andculture, and then there is the
way it happens on the ground,right, and that to me, the rule
of three was a great example.
(13:34):
That's like, oh, there's apiece of single track, if we
were to ride that, I couldconnect these two gravel roads
and the next thing, you know,you've kind of got this new
event that happens, and I'mreally excited to see what
happens when, um, we have agravity park and a lot of folks
who have ridden at parks in theeast and west when they go will
have direct access to that here.
(13:54):
What does that do to our level,talent and the youth that are
coming up and having access tojust another type of terrain?
Aimee Ross (14:04):
And we'll see what happens.
Benville, never ceases to amazeme that they reach out and try
to grab things that are maybe alittle bit different or
something than another communityhasn't really thought to lean
into as a way to help elevateitself in that cycling culture.
National mountain bike team andit's brought, you know,
world-class athletes, olympians,world champions, to the
(14:31):
community, some of which havedecided to to move here and live
here full-time.
You know that's a testament toall the development that's
happened over the past.
Nat Ross (14:42):
You know, two decades well part of the community is
that fun disruption, and therule of three is the perfect
example.
It's spearheaded here and itcan expand elsewhere.
The template is replicable,scott.
I think that economicsustainability is another
element that we'd like to learnmore about from you.
Scott King (15:00):
Well, I think in this case, from a business
development standpoint, there'swhat we're doing with the
industry Obviously the trail andtourism is a piece that we're
always driving towardssustainability.
With that, amy and I are morefocused on the cycling industry
piece and we like to think thiscould be a great place in North
(15:21):
America to have a geographichome for the industry.
There's not currently in thecycling industry, there's not a
Silicon Valley or Detroit or aWall Street or Hollywood.
Aimee Ross (15:33):
Yeah, exactly.
Scott King (15:33):
There's not one home base.
It's grown organically over theyears across the US and we're
not suggesting that everybody'sgoing to pick up and completely
relocate here.
But we do believe there's powerand synergy when the brands have
some presence in town and thatcan take a lot of different
shapes but from that presencekind of becomes a whole lot of
(16:02):
energy, a flywheel effect, asthey would say, to actually move
the industry forward.
And sometimes that is talentmoving between businesses and
everybody gets frustrated whenyou lose a good talent.
But you also realize there'smore talent out there who could
come work for you and that justslowly ratchets up the talent
and the new ideas come out ofthat.
And then ideas bring capitaland innovation happens out of
that.
So the whole cycle of aninnovation cycle happens when
everyone's kind of in one spot.
I saw that very clearly yearsago when I worked in Silicon
(16:25):
Valley and also saw it in Austin, how it developed there, and so
some of those ideas are behindwhat we're trying to do with
this recruiting process.
And it all goes back to thatthing we talked about earlier,
which is attract and retaintalent, because this is such a
great place to live and work.
Aimee Ross (16:41):
Mm-hmm, and the startup ecosystem in the cycling
spaces is incredibly strong.
Nat Ross (16:49):
Great.
The examples are just allabound here.
And the godfather of all thiskind of Tom Walton, when he said
that Bentonville has thereplicable model.
And what does that mean for theother communities?
What does that template looklike?
How can they get involved?
Scott King (17:07):
Well, visit Bentonville actually hosts a lot
of different communities whocome and want to learn from us,
and I think that one importantthing to remember is there's a
template, but everybody's goingto have to take that and make it
their own right.
So we have a set ofcircumstances here that are
unique to us and everybodydoesn't have those circumstances
(17:31):
.
But we do believe they can comeand learn and we're a very open
book about that.
We do a lot of benchmarkingourselves, we travel to lots of
different places, talk to lotsof different people and we kind
of go into the process with avery kind of open mind and we
also are welcoming to people whowant to come and talk to us and
learn from us as well.
Aimee Ross (17:54):
So, like I said, there's a template but I think
that template has to be appliedvery specifically to every place
and I think it goes back tolike inspiration.
Everybody always wantssomething to look towards, to be
inspired, to get motivated toactivate on, and Bentonville
does that very clearly.
Especially when you host thosevisits and they get to see
firsthand the, the cyclingculture that's here and the
(18:17):
opportunities to Scott's pointthey put it back in their
community and make it theirsabsolutely well.
Nat Ross (18:23):
there's so much to unpack here and we can just send
folks to visit Bentonvillecomto get more information.
And, scott and Amy, you guysare a wealth of knowledge and
there's so much work that you'vebeen doing and so much work in
the pipeline.
So thanks for coming on theshow and we look forward to
learning more about what'sbehind the curtains and what you
guys are up to.
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