Payson
McElveen
United States
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MTB
Date of birth | 18 February 1993 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Austin, Texas |
Age | 32 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2010 |
Disciplines | Mountainbike Cross Country |
Payson McElveen grew up in Austin, Texas and he's the son of a mountain bike racer. He first started riding a bike at age four and began racing by 14. A natural on his bike from the beginning, he’s been a member of USA Cycling’s National Team since he was 17. When it was time to choose a college, it made sense that he picked Fort Lewis College, located in the mountain bike hub of Durango, Colorado.
In Durango, McElveen became a five-time national champion on the collegiate mountain bike circuit and juggled his academic schedule with a packed lineup of mountain bike races. He graduated in 2016 with a degree in exercise science and a minor in English and quickly set out to follow his dreams of becoming a professional mountain biker. “I want to use my bike as a vehicle to see the world and take advantage of all these amazing races that are happening,” he says.
So he did just that. In 2016, he won the Mongolia Bike Challenge, a six-stage race that Outside Magazine called the hardest mountain race on Earth. He had a breakout season in 2017, racking up major victories, including a win at the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships, where his dad was also racing.
More impressive results came on home soil in 2019 as Payson took third place at the US National Cycling Trials, second at the Whiskey Off-Road race in Arizona and first at the Land Run 100 in Oklahoma.
In addition to his bike racing, McElveen has also raised funds for the World Bicycle Relief, worked with development programs that train young cyclists and he has plans to launch his own non-profit organisation that gives back to cycling.
A passionate van builder who lives out a customised van when he’s on the road, McElveen says he loves bike racing nearly any distance, but it’s the long, endurance races where he feels most at home. “I’ve come up with the majority of my most successful ideas during really long or hard rides,” McElveen says. “It strips everything else away and tells you what you’re made of.”