A Conversation with Matt Wilson Ahead of Park City Point 2 Point
Life Time Grand Prix athlete and SCOTT rider Matt Wilson stopped by Contender Bicycles ahead of this weekend’s Park City Point 2 Point. Fresh off a second-place finish at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, the New Zealand native is back on the mountain bike and getting acquainted with some of Park City’s best singletrack.
We caught up with Matt to talk about his path from racing in New Zealand to the Life Time Grand Prix, what went into his Leadville result, fueling for long days on the bike, and why Point 2 Point is exactly the kind of racing he wants more of.
“For now, it’s hard to kind of pass up on the opportunity to be able to race a different bike every weekend and do some pretty cool events along the way.”
From New Zealand to the Life Time Grand Prix
Matt is another New Zealand rider in the SCOTT camp to make his way into the Life Time Grand Prix, joining fellow Kiwi Cam Jones.
According to Matt, there is a fairly practical reason riders from New Zealand eventually start looking abroad. To make a career out of racing, he feels riders have to leave New Zealand and head somewhere with a larger racing scene, most often Europe or the United States.
For Matt, America made sense. The language barrier is lower, traveling from race to race is relatively straightforward, and there is a huge variety of events available throughout the season.
He also joked about one piece of equipment that has become a recurring part of that pathway: a U-Haul van.
Matt’s background fits the mixed-discipline nature of the Grand Prix particularly well. He started racing mountain bikes in high school on the local scene, picked up a road bike for training, began racing road domestically, and eventually found gravel to be a natural progression.
With both mountain biking and road racing already part of his background, the transition made sense.
Racing Is Better When It’s Fun
One of the more interesting parts of Matt’s approach is how often the idea of simply enjoying racing comes up.
Asked about one of the standout wins of his career at Tulsa Tough, where he raced a gravel bike, Matt was less focused on the equipment choice than on the way the race unfolded.
There was no major pressure to perform. He was there to attack, get off the front, and race the way he enjoys racing.
“Sometimes that can lead to the best performances.”
That mentality also helps explain why the Life Time Grand Prix is such a good fit.
Instead of specializing in one narrow discipline, riders are constantly switching between gravel and mountain bikes while adapting to very different courses. For Matt, that variety is part of the appeal.
More Mountain Biking in the Life Time Grand Prix?
If Matt could make one change to the Life Time Grand Prix, his mountain bike background definitely shows.
He would like to see another true mountain bike race added to the series—something more technical than races like Little Sugar or Leadville.
For a rider who came up mountain biking, the chance to add more technical terrain to the Grand Prix is appealing.
Matt also likes the direction of the qualification process. As a two-time wildcard contender, he has already had to work his way through that system more than once.
He thinks allowing the top 10 overall riders to automatically qualify for the following season creates a good balance, while leaving the remaining spots open gives other riders a legitimate opportunity to earn their way into the series.
Just as importantly, the qualification format rewards riders who can handle both gravel and mountain biking.
Second at Leadville
The result currently sitting near the top of Matt’s season is Leadville.
He finished second after the race came down to a two-rider sprint, narrowly missing the win but walking away happy to finally put a strong Grand Prix result on the board.
Matt said he had dealt with some bad luck in Grand Prix races previously, which made the Leadville performance especially meaningful.
“To be able to sort of deliver on such a brutal course and sort of show what I’m capable of. Yeah, more than happy with that.”
Preparation for the Leadville Trail 100 MTB meant spending more than a month in Durango, Colorado, living and training at altitude.
Matt focused on getting as high as possible during his backcountry rides and also incorporated heat training in an effort to make whatever additional gains he could before race day.
Then there was nutrition.
Fueling for Leadville
Matt’s Leadville fueling strategy was relatively straightforward: carbohydrate drink mix and gels.
What changed was the total amount.
Matt explained that he went a little lighter on carbohydrates than he might normally because riders are producing less power at Leadville’s elevation and because altitude can make it harder on the stomach to take in the usual amount of fuel.
For Leadville, his intake landed around 120 to 130 grams of carbohydrates per hour, with much of that coming from gels rather than drink mix.
That led into one of his biggest pieces of advice for anyone considering Leadville, Unbound, Park City Point 2 Point, or another six-plus-hour event:
Practice your nutrition before race day.
“Don’t try to get down 150g of carbs for the first time on race day.”
The same applies to bike comfort.
Matt’s first recommendation was simply making sure you are comfortable enough on the bike to keep riding for that length of time.
The Park City Point 2 Point Side Quest
After Leadville and the pressure of the Life Time Grand Prix, Park City Point 2 Point is something a little different.
Matt described the race as more of a “side quest.”
The goal is still to win, but that is not the only reason he is here.
“Goal is definitely to win it, but also just have a good time and race my mountain bike on some proper single track.”
Matt has spent the week getting onto the local trails and has pre-ridden roughly two-thirds of the course.
He was not able to ride the opening portion, but with much of that section happening early and consisting largely of climbing, he is not too concerned about figuring it out on race day.
The back half matters more.
As fatigue starts setting in, knowing where the faster and rockier sections are becomes increasingly important. Matt specifically mentioned the risk of flatting a tire late in the day if a rider gets careless.
He also pointed toward the long climb up toward Garden Path as a place where the race could begin breaking apart.
“That would be a good opportunity to break things up and get a gap.”
That combination—long climbing, tighter singletrack, rougher trails, and accumulating fatigue—is a very different challenge from Leadville.
And that seems to be exactly what Matt is looking for.
Setting Up the Bike for Park City Singletrack
Park City Point 2 Point has plenty of what could be described as old-school singletrack: tighter trees, roots, rougher natural trail features, and less of the sculpted flow found on many newer mountain bike trails.
Matt's Leadville setup
Interestingly, Matt has not radically changed his setup.
Matt's Park City Point 2 Point Setup
In fact, he said the bike remains fairly similar to his Leadville configuration.
He is keeping his bars relatively narrow and sticking with a tall seatpost to save some weight. Matt also noted that there is nothing especially steep on the course that makes a dropper post feel essential for him.
Rather than completely changing the bike for Point 2 Point, he is making small adjustments to suit the terrain.
For a closer look at Matt’s race bike, check out our full Matt Wilson Park City Point 2 Point Bike Check, where we break down his SCOTT Spark RC setup and the component choices he is running for the race.
A Little Bit of New Zealand in Utah
How does riding in Park City compare to home?
Matt’s benchmark is Rotorua, which has become his local riding area back in New Zealand.
The volcanic pumice and clay there create exceptionally grippy conditions, making it a tough standard for anywhere else to match.
But after recent rain in Park City, Utah has come surprisingly close.
Matt said the local trails are some of the closest he has found in the United States to the kind of “hero dirt” he gets back home.
“The trails up in Park City, particularly after the recent rain, it’s about the closest I’ve found to that kind of hero dirt anywhere in the States, really.”
That is a pretty strong endorsement from a Kiwi.
Bottom Line
Matt Wilson’s season is a good example of what makes modern off-road racing so interesting.
One weekend can mean racing at altitude for a podium at Leadville. Another can mean gravel racing, criteriums, or technical mountain bike singletrack. Instead of being locked into one discipline, Matt has built his racing around being able to move between them.
Park City Point 2 Point fits that philosophy pretty well.
It is a chance to get back on the mountain bike, race proper singletrack, and enjoy a course that rewards a different set of skills than many of the races on the Life Time Grand Prix calendar.
And while Matt may call it a side quest, he also made one thing clear:
He is here to win.
Big thanks to Matt Wilson for taking the time to stop by Contender Bicycles, and to SCOTT for helping make the conversation happen. Good luck to Matt at Park City Point 2 Point.
Watch More: Matt Wilson’s Road to the Life Time Grand Prix
For a deeper look at Matt’s road to the Life Time Grand Prix, SCOTT’s Hunt for the Wildcard Season 2 follows his journey from New Zealand to some of the biggest gravel races in the U.S. The film covers the highs, setbacks, and pressure of chasing a wildcard spot while competing at events including Sea Otter Gravel and Unbound Gravel.
