Sweat, grips and pedaling: that’s what Axel Brandsmeier ’29 focuses on hours into his race. He’s biking through level B roads — dirt roads that receive little maintenance — after a rain that caked the course in enough mud that some racers get stuck. He’s ridden 60 kilometers with 40 more to go, taking over three hours in total. This is how Brandsmeier spends his weekends, racing at a gravel cycling event somewhere in Iowa. 

Brandsmeier first started mountain biking when his father introduced him at nine years old. He learned how to ride trails with his family before the idea of competition ever occurred to him.

“[My dad] said, ‘Let’s get some time outside, you want to try this?’ I had a little mountain bike when I was a little kid, and he took us out. We rode trails, and I found it really fun,” Brandsmeier said.

His interest in cycling grew as Brandsmeier’s dad co-founded a local team, the Iowa City Mountain Bike Club. This group introduced Brandsmeier to the world of competitive cycling, along with much of the Iowa City cycling community. While he often races independently, Brandsmeier still sees the cycling community supporting each other at his events.

“If a rider has a problem, it’s almost certain that somebody’s going to stop to help,” Brandsmeier said. “There’s definitely a really nice and big community when it comes to cycling.”

Brandsmeier has also competed across a variety of surface types and distances. While there are several different forms of races, he has competed in road, gravel, mountain biking and cyclocross — an off-road obstacle-based course.

“I [would] definitely say gravel is my favorite. I started that a little bit after mountain biking, but I started going on this group ride that’s out of a bike shop in Iowa City, and I just really loved it ever since,” Brandsmeier said.

After starting gravel biking with Sugar Bottom Bikes in Iowa City and competing with the club for a few years, Brandsmeier grew interested in getting one-on-one coaching with a more experienced biker. During one of his races, he met Luke Arens, another Iowa City cyclist who started coaching him last season. After cycling competitively through college, Arens now coaches Brandsmeier — designing rides and regimenting his training.

“My first impression [of Axel] was that he was a little shy, but I think anyone would be given the circumstances. I thought he was a super nice kid,” Arens said. “Sometimes you can get some overly confident people in the space, and maybe they can’t take a joke, or they’re so serious. He was all smiles.”

Arens recalls seeing Brandsmeier compete at a cyclocross event, where he was amazed by the speed Brandsmeier reached on a smaller bike.

“There are barriers, and you’re riding in dirt [or] mud, steep banks and crazy drops. You’re on a road bike with tiny tires. He was flying around the course, and I thought that was so cool. He had no fear,” Arens said. “There are two huge jumps in [the course], and you’re doing this on a road bike. He was 13 or 14 at the time, just ripping this thing. I was like, ‘Holy cow.’”

Brandsmeier went on to win his age division for the Iowa State Cyclocross in 2024. This event was especially memorable to him because of the chaotic nature of the race. While fun, he recalls the hazardous conditions that proved to be a challenge.

“The course wasn’t very long, [but] it was very, very muddy, so it’s pretty slippery. [There were] quite a few crashes. I only slid out once, which I was happy about. It was a little stressful at the start, because everybody’s sprinting to the first corner, but it was super fun looking back on that,” Brandsmeier said. 

Over the 2025 season, Brandsmeier continued training with Arens, working on both his stamina and his racing strategy. While working with him, Arens noticed how well Brandsmeier responded to his coaching. He credits Brandsmeier for being willing to learn and reflect on his performance. 

“You can definitely tell when someone wants it and when someone is willing to do what it takes. Axel has that written all over him. He is so coachable, and that’s really hard for a kid around his age,” Arens said. “I think that is why he has seen so much progress. He’s able to apply his learnings, and he’s able to reflect on each race and get better. Cycling is all about compounding your progress day in and day out. It takes a long time to get good, and I think a lot of people like to rush it.”

In addition to his hard work, the two also worked on racing strategy. Arens taught Brandsmeier to research his races, allowing him to feel more confident heading onto the course.

“Before races, I’ll do a lot of research on what tire is best for this race, what nutrition I should have before and during the race, who are my competitors, how good they are and stuff like that,” Brandsmeier said. “I really do care about how I do, but I just feel like it’s also just really fun to race others, especially junior [bikers] my age.”

In September 2025, Brandsmeier’s training paid off, as he placed seventh in the gravel race for the junior men’s division at nationals. He also competed at the cyclocross nationals, placing somewhere in the middle of his age bracket that year. Looking forward, Brandsmeier hopes to visit the USA Cycling Olympic training camp after his season through a partnership run by the USA Juniors Cup and USA Cycling. To do that, he would need to place well at several gravel races across the country and likely place well at nationals again.

Outside of gravel cycling, Brandsmeier also plans to branch out into more traditional road racing. Road events often have more attendance and open more opportunities in competitive cycling in the long term.

“This season, I might do a few road races, but definitely a lot more next season, especially if I can win the gravel series this year and get that training camp experience. [If] I get that, I think I’ll switch a lot more to road just because I think that’s where the larger teams and where a lot of pro-cycling is,” Brandsmeier said.

Brandsmeier is also interested in competing on professional youth teams. Last year, he was contacted by NorthStar Development Cycling to possibly join them for a race in Canada. While he is too young to race with that team currently, he is interested in joining other youth teams, mainly the Lunch Box Development Team.

“I’ve been looking at some teams. I think I have one that I’m going to apply for, and if I get on, I’ll probably join. It’s called Lunch Box Devo,” Brandsmeier said. “I know some people who are on there already, but there are a few others that I’m looking into [as well.]”

A coach of Bransmeier for over a year, Arens stresses his pride in his mentee for pursuing his goals

“I don’t think he’s ever shortened a ride. He hits it on the mark every time. If it’s a hard ride, I’ll be like, ‘just give it your all,’ [and] he will get it done,” Arens said. “That says a lot for someone to do that, day in and day out, every day for at least a year. There’s a lot of passion behind that. That’s something that’s rare to find.”