Just a few months ago, the Austin cycling team didn’t even have a home course.

Now the team will host its first ever home race on Sunday and is expecting at least 50 teams and 700 bikers from the Minnesota High School Cycling League to be riding at the new course, which is built around the bike trail by Todd Park.

“It’s huge. It really is,” Austin head coach Spencer Salmon said. “It’s kind of an honor to host a race. It’s even more significant because we built the trail this summer and that typically doesn’t happen.”

The trail came together so quick because about 30 volunteers were out hacking away from July 1 to Sept. 1. Gareth Hataye was one of the workers who stepped up and helped build the course. He said a lot of hard work went into putting the trail together.

“Two months is unheard of. Normally people spend years building mountain bike trails,” Hataye said of the trail’s construction. “We knew it was simple [without any hills], but the fact that we only had two and a half months made it a pretty daunting task. The volunteers that did come, they bought into it. They came to work and they worked hard.”

Austin’s team has 18 bikers this season, which is twice the number of riders the team had last season. The team has used the trail to practice and train on, and they will likely use it to host meets in future seasons as well.

The trail runs about three miles and the race will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with different groups leaving at different times throughout the day.

Steve Kime, a local bike enthusiast who chairs the Vision 2020 Bike/Walk Trail Committee, said the trail is a big step for Austin, and it took a lot of people to make it happen.

“It all happened because of the community, volunteers and the support of businesses,” Kime said. “The league even said they were amazed at what came together in such a short time. It all happened due to many, many people. We had so much support.”

Teams participating in the meet will set up in the field near the trail and fans may have the opportunity to watch the race from the paved trail that the mountain bike trail wraps around.

If anybody is interested in volunteering to help out with the race, they may visit minnesotamb.org and sign up.

The Austin cycling team already competed in its first meet at St. Cloud this season, and the team has three more road meets after Sunday’s home meet.

Salmon said the team has gained some riders in the process of getting the new trail built and they’ve enjoyed having a place to ride in Austin.

“They love riding out there,” Salmon said. “It’s great and it’s within 15 minutes of anywhere in Austin. It gives us an advantage to have a race course right in our backyard.”