Daxton Mock was born to be a Trek racer

Daxton Mock was a part of Trek long before he became one of Trek Driftless’ newest riders — before he was born, in fact. His parents, Aaron and Kathy, are former Trek employees. Dax helped maintain the Trek Trails system outside of headquarters as a high school gig. He’s been inside the walls, he knows the employees. As major promotions go, his seems like a relatively easy transition.

“I’ve been following the race scene, especially the Trek race scene, since I was like five years old,” Mock says. “I remember running around at Nationals, doing all this stuff, meeting all these cool pros.”

But there’s pressure in being a legacy, too. Mock is just 24 years old, but it feels like he’s been building towards this chapter of his life for more than a decade. He came up through the Trek-supported National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), joined the Trek-sponsored Bear National Team, and raced with Trek athletes at Colorado Mesa University. During his breakout 2025 season, he was often in the Driftless pits, receiving technical support or coordinating shakeout rides with members of the squad.

It could be an honor or a burden to represent a major company you’ve been inextricably linked to since birth. Mock has only ever shouldered the attention and responsibility with pride.

“Racing for Trek on a professional team is something that I’ve just wanted to do since I was a kid,” Mock says. “It just feels like I’m going to be racing for so much more than myself this year.”

He’s ready to lock in and “prepare for these next two years better than I’ve prepared for any other.” In the past, that may not have been the case. By his own admission, he had a bit of growing up to do since his early days at CMU, when he partied a little too hard and didn’t display the maturity necessary for a job that requires a lot of discipline, forethought and time. 

With the help of a strong support system, however, Mock found his way to the upper echelons of gravel this past year, winning Valley of Tears and taking seventh at a BWR California race in which he lost three minutes on a wrong turn. 

The ability to rectify mistakes is a big reason he’s taken strongly to gravel. For most of his life,  Mock has raced XC mountain biking and cyclocross, races in which he often felt he knew how he was going to finish just five minutes after the starting gun. In gravel, sometimes Hour 4 rolls by and the race still feels like anyone’s to take.

That type of racing suits someone who’s (again by his own admission) working on being a little less “loose.” In the past, setbacks on the course would throw off his focus. Mistakes would seep into his ride, his frustration would proliferate, and that would lead to more mistakes in a vicious cycle that could only be halted by the finish line.

“Loose” isn’t inherently a bad thing, mind you. Passionate riding is very often winning riding, which Mock knows well. He’s a grinder by nature, and he’s excited to be a dedicated teammate whenever he can. He goes way back with new teammate Torbjorn “Toby” André Røed, who was much older than Mock when they attended CMU together, and who Mock looked up to as an “older brother” figure. They’ve been training together this offseason, and they’re ready to use that brotherhood and camaraderie to their advantage at the meanest races of the year.

Mock is in the process of tightening up that looseness just a bit, though, to a point where he can consistently remain near the front of races. He spent the last year working on the little things: being more aero after years of racing in a hardwired upright position from mountain biking, smarter nutrition to stay relevant late in hours-long races, and exercising patience in races when he feels the itch to showcase good legs right away. 

“I’ve learned over the years that it’s more about the process,” Mock says. “If I can prepare in the way that I want to prepare, and I show up on the start line ready as I can possibly be, and I know I’ve checked all the boxes, that’s really what gives me the most satisfaction. It’s not about results, because anything can happen on the day.”

Through years of maturation, hundreds of race starts, and a lifetime education in the cycling industry and culture, there may not be a first-year pro racer more ready to step up to the task. Yet there’s a wide-eyed excitement in Mock; he knows his best is still to come. It’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun watching him make a name for himself.