Jagged, Menacing Rocks in the Keystone State

The third stop of the Eastern States Cup brought us to Blue Mountain Bike Park in rural Pennsylvania. We had been warned to expect lots of sharp rocks on the course and boy, they weren't kidding. We brought extra tires, and fortunately I didn't need them, unlike the many, many others we saw coming into the base with flats.

The race course was just over a 1,000 vertical feet, much like the other ESC courses we had ridden this year. While not as steep as Thunder Mountain and Plattekill, the rocks were brutal. The course had one drop, and at the very end, a road gap, couple of berms and a table top.

This race would have the highest number of U12 kids racing so far in the series, about 9 of us groms were dropping in. This number was only after a few of my friends that usually rode enduro decided to try the downhill race. I have become good friends with Tristan, Hudson, and Levi, and it was a treat to show them the rock drop and some of the other lines I had been working on. In all, I got in 8 practice laps on Saturday...almost 9,000 vertical feet of bone jarring, teeth rattling, arm shaking riding.

The sun was blazing race day and the temperatures were in the 90s. The lift line was huge, as the small mountain struggled to accommodate the large number of racers (only one bike at a time is mounted to the chairs). I was only able to get in one practice run before my 12:04 start time, but I knew the course well from all the laps the day before. 

My race run went well, and I would say smooth, but I can't because, you know, with those rocks nothing is smooth! Unfortunately the timing chips didn't function for any of the kids during the race run, something about the battery having melted in the hot sun.

I wasn't happy at all about his, none of us were. A re-run was required, and unfortunately this was too much for some of the kids that were just thankful to get down in one piece. Around 5 of us went down again, and I had a great run but couldn't quite match Levi's speed and lost to him by a few seconds. No crashes, a fun weekend with friends, and second place on the podium, not a bad weekend.

I would like to mention one more thing. This was the first race I rode under the support of Hickory & Tweed Ski and Cycle shop. I would like to thank Dylan for getting my bike race ready and the sweet job on servicing my suspension. Cheers!