S(l)ick Times at Thunder Mountain

I think this was the only section of the course that was free of roots.

It was back up to Thunder Mountain Bike Park in Massachusetts for the seventh round of the Eastern States Cup. We were supposed to race Killington this weekend, and I was really looking forward to ripping down Goat Skull, one of my favorite trails in the park, but apparently Killington was doing maintenance for the upcoming ski season on one of their lifts and couldn’t accommodate the ESC.

I love the trails at Thunder, and had a great race earlier this year, so I was amped to return. Temperatures have finally started to drop and the weather was perfect, in the 60s and 70s by mid day with scattered clouds…that is my kind of weather! It had rained heavily earlier in the week and the ground was having a tough time drying out. They changed up the course slightly from last time and sent us down Juggernaut, pretty much parallel to June’s course, the Schist, and it fact it joined up with the Schist near the bottom to finish in the same place.

And, similar to the top half of the Schist, the terrain was steep and the course was splayed with slick roots. They were so slippery! It was like they were covered in vaseline. There was one section which had three switchbacks and the carnage during practice was comical. It didn’t matter how good you were, you were going down. I was resigned to the fact that it was going to be a messy race, not nearly like Windham, but enough so that when I saw a cluster of roots I was like, “Ah, looks like my hip is going to get dirty.”

The course still hadn’t dried out by race day, and oddly seemed a bit muddier despite the lack of any new rain. I did one practice run and was still awkward in the switchbacks, slipping and dabbing all over the place…there was just no way to get it clean. That said, I was really excited in the start gate. I had been feeling ill with pre-race jitters on my last couple of races, especially Mountain Creek, but here I felt good.

My race run went well, and as expected, I slid out a bunch of times, but jumped back on my bike as quickly as I could. Through most of the course I rode well and was happy with my run. I came in second to Gabriel, who is almost a year an half older.

Once the race was over it was time to hit party laps on the sweet Thunder trails. I worked on my whips and no-footers. I saw my first crash - my dad! He was fine, but it was the first time I had seen someone fully bail on their bike.

Fall is the best season for biking here in the Northeast and I’m stoked to keep riding.