Recon

Saturday, in prep for this coming weekend's first mountain bike race (link), I headed to the race venue for a little course recon. The Maine Sport race course is a gem of a course giving riders a 3-4 mile loop in an area of less than 20 acres right outside of downtown (whoo-yeah!) Camden. Over the years, MadMike and crew have created an amazing complex of twisty, turny, rocky, rooty singletrack that never fails to please. One has to look no further than the big bermed chute to know that this race is fun.

bermy goodness

Unless it rains the day of or the day before the race that is. It never fails that I'll be raving to people about how awesome the course conditions are leading up to the race and then BOOM! it pours all Saturday night and the race turns into a mudfest. From what I heard, this was the exact case last year. I had extenuating circumstances that kept me from attending but it sounds like everyone who partook had to totally strip their bikes down after the race. Mud and grit was everywhere.

So, I busted out a couple of quick laps on the course trying to get my groove back and am pretty happy about my bike handling abilities on the course. My fitness will be wherever it is this weekend but at least I know I'll have fun on a kick ass course. AND, of course, the conditions are primo, everything is dry and there is only a bit of rain called for in the long range forecast so the trails will probably be a muddy mess.

not part of the race course but this is one of the many north shore style fun that can be had there. as you can imagine, I didn't even consider trying this.