Mountain Biking In Your Backyard

I felt a strange void in my life once I graduated from college. It took me until September of that year to realize what was missing, competition. Having been a competitive athlete my entire life and playing soccer in college I realized I was craving the adrenaline of competing against someone. So what happened that September? I had begun working at Bikesport in Trappe and decided to cheer on my coworkers at the Mid-Atlantic Super Series finals at Bear Creek. I saw how much fun everyone was having getting dirty and competing against themselves and others. By October of that year I bought my first real mountain bike and vowed to race the series that next year. Competing in an individual sport was something new for me and I still struggle with it today. But there is a camaraderie  in mountain biking that I’ve never experienced before. People are always telling you to push hard when they are passing you or you them, its truly encouraging.

Me racing at French Creek in 2010

I’m now going into my 4th year of racing, year 2 I had to take a break to get married, apparently bruises and scratches aren’t attractive  to some. With this 4th official year of racing I’ve been off to a slow start but this weekend is one of my favorite races. On Saturday, May 7th there will be a mountain bike race truly in your backyard. The race is at French Creek State Park in Elverson and is called On the Rocks at French Creek.

If you have been curious about the sport or are just looking for an excuse to get outside, come on over to the race! Try racing for yourself or you can hike into the race course and watch as us crazies ride our bikes. There is a 6 hour endurance race along with the usual cross country race (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours). The endurance race goes off at 8 AM followed by the rest of the masses throughout the day. If you’d like to catch the most racing I’d come out around 10 AM and hike into the woods. A map of the course can be found here.

If you aren’t able to make it out to this race, there are plenty of others through out the summer, including the finals at Bear Creek in Macungie. I’ll be sure to remind you as the races draw closer.

Keep it rubber side down!