Weekend Race Report...

The Start/ Finish Line at Harbin Park.

What a incredible weekend to ride... It took long enough but old man winter has finally moved on. This past weekend I headed down to Cincinnati(OH) for the first race of the Psycho Series Mountain Bike Race at Harbin Park. (Above is the Start of the Expert Class, with our Service Manager from the Cincinnati Trek Store ) The race course started out with a very brief, mad dash to a hole in the woods which was our entrance to the single-track, causing a back-up like traffic at rush hour. The first 1/3 of the trail is a quick descent through tight twisty single-track, leaving you with a good deal of climbing for the remainder of the course. Each lap was just under 6 miles long , they had expert do four, sport (my class) did three and novice did two. Just about the halfway point is very fast downhill, I hit speeds around 35 mph realizing that their must be a big climb coming and sure enough - Mt. Mother. A short but very steep climb, my Trek ACH computer said it was 30% grade. It felt like it! At about half way through the climb is where most everyone bailed from riding and finished off the climb by doing a hike-a-bike.

Once Mt. Mother is behind you, the trail takes you back into some sweet single-track and through some tight turns where we popped back out of the wood for a 1/2 mile or so to partially climb the sled hill in the park and then head back into the woods for the course to take you back around to the start/finish line. And after riding Mt. Mother a few times and I completed my last lap coasting through the finish line, I head straight for the car and my asthma inhaler. Yea, I'll remember to bring that with me for the next race... All in all it was great event and a beautiful day for the race. Joe and Amanda headed down to the West Virginia Series at Big Bear Lake. The both raced very well and Amanda got 2nd in the woman's expert class and Joe finished 3rd in the men's expert class! How you going to beat that! Judson held down the fort at the New Albany Store, getting things ready for our Earth Day celebration we had on Sunday and the free clinic we were hosting that evening. Time for me to go ride Phase II at Alum Creek, hope you get out and ride today to!