Representing MBM up north

The Moshannon Valley YMCA hosted its 3rd annual mountian bike race on Saturday at the Black Moshannon State Park northwest of State College.  This year they had 73 racers for the event. I must say the event is a nicely run event and well supported, contains some great single track and some lung burning forest road climbs.  Seeing that I have a camp about 15 minutes from the Park I decided to sign up and give it a go, mostly to learn some new trails to ride when I'm up at camp. Everyone that knows me knows that I can't just go for a nice easy ride, let alone in a race.  After a good dosage of suffering on the 21 mile course I was able to end up in 3rd place in the 35-44 age group and came in 8th overall in the sport class.  I did have another rider see my jersey who had obviously rode in Michaux say "this ain't Michaux, but it will do"(the course lacked the lots of rocks that we're used to, but I was OK with that because they were still great trails). If anyone is interested in doing the race next year you're welcome to spend a weekend at my camp. A nice bonus is the Allegrippas Trails at Raystown is on the way home and makes for a nice recovery ride.

Link to the ride mapped on Strava

The first climb

Coming into the finish

 Podium shot