Here we are back from the wilds of Canada and happy to report that Mountain Biking is alive and well amongst our neighbors north of the border.

This weekend at Chico Racing’s 24 Hours of Summer Solstice we were treated to a slice of what Ontario and greater Canada have to offer in way of great biking trails and singletrack. Albion Hills Conservation Area, just an hour north of downtown Toronto, is 446 hectares (1102 acres) of rolling woods and pine forest converted from uncultivated farmland. We pre-rode the largely singletrack course on Friday with the Princeton Tech team who were on hand through race night to supply support for their light rentals. The course wound it’s way through the park, scaling up to the ridges and dropping back down to the lowlands to several bridged river crossings. It offered up a nice variety of challenges with fast twisting drops and rebounds that were reminiscent of pump tracks and peppered with clean quick straight-aways to open up and make time.

Adam Ruppel and his team of workers and volunteers have done an excellent job of creating a well organized event (the largest 24-hour race in North America) without loosing the spontaneity that allows for giving prizes away for the best bootie shake, a animal show with a barn owl and snake (in separate cages, of course), Chico’s Pirates of Albion mud pit challenge for riders and Misfit Cycles Dance Party stop on course.

Families were in attendance and the Shimano Youth Series offered a tough course for the next generation and young bikers eagerly stepped up to the challenge.

We buckled down to business on Saturday spending the morning spreading the Dirt Rag and handing out Platypus Big Zip bladders, Genuine Innovations Nano CO2 inflators, Jagwire shift and brake cable kits, and Seal Line Urban totes to new and renewing subscribers. Noon start time saw a lull in the business and Justin took the time to snap some pictures of the of the teams en masse on an absolutely beautiful Canadian blue sky day…

…that turned a little grey and rainy later. By nightfall the riders were faced with heavy downpours, mud slicks and other night hazards. Luckily the lightening, feared to shut down the course, held off until late Sunday. Instead, lightening and pea sized hail, shut down traffic across all four lanes on the QEW while drivers struggled to cram as many cars as possible under the sheltering overpasses.

On a personal note, I have a renewed sense of respect for all participates in endurance racing. This weekend was a new experience for me and there were moments that will stay with me. Waking in my tent to early predawn mist and fog on Sunday, listening to riders sweep by and downshift as they approached the final small climb to the finish line is lingering moment of sweetness in an epic weekend.

Check out our photo gallery. Words by Amanda Zimmerman.
Photos by Justin Steiner.

The IMBA Summit is the biannual international gathering of mountain bike advocates, this year held in lovely Park City, Utah. With around 350 advocates in attendance, it’s a virtual who’s who of advocacy.

Wednesday Night’s opening ceremonies took place at Olympic park, where a team of top-level freestyle skiers put on a show for us while we ate, drank and schmoozed, bombing down giant training jumps and getting huge air into a pool of water while we watch.

But the first jumper was none other than Mike Van Abel, Executive director of IMBA. This may have seemed like a silly stunt, but for me it typified the bold audacity that has gotten us mountain bikers so much success in the advocacy arena.

Thursday morning, and I grab breakfast and sit down next to Philip Keyes, head on NEMBA and Dirt Rag’s access editor. Little did I know that I’d also be sitting with Kozo Shimano, president of Shimano and Mary Bomar, the director of our National Park Service. Big company.

Thursday morning’s keynote was by John Burke, the head of Trek Bicycles. John pointed out several big picture problems and adverse conditions: Obesity, traffic congestion, the move of humans into the urban areas, and the environment.

Problems? No, Opportunities! Burke’s positive thinking really got the crowd going, and really energized us to go out and do our good deeds.

Trek has stepped up in a big way. They are taxing themselves $10 for each full suspension bike sold. That amounted to $350,000 last year, which was given directly to IMBA to build more trails. Burke then challenged all the other bike companies to step up as well. This would generate ten times as much dough, 3.5 million to build trails! John was not shy regarding his ulterior motives for such funding. More trails equals more sales! Any bike industry types out there listening? Up for the challenge? (Yes! Cannondale would be the next summit attendee to step up, with commitments announced the following day. Others companies are sure to follow, many other companies have been setting the pace with IMBA since the beginning).

After the morning Kumbaya, we all headed off to the various sessions, all designed to make us better advocates. Sessions on everything from urban bike park building to national wilderness issues are covered, but since I was here representing my local group, PTAG, I attended a seminar on successful grassroots organizing.

There would be lunch, then two more rounds of afternoon sessions. Sustainable trails, club leadership, effective communication, risk management are some of the other topics to be covered. So many opportunities, it was difficult to decide which to attend.

After filling one’s brain to the top with all the great ideas flowing through the halls, there’s only one way to top off the day, a ride on Park City trails. Out to Bob’s Basin, stay tuned…

[Click here for photo gallery].

As the month of June continues to roll by like a speeding locomotive, we’re again loading up the van for the next stop on the Dirt Rag World Tour. This time we’re heading north to Chico Racing’s 24 hours of Summer Solstice, held this weekend June 20-22 at the Albion Hills Conservation Area in Bolton, Ontario. Canada, here we come! Assuming those kinds folks at customs will let us across the border…

Amanda and I will be holding down the booth; handing out magazines, selling Dirt Rag merchandise at World Tour rates, and giving away free stuff to those who subscribe or renew their existing subscription. We have Platypus Big Zip bladders, Genuine Innovations Nano CO2 inflators, Jagwire shift and brake cable kits, and Seal Line Urban totes–all of which are up for grabs with your subscription.

Swing by the booth for a visit, eh?

Wild and wonderful West Virginia did not disappoint last weekend as Granny Gear Productions hosted the Suzuki 24 Hours of Big Bear in Hazelton. The Dirt Rag posse was there, spreading the World Tour love and racing with about 600 others.

Once again the Dirt Rag booth was a hotbed of excitement where we sold officially licensed Dirt Rag gear at killer discount prices and new and renewing subscribers could get Platypus Big Zip bladders, Microflate Nano CO2 inflators from Genuine Innovations, SealLine Urban Totes, or WTB Moto Raptor tires. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth to say hi, give us a hard time, and drink our keg of Troegenator–kindly provided by Troegs Brewing.

Despite temperatures in the lower 90’s–even low temps never dropped below 70–everyone seemed to enjoy the festivities, and manage to stay hydrated. Dirt Rag racers put up a good showing with sponsored rider, Carol Clemmons taking 1st in the Women’s Solo class and our own editor, Karen Brooks and Partnership guy Eric McKeegan taking 2nd in the Pro Duo class. Andy and Justin managed to step away from the booth long to put in a few just-for-fun laps with our friends at Princeton Tec.

The 12-mile course had a little bit of everything – mud, rocks, roots, climbing and some beautiful swoopy, twisty singletrack. At the end of the day, 609 racers completed 1855 laps, covering a total distance of 23,744 miles and a total elevation gain of 3,023,650 feet (or 572.66. miles).

Granny Gear events offer festivities for the whole family, including the 24 Minutes of Big Bear for the kiddies, and a tough trials competition organized by Vaughn Micciche of trialsin.com.

This was the 17th year Granny Gear hosted a West Virginia 24 hour race. Previous incarnations of this race were held in Snowshoe and Canaan.

Check out our photo gallery here. See race results here.
Words by Andy Bruno and Justin Steiner, Photos by Justin Steiner.

Once again Dirt Rag will pack up the van and head on down the road a piece to Hazelton, WV for Granny Gear’s 24 Hours of Big Bear. We have a long history of going to this race and we’re glad to be going back.

This year will feature the classic 24 hour race starting at noon on Saturday, trials exhibition, kids race, and midnight spectator safari. And to top it off, WE will be there with more swag than you can shake a stick at. Stop on by the Dirt Rag booth and sign up for a new or renewal subscription and you’ll get something from one of our fine World Tour sponsors. We’ll have Platypus Big Zip bladders and 1L collapsible bottles, Microflate Nano CO2 inflators from Genuine Innovations, SealLine Urban Totes, and WTB Moto Raptor tires.

Come on down to Big Bear to hang out with the Dirt Rag crew and race or just watch one of the finest 24 hour races on the east coast!

Take a look around the cross country race scene and you’ll find very few events that have been running continuously for the past 20 years. The Massanutten Hoo Ha! is one of these rare gems, and since Dirt Rag was present for the 1st annual Hoo Ha! it was only fitting that we help celebrate the 20th anniversary. Check out this race coverage from the 1st Hoo Ha! from issue #5 of Dirt Rag.

And so, with the van loaded, Andrew and I, along with our friend Randy, headed south to the Massanutten Resort in McGaheysville, VA. We were pleasantly surprised to arrive in Harrisonburg with no precipitation falling from the sky, as we had driven most of the 4.5 hours from Pittsburgh in a steady rain. With just enough time to get the DR tents up, the skies again cut loose for a quick cloud bust that was followed shortly by sunny skies–which continued throughout the weekend.

We were all extremely excited about Saturday evening’s Super D race; an approximately twenty minute, five mile burn down the mountain. Starting riders every 30 seconds time-trial-style offered a clear view of the gnarly trail ahead for most riders, which was certainly a good thing. Now, I do my best not to get off my bike, particularly on descents, but there were sections on the first part of this Super D course that I simply couldn’t find a line I was interested in attempting. After the burly ridge trail things opened up into some fast, flowy, bermed switchback trails that had plenty of opportunity to catch some air. Racing was tight; the first nine finishers came in with less than a minute separating them.

Sunday’s festivities included cross country racing for all ability levels with courses ranging from 10.5 miles for beginners and sport riders, to 21 miles for pro/expert/open/SS classes, and a 34 mile marathon course. Sunday’s racing was highly competitive as you might expect for an area that has produced, and is home to, so many accomplished racers.

One of the highlights of the event was having more than a handful of folks in attendance that participated in the 1st annual Hoo Ha! twenty years prior.

Another interesting note about the trail system on Massanutten Resort’s property; one must aquire a season pass in order to ride the trails outside of sanctioned events (such as the Hoo Ha). The Shenandoah Mountain Bike Club has partnered with Massanutten Resort to offer two different ways to obtain these passes. You can volunteer 8 hours of time doing trail maintenance, or purchase a pass for $50 per year.

Thanks to everyone for their warm hospitality and kind words of encouragement. It was an honor to celebrate twenty years of mountain biking with everyone in attendance.

Check out the Hoo Ha! photo gallery.