Mountain Bike Racing Returns to Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, mountain biking | UltraRob | Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Sand Creek Sports is once again bringing mountain bike racing to Colorado Springs. They put on the popular Sand Creek Series from 1993 to 2002. There will be 3 races on Wednesday nights on the new Bear Creek Singletrack. The dates are June 4th, 11th and 18th. I’m very happy to see some local week night races again.

Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be at any of the races. The first one is the night before I leave to crew for
David Holt in the Race Across America. I think I’ll still be trying to get last minute things done before I leave. The other 2 will be while I’m gone.

There will be two different start times. The first group will be at 5 PM and the 2nd group at 6:15 PM. The first wave will be beginners, juniors except Expert/Sport men, and Clydesdales. The 2nd group will be Sport and Expert categories. See the entry form for additional information and exactly which categories are in each group.

There have been some concerns about the course being short and not having many places to pass. The course is 2.5 miles long which is a lot longer than the 0.8 mile Hell on the Hillside in Manitou which was my least favorite Sand Creek course. You could pass pretty much anywhere on the Hell on the Hillside but some of the Bear Creek trail is pretty narrow.

It’s a little hard to tell from the course map the exact course since in some places there are connecting trails that are pretty close. It does appear though that the course will climb up the section of trail I worked on last summer. If you try passing through the grass on that section, there’s plenty of cacti waiting for the chance to give you a flat. The good news is that at the start the wide multi-use trail will be used for part of the climb. The sections of trail on the north close to the dog park have more places on them for passing.

I raced most of the old Sand Creek Series races and they were always a good time. Most of those races were also on Wednesday nights with a few on the weekends. I finished 2nd in the series 3 years in a row in the Pro/Expert category. I just could never come up with the series win.

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