By Ariel Kent
What a fun and exciting weekend for our little town of Killington. This Fourth of July coincided with the Eastern States Cup race for Downhill and Enduro. Both tracks at Killington mountain offered technical difficulty and attracted almost 200 racers to each event.
Torrential rains overnight on Friday made the courses more challenging (wet and slippery) and really pushed riders to their limits.
As I write this I lie strewn out on my sofa icing my legs and licking my wounds. I myself didn’t race as well as I had hoped but then again I shouldn’t be too upset with myself since it was my first race. After speaking with spectators I fared rather well. But crashes happened pretty frequently as well as mechanical issues.
The Killington Eastern States Cup Enduro offers some of the most technically challenging terrain in the whole series. That, combined with Killington’s unique mud consistency made for a rather terrifying track, especially for a first-time racer.
One cool part of this course was that we got to ride down the new Downhill trail that will be used for the upcoming ProGRT downhill race. Some big names in downhill mountain biking are expected to visit for these races. The new track didn’t feel too technically difficult but it was very fast. We are likely to see some pretty cool racing happen here!
If you didn’t make it up to watch the races this past weekend, don’t worry, the Enduro championships will be held here Sept. 11!
