The Arkansas Mountain Bike Championship Series comes to a close this coming Sunday. This year I embedded myself in the series racing as a Cat 3 racer in all but one race. I haven’t trained properly for most of the races. I did get a podium in the first race but I think they let me have that just to keep me around and beat on me for the rest of the series.
The upcoming race is one of the older ones in the series and is known as Attila the Hun. It takes place at Cedar Glades Park in Garland County just outside of Hot Springs. Cedar Glades is one of the premier regional parks in the state. The park offers a disc golf course, a climbing wall, playgrounds, amphitheater, pump track and an RC plane runway but the best thing about the park and one of the first things built there are the trails. At last count the park had about 13 miles of trail. Beautiful singletrack with big open fields, rocky, twisty climbs, fast flowy downhills, stream crossings, bridges, just about everything a cross country mountain biker is looking for.
To see were the series has been this year check out these articles and photos:
- Battle for Townsend’s Ridge – Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area
- 3 Legged Dawg Mt. Bike Race – Iron Mountain
- Fat Tire Festival – Eureka Springs (We did not attend)
- Riverside Classic – Burns Park
- Slaughter Pen Jam – Bentonville
- Northwest Arkansas Championship – Devil’s Den State Park
- Spring Hill Classic – Barling
- Iron Mountain Classic – Iron Mountain
Attila the Hun always has a different atmosphere than the others. Being the final race in the series, many racers and teams are doing the math this week to see if they have a chance of moving up in the series standings. The race is usually very well attended due to teams really working to bring out as many racers as possible to grab points and the centralized location in the state. Plus the trails are just awesome. Beer Fairies have been known to show up in the woods handing out cups of cheap beer and the awards ceremony is not to be missed. You can get updates on the points on the AMBCS Website.
Here are some of the stories from years past:
Now don’t start thinking that just because the race series is over that mountain biking season is over.
