Highland Mountain Bike Park (Northfield, NH) played host to the Grand Prix of Mountain Biking for it’s third stop this past weekend. Great weather, talented riders and a dialed track all made for a solid weekend of riding and racing. Many racers, already on the East Coast for the Mt. St. Anne and Windham World Cup races, showed up early to take advantage the varied terrain Highland has to offer. The Highland trail crew put together yet another amazing track that improved upon some old trail and added some new features as well. Well it may not be the longest track out there it certainly kept riders on their toes with section after section of high speed rocks and roots and plenty of spots to get their wheels in the air.
photo: Dave Smutok
Cody Warren (DRD) scrubs the first feature. This year’s course utilized the first few features of Highland’s signature jump trail, Hellion, giving racers a chance to get their whips in early before an all out sprint to the first woods section.
photo: Dave Smutok
Ben Moody tackles the first roots section down what proved to be the most popular line. Some new choices in course taping saw a lot of riders confused during practice with many of the lines closed that have become popular in past races.
photo: Dave Smutok
Tim White (VonCooper) carries tons of speed off the bridge over Hellion here. What used to be a flat out speed section was rerouted shortly after the bridge into the new loamy portion of the course.
photo: Dave Smutok
Highland trail crew added this new piece of fresh cut trail that saw the most change over the unusually dry weekend. What seemed to be an initially soft portion of the course was well tracked in by Sunday exposing new rocks and roots. Most riders were forced to slow down through the tight off camber turns here.
photo: Dave Smutok
The bottom of the course was more of the rocks and roots that New England is famous for mixed with some new tables and a new moto whoop section that we have never seen before. Check out the wrap-up video below to check out more race action.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support Highland Mountain Bike Park and the Grand Prix and to our sponsors for great prizes: GoPro, Kali, Native, Jett and Bureau’s Maple Kettle Korn. We hope to see everyone at the Claymore Challenge, July 19th-21st in a couple weekends!
Highland Mountain Bike Park – Grand Prix Race from Highland Mountain Bike Park on Vimeo.
Flimed/Edited: Richard Patty
Music: Nothing Like Captain Crunch (Broke For Free) / CC BY 3.0
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