Challenge yourself with an off-road time trial. Racers will complete one lap on marked single track at the new Royalview Trail. Classes will be broken into men, women, beginners, advanced, and youth. The youth and beginner women’s course will be around 5 miles while the other course will be around 7 miles. (Actual mileage subject to change). Choose to race in one or all 3 races. Awards will be based on racers’ top 2 times. (You must compete in at least 2 races to qualify for awards. If you compete in all 3 races, your best 2 times will be used). Races are weather permitting. All riders must wear helmets. 

Ages: 14 years & over (with participating adult)

Activity Level: moderate

Date/Time: June 4, 6 – 9 p.m.

June 11, 6 – 9 p.m.

June 18, 6 – 9 p.m.

June 25, 6 – 9 p.m. (rain date if one of the above is cancelled)

For all races: registration day of race is 6 – 6:15 p.m.; Race starts at 6:30 p.m.

Royalview Shelter, Mill Stream Run Reservation

Pre-registration fee: $20 per race by May 28.

Late registration or same day registration: $30 per race after May 28

Volunteers:

Cleveland Metroparks Outdoor Recreation  will be hosting a Mountain Bike Race Series June 4, 11, 18, & 25 (rain date), and is in need of volunteers from 5 – 10 p.m. each day. Volunteer for one or all 4 races.  Volunteer responsibilities include:

• Registration
• Sweep Rider (CPR/FA certified preferred; must provide own mountain bike and helmet)
• Timers (Must be able to record times quickly)
• Trail Spotters (CPR/FA certified preferred; stationed on trail to assist riders; notify Rangers of emergencies)

Interested volunteers should contact Rachel Nagle at rmb2@clevelandmetroparks.com or 216-341-1704.

Please join us May 31st – June 2, 2013 for the sixth annual Blue Knob spring campout!
Read o­n for more details. [Read more...]

I recently posted information concerning the CAMBA/IMBA relationship to keep members informed of this important change that occurred towards the end of 2012. It’s been a long time coming! This can be found under the menu “About” and then “CAMBA/IMBA Relationship” or click here.

See you on the trails!

Greg Spickard

CAMBA President

OMBC Mountwood Race report by Wayne Bowers

April 14th, 2013 was the first Ohio Mountain Bike Association (OMBC) race for 2013.  The race was held in Waverly West Virginia at the Mountwood campground and is a combination West Virginia Mountain Bike Association (WVMBA) OMBC race.  This means that both state’s worth of racers will be combined into classes.  There is always a big crowd and today was not disappointment.  The race was slated to start at high noon but was moved back to 12:30 due to the # of registrants.  There end up being 130 sport riders in my wave start.  Awesome!

The race goes off in 3 waves.  Expert, 5 minutes, Sport, 5 minutes, Novice.  We take off and I get into the top 10 or 15 sport riders.  The route takes us up a gravel road to a sharp left into double track which we follow for around a mile and a half.  Somewhere in that mile and a half a guy locks bars with me and goes down.  I never see who it is and feel bad but he came into me and I am fortunate to still be upright although he bounced right off of me.  I guess my winter weight training worked!  Not long after this I began to lose all power in my legs.

We are flying up these hills and it is taking its toll on me.  I haven’t “raced” like this since last November and my body is not happy with me.  I was hoping to sprint with this pack all the way to the singletrack  but, I am shutting down.  My legs are seizing up and all power has been shut off.  Crap.  My heart rate is fine though?  Well, it’s still double track so I move over to make room for those banging around behind me and watch as at least 30 riders and an old grandma backpacking and a three toed sloth go by.  I need to work on my start!

What seems like hours goes by but it’s really only a minute or so, people stop passing me and we hit the singletrack.  YES!  The trail is perfect, the legs are mostly back and I start attacking again.  I get back 10 or so of those that passed me and work the trail.  The next 13 miles is all singletrack and just fly by.  I am treated to spectacular views, long climbs, fast downhills, tricky little rock sections and then more of the same.   The end comes too soon and before I know it I am told the finish is to the right.

I finish the 14 miles in 1:19:17, good enough for 13th out of 27 in Sport Veteran 35+ and 39th out of 130 sport riders overall.  The event was run very well.  Thanks to OMBC, WVMBA and Mountwood for putting this race together.  Thanks to CAMBA Eddy’s, The Bistro on Main, Rudy Project.

Back in October of last year CAMBA started a jersey contest. We received 18 amazing designs from 8 designers. The club leaders voted for the top 3 of which 4 won. Wait a minute… Oh yeah, we had a two way tie! We posted the top 4 designs to our Facebook page and held a public vote which was announced at the CAMBA holiday party on December 14th. If you didnt attend you couldnt see the winning design… until now! You can get a peak at teh winning design by Chase S. here. For winning the contest Chase will get one of his jerseys and a CAMBA pint glass (you do know we have pint glasses right? Hats too!) Thats not all though. You can have a jersey too. We placed a bulk order of jerseys which we should have by mid May. Just in time for prime riding season. You can purchase a jersey for $70 at any of our events including trail building and group rides.

The 2013 Ohio Bicycle events calendar is now available online here. The calendar lists all sorts of events such as tours and races including OMBC and 331 racing events. If you are looking to fill out your riding season this is a good place to start looking.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission is holding a survey for a cycling festival in Cleveland. Lets make sure Mountain Biking is represented as well. Provide some feed back here