5 hrs of mountain biking, 50km of single track, and a 5 hour energy shot – all in a days ride at Hardwood Hills.
Located just outside of Barrie and a couple hours from Toronto is the Mecca of XC mountain biking in southern Ontario, Hardwood Hills Ski and Bike Resort. And now that I have ridden there, it is also where you will find my blood, sweat, and tears. I’ve been itching to ride at Hardwood Hills for the past few summers, and this was finally going to be the year. I planned on racing in the Duke Epic 8 Hr as a solo rider there in July but bowed out because of nearly 2 feet of rain during race weekend. Then I was going to do the same race in the fall but again bowed out, this time not because I was afraid of a little water, but I will be vacationing throughout Europe and riding a couple days in the Swiss Alps - a pretty fair trade off I think.
Surprisingly, the day was rather uneventful with the exception of some pretty sick XC trails. By that I mean, that we managed to get through the entire day with no cuts, bruises or any accidents to report at all even though there were some good technical descents. Instead we just had a blast and put in lots of mileage.
There were two university races going on that day and because of the sheer size and layout of Hardwood Hills, we never came across the racers. Hardwood Hills is arranged with 6 different single track and uni-directional courses all with varying degrees of difficulty. The first and second place winners just happened to be riding Specialized S-Works bikes and looked like they were hauling some serious tail. Speaking of tail...I was quite impressed with the quality of the female contention at the race, especially those from the University of Guelph...sorry no pictures available. But honestly, it is good to see that more and more people (male and female) are getting into mountain biking her in Ontario and with races like these it is only good for the sport.
Located just outside of Barrie and a couple hours from Toronto is the Mecca of XC mountain biking in southern Ontario, Hardwood Hills Ski and Bike Resort. And now that I have ridden there, it is also where you will find my blood, sweat, and tears. I’ve been itching to ride at Hardwood Hills for the past few summers, and this was finally going to be the year. I planned on racing in the Duke Epic 8 Hr as a solo rider there in July but bowed out because of nearly 2 feet of rain during race weekend. Then I was going to do the same race in the fall but again bowed out, this time not because I was afraid of a little water, but I will be vacationing throughout Europe and riding a couple days in the Swiss Alps - a pretty fair trade off I think.
Surprisingly, the day was rather uneventful with the exception of some pretty sick XC trails. By that I mean, that we managed to get through the entire day with no cuts, bruises or any accidents to report at all even though there were some good technical descents. Instead we just had a blast and put in lots of mileage.
There were two university races going on that day and because of the sheer size and layout of Hardwood Hills, we never came across the racers. Hardwood Hills is arranged with 6 different single track and uni-directional courses all with varying degrees of difficulty. The first and second place winners just happened to be riding Specialized S-Works bikes and looked like they were hauling some serious tail. Speaking of tail...I was quite impressed with the quality of the female contention at the race, especially those from the University of Guelph...sorry no pictures available. But honestly, it is good to see that more and more people (male and female) are getting into mountain biking her in Ontario and with races like these it is only good for the sport.
What was really nice about some of the longer and steeper climbs was that they put down old snowmobile treads in order to provide more grip, otherwise there was no real chance of getting up some of the hills.
Andrew Nause
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