Michaux Mash

The Michaux Masher is a fun early season event staged in the heart of the Michaux Forest. Racers come not to chase points or win cash prizes, but for the sheer joy of racing and the comradeship with friends and fellow racers they've missed over the off season. After the long snowy winter, it's a much welcomed way to showcase your areas of strength and bring out your weaknesses, all the while gaining a few more base miles before the official season begins.

This 4 hour endurance event offers a little bit of everything. There are lots of logs, tight twisty single track, banked turns, rippin (my personal favorite) downhills, fire roads for recovery, and even a long almost unending climb up Canada Hollow. Did I fail to mention the rocks? Well this is Michaux! Of course there are plenty of gnarly rocky sections. "A steady diet of rocks can be good for the soul"-Nathan Goates. The course is so great you get to ride it again, and again, and in fact, you can ride it for as many times as you want before the 4th hour counts down.

There were 4 categories to place in: Men's Open, Master Men (much debate about the criteria of a master man, '35+' so says the 21 yr old promoter), Women's Open, and Open Juniors (very very skilled juniors that is). Out of the 120+ racers that came out to the venue, the Mountainside Racing Team represented with their six Elite racers, four of which made it to the podium.

• Andy H. completed 5 blistering laps for 2nd place in the Men's Open
• Mike F. achieved 3rd in the Master's Men
• Sally M. and Janice M. rounded off the Women's podium with 2nd and 3rd respectively, completing 4 laps, which was 1 more lap than last year's pace for each of them.

Mike L. had a nice finish placing 7th in Men's Open. Oh, and Nathan? Well, after he got up close and personal with some rocks on his first lap...actually trying to squeeze blood from them, only to find out it can't be done, yet finding out the opposite is true, rocks can squeeze blood from you...he managed to complete 4 laps while only having one eye to see from, grabbed some grub and headed to the...ER?

Afterwards, the food was spicy, the beer hoppy, and the grins huge. Given the preliminary results, looks like the Mountainside Racing Team proved they are in good form and ready to start a great season of racing. Now that's something to leap about, and I did!

Thanks to all our new and returning sponsors for making the fun possible!!