Making mud fly
Racers typically strive to get the best time on a course, but the bicyclists who raced Sunday, Oct. 22 at Alameda Park were trying to get the longest distance in a set amount of time.
The park hosted a cyclocross race for the annual Month of Mud, where about 134 bikers competed in several skill levels, all for a cash prize.
Cyclocross races are timed races where bikers go around a course as many times as possible to win. The courses include obstacles bikers have to maneuver through, around and over to optimize their routes.
Ed and Robyn Brewer, who live outside Prospect, are the head honchos of the nonprofit corporation Month of Mud, having been handed the reins earlier this year. Ed said the series, which has races every Sunday each October, has been going since 1989, making it the longest-running mountain bike series on the East Coast.
Alameda Park also hosted a mountain bike race — the third race in this series. Ed said the park has some of the best trails for mountain biking and is also a good venue for a cyclocross course.
“So many mountain bike trails are old roads or deer trails that people started riding on,” Ed said. “The Alameda trails have been purposely designed to go up and down, so you’re not doing too much pedaling. Mountain bikers, we call it flow.”
John McLaughlin, manager of Western Pennsylvania Cyclocross, helped plan Sunday’s 1.3-mile course, which went through the shelters and some woods in the park. McLaughlin also said most of the races in the Month of Mud are mountain bike races, but there typically are one or two cyclocross races in the series.
“They have always thrown a monkey wrench in and had a cyclocross course,” McLaughlin said.
Other courses in this year six-course series are at Bradys Run Park in Beaver County; Moraine State Park and Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County.
While the riders can be tough on the courses they traverse, Ed said the Month of Mud organization does its part to help maintain the trails.
“Through Month of Mud we'll donate proceeds to the park,” Ed said. “The money we raise goes to the people who make the trails … Robyn and I, our lives are in trail work.”
