Tussey Mountain Trail. The crown jewel of the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic presented by Dirt Rag. Stage 6 through Rothrock State Forest was intense. Thirty seven miles of beautiful trails surrounded in emerald green hues from the sea of ferns and the brilliant white of blossoming mountain laurel were the playground for the racers left in the TSEpic.

A four mile neutral rollout added mileage to the stage, but warmed up the legs and it was all guns blazing off the start as the final men’s podium is far from decided.

Tim Johnson (Volkswagen/People For Bikes/NoTubes) took off with the top six solo competetors trailing behind him. Johnson is racing in the Epic Team category, so his pace-pounding performance doesn’t have any bearing on the solo men’s award category, however he held nothing back and looks to be well on track in his preparations for the coming World Cup Cyclocross season after outright winning the stage. Read More→

Raw Pennyslvania trails built by 19th century loggers and CCC workers in times long past were the theme for day 5 of the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. RB Winter which played host for the race is one of PA’s beautiful State Parks – a spring fed lake surrounded by lush green foliage and dark pine forest in an elevated valley and served as the start location for a 25 mile course of “old school” mountain biking.

“This is the place where Ray (race co-promoter) and I cut our teeth on mountain biking.” said promoter Mike Kuhn. “RB is a place we love to ride and we’re always excited to introduce people to these trails. It is beautiful here and the trails go on forever.” The loop they introduced this year included the steepest continuous descent of the entire week, the hair-raising Grosses Gap, the deep woods beauty of Old Tram Tr, and a four mile long ridge top ride called Top Mountain Tr. that features numerous challenging chunky rock gardens along it’s length. Read More→