Event: Limestone Cross at the Kiln
Place: Camp Olympic, Emmaus, PA
Happened: December 2014
Video recap of event
Click on video to play
Written recap of event
This edition of Single Track Sunday has Joël and I as spectators, not riders. All of the riding we did this past week was local trails and places already featured on Single Track Sunday, so we decided to do something a little different and feature an event in which we watched, not rode in.
Limestone Cross at the Kiln was a cyclocross race in Emmaus, PA. Cyclocross is something new to Single Track Sunday, so you may be wondering what it is. This is a type of bicycle racing that typically takes place in Autumn/Winter. It consists of many short laps (typically 1-2 miles per lap) of a course consisting of grass, pavement, gravel, wooded trails, steep hills, and obstacles in which riders needed to quickly dismount, run a bit, and quickly remount again. The courses are typically very twisty. Races usually last between 30 minutes and an hour. The bikes used look much like road-style bikes, they are just built slightly stronger and have bigger tires.
The location of the race was Camp Olympic, a public park managed by Lower Macungie Township. This park has been around for ages, having undergone many improvements in the past few years. It consists mainly of large open fields with a creek running though the park, some picnic groves, and rumor has it a pump track is in the works.
Cyclocross is something Joël and I do not have an interest in racing. Nothing against this type of racing, just something we are not interested in. It's a fun sport to spectate because one can see pretty much the entire race and see riders go by multiple times. Heckling riders can become quite the event at cross races, to the point where mobs of people congregate in one area to cheer riders on; often handing out beer, food, and even money. So something that to us is fun to watch, just not race.
- video by Joël
- words by Jess