Rained a bit, so I got a deceptively muddy trip around a course with a lot of pedaling, a very fast-direct descent, a traverse, a party-mode berm run, and a cyclocross finale. Look a little better with the pros racing it than with me.
yes and no. It doesn't have any do-or-die "pucker" features, but now that it's 95% dry and running fast, the descents are hitting speeds where one small mistake can snowball into unrecoverable *very* quickly. Also what I mentioned during the woods section of this video holds true: there are seconds out there for the taking for the riders who can stay off the brakes . You could tell the first group from the rest of the field almost by sound alone, because of how little time they spent scratching speed.
I wish it were a little less "real", honestly. Had been hoping to get in a few reps on several of the interesting sections to highlight different line options. Only one feature was dry enough to half-execute the idea: instagram.com/p/DAZrfymu9x8/
