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Higher Ground

October 12 2024

Johnstown, PA

Unconfirmed

Distances: 30, 50, 73, 100 miles

Difficulty: Gently rolling terrain with one or two short hills

Welcome to Higher Ground, a non-UCI semi-competative cycling event, where the race is you against yourself. We believe that the outdoors will save Johnstown, and wanted to host a cycling event to bring more people to town. We will be giving $10 from each ticket to our local YWCA, and paying our friends and vendors for their wares.

Now about the routes. We have four different routes available for your enjoyment. They are 30mi, 50mi, 69mi, and the full Hundo. They all start and end at Hope Cyclery 647 Railroad Street, Johnstown, Pa 15901. You ascend out of the city and are on dirt in under 3 miles. From there all of the routes are a mix of pavement, dirt roads, and ripping gravel descents.

The breakdown is this roughly.

30 miles/ 2000ft climbing, ~50% Gravel
50 miles/ 3000ft climbing ~50% Gravel
69 miles/ 7800ft climbing, ~45% Mixed/Gravel
100 miles/ 10000ft climbing, ~45% Gravel

We’ve ridden the routes with Tires 38c and up, and found the sweet spot to be 40c

We have the routes mapped out and GPX/ride with gps data will be sent out to all who register. We hope you make it out, 1-3 aid stations depending on the course, coffee the am of the event. We also hope to be able to donate a portion of the race fees to our local YWCA. Last year we were able to give $1705 to them, There is a bikewash station, and we will have the indoors open for facility use. There is also a spot indoors to setup for a parts swap if you'd like.

Camping is available at PNG Park, just know there's a train sometimes at night so if you're a light sleeper either pack ear plugs or book a hotel locally. https://www.jaha.org/locations/peoples-natural-gas-park/ for $30 y'all can camp here Friday and Saturday Night, we do have to have everyone out of the park by 12 noon Sunday. Camping Dates are 10/13/2023- 10/14/2023 with a close on 10/15/2023 at 12 noon.

Higher Ground