CAMDEN — The Camden Hills-Kent Hills mountain bike race at Maine Sport on Saturday, Sept. 27 was exhilarating and intense, filled with loud whoops of excitement from the onlookers, and grunts and groans from the hard working bikers.

The 2.5-mile track consisted of narrow trails, steep drops into valleys, rough rides onto rocks, and wooden bridges over ditches.

Varsity-level racers had to go around the course three times, and riders from the junior varsity teams had to travel around twice.

Video will appear later with this story. 

The Camden Hills team was ready to get out and tackle their home course.

“I really respect the competition, but Camden just really knows this course the best. I think we definitely have a big advantage today,” said Camden Hills varsity rider Aidan Acosta before the race.

From the start, Camden burst right out into the lead, with most of their riders entering the wooded trail first.

“I think Camden is going to have an excellent win today.” said Gary Spinney, Camden’s head coach, prior to the race. “The kids worked super hard and biked all summer to prepare for these races. I predict that Aidan Acosta and Shawn Albertson are going to come out on top today, but we will have to wait and see. Even [junior varsity riders] seems to be doing excellently, even though they don’t know the course quite as well as the varsity.”

Coach Spinney was correct with his prediction as Aidan Acosta and Shawn Albertson were both neck-and-neck until the final lap when Albertson fell off his bike while crossing a wooded bridge too quickly, breaking his arm and unable to complete the race.

“It’s a very bad break.” said Spinney. “It’s very tough to have one of the top two riders hurt themselves like that.”

Windjammer riders looked visibly shaken by the accident, but still came out on top with a varsity team score of 230 points to Kent Hills’ 90. In the junior varsity division, Camden Hills had 155, while Kent Hills had 80. 

Individual results for Camden Hills varsity riders were: Aidan Acosta 49:13; Zeb Pease 51:21; Cyrus Demmons 51:33; Nick Czuchra 55:08 and Zoe Zwecker 1:05:30.

Individual results for the Camden Hills junior varsity racers were: Zachary Hand 37:50, Owen Hilt 37:50; Max Horovitz 37:50;  Japheth Scott 41:50; Makoto Hayashi 42:25; Kaden Billiate 52:31; Hans Angel 53:43 and Lucy Hayward 1:02:28. 

Individual results for Kent Hills were not available.

Reach Ben McKenna and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.