Mud season race goes well despite pleasant conditions 

 

 

by Matthew Wilson

JAY — Motorists may have noticed more than a few bicycles on the road Saturday, as the Rasputitsa Dirt took riders on a tour of towns near Jay Peak.  Along a 50-mile course that wound through the western backroads of the Kingdom, well over a thousand participating cyclists pumped pedals.

The annual bike race returned to the Newport area to celebrate its tenth anniversary of enticing riders out for a long haul off of the beaten track.  The name of the race, Rasputitsa, essentially translates from Russian into mud season.  To that end, those who enter the race expect to face whatever the path offers.  Should they come across trenches of mud, so be it.  If the weather is intense, the riders will face it.

This year, the muck that is usually the April bane of Vermont backroad dwellers, is already past.   Roads along the course, which ran through Jay, North Troy, Troy, Newport Center, Westfield, and Lowell, all seemed to be in good condition, with few of the hazards that the race has seen in the past. …

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