Over the Hump is most Tuesdays through this summer at Irvine Lake, Orange, CA for this summer.

“Challenge yourself and your students at OTH. A phenomenal opportunity to expose to students a stretching and rewarding physical challenge outdoors in God’s beautiful creation. Put down the video games and come play outside!!!”

Eric Williams, Jr. High Pastor Seaside Community Church

-Eric’s been racing Over the Hump with some guys from his church group since last summer, when we launched our first two.

Join Eric and more 350 other racers of all abilities at this summer’s series.

$25 / race if you register online, and for ever 5 racers who register with your group, you’ll get 1 free.

Check out the schedule at http://overthehumpseries.com/race-info/schedule/

Over the Hump Mountain Bike Race Series kicked off our inaugural season in 2009 with 2 races. Both sold out! Back by popular demand, this season there are 12 races.

OTH is designed to be a fun, relaxed event for everyone. Our race course has been designed to challenge all levels of riders, and give you a great place to experience the fun and excitement of mountain bike racing. Our beautiful course offers a variety of scenic terrain with views of Irvine Lake and Santa Ana Mountain Range. Ride through the pine trees above the lake to single track along the cottonwoods. Easily accessible after work from all over Orange County.

Come out and give racing a try, or just enjoy the buzz! Looking forward to seeing you out there with us.

• Everyone is welcome! Beginners to Experienced racers.
• Great first race to try Mountain Bike Racing, and challenging race for the experienced rider.
• Exclusive Mountain Bike Race track available only to Over the Hump racers.
• Fun and Competitive.
• Highly visible track for your personal support team (AKA family and friends)
• Bring the whole family out for the fun! Picnic area, grass, tons of shade, and full restrooms all right at the water.

John Russell, Higher Ground Adventures’ founder called me 7 weeks ago and said, “There’s a mountain bike race in Prairie City…all kinds of riders show up. Orange County could use that. Want to try?”

The next day the experiment was off the ground…within a week we had the printed and web material ready to go and within 4 weeks of our first planned August 26, afterwork, Midweek Mountain Bike Race we received our first registration.  3 weeks later we had 100 registrations with a week to the start. It seemed like it all had slowed down, and we weren’t sure what to expect.  Last Wednesday, August 26, was a total mystery at the time.  Then it hit.

Sunday, August 23, we received 65 and the following day another 60 registrations.  Seems to be a need for mountain bike racing in Orange County.  We had planned for 175 originally, thinking these two races this year would be our great kick off for next year’s 10 week series.  Little did we know what would happen next…pro racers, 315 racers in total and another 200-300 spectators came to Irvine Lake, last Wednesday to check out the race at Irvine Lake.

So here we sit on the other side of the first race, and the second race is quickly approaching. I’ll leave it to the “official, professional, unbiased press event coverage” to lay out what happened next; somehow John’s little idea went big, and Higher Ground Adventures has entered the world of mountain bike racing.  Since it’s a passion of mine, personally, I’m thrilled. But even bigger than that Over the Hump Mtn Bike Race Series touched a nerve with the Southern California Mountain Bike Community and gave us all a midweek, family friendly, grassroots, and yet competitive place to visit.  Come race or watch the next one, Irvine Lake, Tuesday Night, September 15, 2009: 6:00pm race start.

Over the Hump Race coverage at Oakley.com and OCRegister.com

Visit http://overthehumpseries.com/news/ for updates and photos.

See you at the races- Matt