PORT ANGELES — Dry Hill is drier than normal.
That should translate into some interesting riding at this weekend’s Fluidride Cup downhill mountain bike races.
The event is set for today through Sunday at the Port Angeles-area mountain located on Green Crow and state Department of Natural Resources timber land.
And members of the Olympic Dirt Society spent the last month sculpting fresh tracks in preparation for it.
The result is a stretch of trail called King Diamond — after the face-painted metal musician — that will call on riders’ technical abilities during the three-day event.
The unusually arid conditions demanded it be so.
“The course changes so much [when it’s dry], it adds to the challenge,” Dirt Society member Scott Tucker said.
“It’s a really fun course. They are going to have to slow it down and manipulate it a lot more.”
More than 30 professionals and approximately 250 riders total are expected to hit the mountain this weekend.
The event is the fifth leg of the Fluidride Cup, an annual downhill mountain biking series that splits its six races between Dry Hill and Mount Hood, Ore.
The sixth and final competition of the season will be at Mount Hood.
Practice sessions are scheduled from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today followed by racing and more practice sessions on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event concludes on Sunday, with racing beginning at 10 a.m. The pros will close out the competition sometime after noon.
Spectators are welcome free of charge and should have several sight lines to choose from.
Blue Flame Barbecue will be selling food and beverages near the finish line all weekend.
Dry Hill is situated about three miles west of Port Angeles off U.S. Highway 101. To get there, head south on Walkabout Road off Highway 101, then take the first right.
For more information, visit www.olympicdirtsociety.blogspot.com/.
