For sure! I prefer (dry) dirt and roots any day of the week over rocks.
It still looks like awesome riding and I’m just stoked there’s genuine singletrack/tech in the XCM series as opposed to the mega clingy, but just dirt road/gravel trail courses.
I always here “loam”, I don’t really know what it is. It always makes me think of riding the trails when they’re covered in a deep-ish layer of pine needles and dust. That can be absolutely terrifying/turn the most benign trail into something sketchy .
Around here (PNW) the term loam is constantly used, and I think it’s where the term originated. Here it refers to really natural trail surfaces. Like the ultimate loam is completely unbuilt forest floor, where the “trail” is kind of just a route. A trail that is “loamy” is where it’s kind of just been ridden in, and the surface is really soft with organic mixed in. Nice loam is awesome, super grippy but also really soft. “Loamers” are very minimally built trails that are usually unsanctioned and usually become unrideable after a few seasons.
Loam is a soil type that is sand, silt and clay. Depending on your source it is equal parts of each or mostly sand and silt with a little less clay (40%, 40%, 20% respectively).
That Masters in Environmental Science I earned is finally proving its worth!
Haha, based on your descriptions I feel like I have definitely ridden a lot of “Loam”. I don’t find it very grippy though so maybe it’s the wrong mix. It’s got no structure to bite into.
Describes my local trails perfectly! The “loaminess”, or soft organic redwood duff on top of thick black moist hero dirt is amazing but very short-lived until the masses find it on Strava and ride it to death with e-bikes until it’s all crappy braking bumps. Ah, modern MTB’ing life.
Sam Gaze is coming soon. He just needs to calm 1% I think. He’s feeling ready to rip everyone’s legs off I think.
Again, absolutely stoked with the level of coverage from GCN. It’s head and shoulders above the previous broadcast. Amazing camera work, awesome shots, and much fewer blind spots.
I certainly don’t want them to get more “gnarly”, but I definitely don’t want less tech.
I’d love to ride Lenzerheide to see what it’s actually like. This year’s coverage gives a far better perspective as to how steep and tricky some of the sections are, but I still can’t pin down if they’re like a local tricky grade four, an easy five, or who knows.
There’s a bunch of privateer and young Kiwi’s on the circuit this year. There’s been some terrific IG pics that illustrate steepness too.
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