Whitefield mountain bike racer Nate True navigates over some ledges while training at the Camden Snow Bowl on Friday, Aug. 8 in Camden. (Mic LeBel photo)
Steep downhill trails are hard to find in Lincoln County, but that doesn’t deter a pair of young local athletes from pursuing the adrenaline-inducing sport they love. Lincoln Academy graduates Nathan True (‘22) and Jonas Stepanauskas (‘24) often travel throughout Maine and New England to find the perfectly pitched, “gravity” trails they crave.
Nate True, of Whitefield (left), and Jonas Stepanauskas of Nobleboro, compete in mountain bike races during the summer. (Mic LeBel photo)
True and Stepanauskas are part of Team Bikeman, a mountain biking club and racing team sponsored by Bath Cycle and Ski in Woolwich, a leading bicycle retail, rental, and repair vendor that serves biking enthusiasts in Lincoln County.
“I love the excitement of mountain bike racing, fueled by the uncertainty of what’s around the next corner,” said True, who aspires to become a professional mountain bike racer. “It scratches an itch in my head.”
“I really like the mountain biking community,” Stepanauskas said, when asked about his favorite aspect of the sport. “It’s a super supportive environment, even among competitors.”
The Lincoln County News traveled to the Camden Snow Bowl on Friday, Aug. 8 to see what training for mountain bike racing looks like firsthand. The initial observation was the extreme gravity style of downhill mountain biking True and Stepanauskas prefer requires a significant effort just to get started.
Although the Camden Snow Bowl is open for mountain biking and has been improving the terrain and expanding the number of trails it offers, the chairlift up the hill is only operational during the winter ski season. That means mountain bikers hoping for steep downhill biking runs have to hike up the slope with their bikes to get to the steepest parts for each run.
Once at the top, it’s all downhill from there. The gravity style of riding that True, of Whitefield, and Stepanauskas, of Nobleboro, enjoys is very similar to downhill ski racing. There are few flat sections to pedal on. Rather, they typically just point the bike down a narrow mountain trail and try to keep speeding across the Snow Bowl’s rocky ledges and smooth stone slabs without crashing into trees.
Jonas Stepanauskas catches some air while training at the Camden Snow Bowl on Friday, Aug. 8. The 2024 Lincoln Academy graduate competes for Team Bikeman in Eastern States Cup mountain bike races during the summer. (Mic LeBel photo)
“Gravity riding is usually more mentally-exhausting than it is physically taxing,” said True, who is back in the saddle after an injury he sustained racing in Vermont. “On a typical training day, Jonas and I will hike up the mountainside at the Snow Bowl four or five times, covering about 4,000 feet in vertical climbing during our three hours of riding. Sometimes we pedal up the hill for a short stretch, but it’s mostly just hiking up a steep incline.”
Most of the racing True and Stepanauskas perform is called enduro. In this format, individuals ride alone down the course and are timed on anywhere from 3-6 stages that can vary in steepness, length, and difficulty. Between each stage, there are untimed “transfer stages” that don’t count towards the score, and require hiking, a chair lift, and/or pedaling. The scores for each of the timed segments are added up and the lowest score wins the event.
Flying down a tree-lined mountain trail is a risk, but True and Stepanauskas realize the danger and take necessary precautions with protective equipment, training, and focus. On the first run of the day at the top of the mountain on Aug. 8, Stepanauskas blew a tire after hitting a big, sharp rock, but was able to stay on the trail and screech to a halt despite the wheel damage. The tire went flat and the (expensive) metal rim was severely damaged, so the two riders had to share one bike for the rest of the training session.
“I’ve been pretty lucky and only experienced a minor wrist fracture and a few sprains and bruises here and there,” said Stepanauskas. “I think the more you ride the more you know your limits and what to do for safety in the event of a crash.”
“There’s definitely a risk, but it’s all part of the game,” said True. “I’ve had countless crashes and fractured my scapula.”
True began mountain biking his freshman year at Lincoln Academy, and has advanced further into competitive racing in recent years. He will be a senior this fall at the University of Maine, Farmington, and at school he competes in Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference races for the UMF team. After the college season winds down, he competes in Eastern States Cup races throughout New England.
Mountain bike racer Nate True flies over some roots during a training run at the Camden Snow Bowl on Friday, Aug. 8. (Mic LeBel photo)
“My results have been up to par this summer,” said True. “I won the first ESC race of the year at Powder Ridge, Conn., placed fourth at Arrowhead in Claremont, N.H., and had another win at a smaller enduro race at Mt. Abram. I’m hopelessly optimistic about eventually going pro in enduro racing, but the current goal is to continue winning races and simply having fun flying through the woods with my buddies.”
Stepanauskus started mountain biking seven years ago, and dove deeper into the sport during the COVID-19 era. This season he has been racing in the ESC circuit, along with True.
“I’m still very new to the racing scene,” said Stepanauskas, who plans on racing in Sweden later this year when he goes back to college at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen. “I had a good race at Killington, Vt. recently, where I placed seventh in the 20U division and 17th overall. I would really like to podium (top five) at an ESC race, but having fun is still my top priority.”
While True, Stepanauskas and their close-knit group of riders are passionate regulars on the slopes in Maine and seek out races throughout New England, as a sport, mountain bike racing seems to have leveled off a bit in the Pine Tree State.
“Racing in Maine used to ubiquitous and very serious, including a points series and competitive races every weekend,” said Forrest Carver, manager and co-owner of Bath Cycle and Ski, who’s father Davis Carver started Team Bikeman in the 1990s. “That has really slowed down in recent years, and I’m not sure why.”
Finding a regular schedule of competitive races in Maine has been a challenge for True and Stepanauskas, who came to love the sport despite not having a high school program to help nurture their interest.
Jonas Stepanauskas lands a jump and leans into a turn on a mountain biking trail at the Camden Snow Bowl on Friday, Aug. 8. (Mic LeBel photo)
“Around 2020 we tried to start a mountain biking team alongside the outing club at Lincoln Academy, but it never really took off,” said Stepanauskas.
“Camden Hills is the only Midcoast high school that I am aware of that has an organized team, and I think that Lincoln kids can now participate through a cooperative agreement,” said True. “I love promoting the sport and working with high school mountain bikers, so I got into coaching recently.”
In addition to racing for the team at UMF, True is an assistant coach for the mountain biking team at Gould Academy in Bethel. The Gould team trains at Mount Abram Bike Park in Greenwood, nine miles from the school’s campus in Bethel and about a 40 minute commute from UMF for True. The team competes in a league, which is something True wishes could be available for Lincoln County kids.
While Lincoln County does not generally have the steep hills that are needed for fast, gravity mountain biking, True, Stepanauskas, and Carver noted that there are fun conventional mountain biking trails to ride in our area.
“In general there is a shortage of mountain biking trails in Lincoln County, which is surprising because adjacent counties all have a great network or two,” said Carver. “Edgecomb’s Schmid Preserve, Wiscasset’s Sortwell Forest, and Jefferson’s Hidden Valley Nature Center all come to mind as good places to ride. There’s also some non-contiguous riding on various preserves in Boothbay, and a new trail in Damariscotta, but that’s about all that I know of in Lincoln County. Bath has a really impressive network of trails that consistently flies under the radar.”
“The Schmid Preserve in Edgecomb and Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson are both great options to get out on a mountain bike,” said True.
“Honestly, my favorite place to ride in Lincoln County is my backyard trails in Nobleboro,” said Stepanauskas. “There are also lots of multi-access hiking trails in the area that are surprisingly good for trail riding as long as bikes are allowed and you have permission. I first started riding at Hidden Valley Nature Center, and it’s a great place to mountain bike.”
