The best mountain bike freeriders in the world are gathering this weekend for the annual "Spring Training" at Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northfield, New Hampshire. The pros come from all over the world to train in the one-of-a-kind indoor facility that includes both foam pits and rubber ramps, as well as outside airbags to jump into.

This is the time and the place riders experiment with new tricks before the start of the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour. The highlight of the weekend will be the "Best Trick" event on Saturday.

Highland Mountain Bike Park was the dream of Mark Hayes, who built a world-class mountain bike park at a ski area that closed in the mid 1990's.

Hayes, a mountain bike enthusiast, tells Edging the Xtreme how he built one of the best know mountain bike parks in the world from the humble beginnings of a run-down ski mountain.

Listen here:

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It's a weekend full of mountain biking madness at the 12th annual Pat's Peak Mountain Bike Festival in New Hampshire. The list of competitions alone is covers every aspect of the sport; there are 24 hour, 12 hour and 6 hour competitions for all levels of endurance athletes.

Over the years, Greg Jancaitis has posted some amazing results in this race. Starting in 2009, he finished third in the men's solo 24 hour, and he was the 2010 and 2011 overall winner in the men's 24 hour solo. Then in 2012, he was the winner in the men's 6 hour solo. He also holds the course record at 29:00 in last year's race.

Here is a video interview with Jancaitis from the Shenandoah 100:

Specializing in long distance mountain bike races, Jancaitis has been able to carve out a living riding miles and miles for hours and hours. Click here for his fitness blog.

Listen to the entire interview with Greg Jancaitis on Edging the Xtreme:

Plus, learn about the entire Mountain Bike Festival at Pat's Peak, which includes the Eastern States Cup (ESC) USA Cycling Regional Championship Downhill Mountain Bike Race Series.

The Series is in its fourth year and includes nine venues with eleven series races, plus the state finals and the series finals. Check out a listing of the ESC schedule, rules and more information.

The X-Country Challenge on Sunday is part of the Northeast Root 66 XC Race Series, a series of cross-country mountain bike races held at different venues throughout New England.

And that is just the beginning of the fun: there's a single speed cycle cross event, plus camping, music and activities at the mountain all weekend.

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In mountain biking it takes a rare breed to rise to the top. Last summer at the London Summer Olympics, USA's Georgia Gould had the worst start in her career. Yet when the day was done, she was standing on the podium with a Olympic Bronze Medal.

As a sponsored rider on LUNA Women's Mountain Bike Team, Gould has plenty of motivation to continue to compete on the world stage. As the 2013 World Cup Season kicks off in Germany later in the month, Gould hopes to build on her past success and capture the elusive World Cup Victory, as well as defend her National Title.

In the fall, she’ll turn her attention to racing cyclocross with the aim of defending her 2012 USGP series championship. Georgia lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband Dusty, their 28 bicycles, five chickens, a hive of bees and a garden full of vegetables.

Listen to the entire Georgia Gould interview with Dan Egan on Edging the Xtreme on RadioBDC, above.

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A new Swedish helmet, complete with airbags and fashionable enough to be a scarf, is a radical departure from familiar, bulky biking helmets on the market today.

But research shows that innovations in cycling gear could be very trendy in the near future. The inflatable Hovding Helmet, which is worn around the neck and is specifically designed for the cycling commuter, is already selling in Europe and is coming soon to North America.

Invented by two Swedish students, Hovding is covered by a removable shell that can be changed to match an outfit, and new designs will be launching all the time. Hövding is a practical accessory that's easy to carry around, it's got a great-looking, yet subtle, design – plus, it might save your life.

Sensors around the rider's neck can sense a quick or unusual movement and will trigger the helmet to inflate. The sensors read body movements 200 times per second, and when it senses danger, the Hovding helmet inflates like a hood.

There are some draw backs, however, as consumers can not repack the “air bag” once it is deployed.

The company that manufactures Hovding was recently honored at the Tribeca Film Festival, in partnership with the GE Focus Forward Film Series, which highlights innovative ideas, such as the ergonomic, practical, and subtle Hovding.

There are plenty of stats that tell us that wearing a helmet while cycling is a good idea. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2011 there were 38,000 cicyclist injuries, and 91 percent of bicyclists killed in 2009 reportedly weren't wearing helmets.

The US Department of Transportation conducted a survey in 2011 which found that the biggest area of accidents on bikes was in traffic. So even though only 5 percnet of the people surveyed were commuters, they were at the greatest risk. The Hovding helmet was designed specifically for commuters, and in test after test, the inflatable helmet rated higher in safety than traditional helmets, when it came to head injuries.

Airbag technology has been revolutionary in other sports as well, such as skiing and snowboarding, where avalanche airbags have a 90 percent survival rate when deployed in avalanches. The inventors of the Hovding helmets are already getting requests from other helmet-wearing sports, such as skate boarders, equine riders and winter riders.

If you just look at the traffic safety data from airbags in cars you can see that this company is onto something big.

It's hard to argue against innovation especially around safety.

Listen to the entire interview with Anna Haupt, inventor and co-founder of the Hovding Helmet on RadioBDC:

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