It’s been a few weeks at home in Bend now. Super nice. Bart and I have been working together smoothly to try and improve on my recent, quite improvable, results… The SRM and bathroom scale are telling more encouraging stories after a little time to focus on catching up. Mostly the work has been on one-minute power, short intervals and lifting weights. Plus, you know, some “bike rides” and not eating like a total jerk. And since it’s been a few weeks since I’ve flown across the Atlantic Ocean, sleeping even. Whoa.
I did make an airplane exception to fly over to Mackenzie Bridge with Jake Ruhl and ride King's Castle trail. It was the best day of the summer, so far...
I figured the best way to test out the recent work would be a pair of “start up high and finish down low” races. Good fun, good for morale, and some good chances to use the 1-min power in a real environment, or at least one where someone says “GO!”
The first point to point descent event was the suddenly big and legit Blitz to the Barrel. Last year local mountain bike enthusiast and ex- All Access supercross/supermoto race team director Eric Eastland approached me wanting to put on an underground “Bad Boy’s” race, a kind of dash for cash that finished at the 10 Barrel brewery on Bend’s west side. We threw something together and Carl won $500 for riding from Wanoga sno-park to town. This year it was a bit, um, bigger… Eric started working on the event early and had a $5000 purse together by springtime. Dang. It’d be $2000, $1500, $500 and four primes worth $250 each. Wheelie contest, two jumps and a radar speed trap.
The roster came together as we got closer to the event and ended up being pretty stacked. Local fast guys, some imports from around Oregon and even an Australian. Once the roster was finalized, the betting began. Carl and Chris Sheppard were given the best odds on account of their local presence. I was listed at 5-1. Not looking good for people’s confidence my recent training. Little did they know that I REFUSE to be beaten by Chris Sheppard. Which, it turns out, would require winning. Carl’s roommate Matt Lieto bet wisely and made $60 on my stubbornness…
Before the payday there was some action though. I took the out of towners, Kona rider and ultimate shred buddy Matthew Slaven, NW Shimano Rep Nick Gibson, Ashland king Nathan Riddle and the Aussie, Rockstar/Giant’s Josh Carlson out on a pre-ride of the course and to mark said course. Knowledge would be key. We had lots of fun and hung enough ribbon that nobody could claim being lost as an excuse for cutting the course. Except maybe at the Tetherow Golf Club, where we’d race across the patio and driving range, the length of our entrance jump to which would earn someone $250.
The riders caught an expertly driven (thanks Erica) Cog Wild tours shuttle from 10 Barrel up to Wanoga after work for the pre-race wheelie contest and some trash talking. The Australian, using his years of Pro Motocross racing skills, aced the sort of lackluster wheelie contest. It was kind of like taking cash from a baby. I blame Carl’s hand-me-down Anthem X 29er for not riding itself in a wheelie. But it DID win this race last year so I figured it was the right tool for the overall job.
Before the play by play of the race, let’s do a little prime recap to see who won some cash. Josh had the easiest go with the wheelie win for sure. Slaven took the Funner rock drop honors, using his Magic Link to huck that shit to flat. Riddler decided that instead of keeping Brennan in sight on the last road section he would just try to jump over him at the golf course, nearly making it the 40 or so feet to the fairway. The most awesome of the primes was definitely the speed trap. Former Westside Video proprietor Damieon Schmidt showed up with his Vulture Cyclocross bike. He reckoned he wouldn’t be in the mix for the wheelie, jumps or win, so he might as well focus on some serious beer money. He brought two tubes. Which he’d need, as he flatted twice. D ended up racing down Tetherow Road into the speed trap on about 10psi in his rear tire at 38mph. Nick Gibson was riding his pimp Giant Reign (with 2.4” tires and 6” of travel, NOT a ‘cross bike) and had gotten dropped by some XC bandits before the trap so figured he’d go for it. He also went 38. Solid. And totally owned Damieon in the armwrestlting tiebreaker. Turns out tattooed Enduro racers are stronger than tattooed ‘Cross racers, but they’re both fast.
A little Tetherow Golf Course air action. Pretty fun to ride on one of these without the cops chasing you. Good grip and sweet jumps...
Ok, Blitz Action proper. First off, my garage architect owes me $20 after Josh Carlson got the holeshot, just like he did at the Mellow Johnny’s classic with all of America’s best lined up. I took the Enduro racer crew on the inside off the pavement and slotted into second. Perfect. The Funner trail has a series of “Y’s” where it’s possible to pass on a parallel trail section. Even though Josh was SHREDDING (moto skills never disappoint) I figured I’d not eat his dust for a hundred yards and went left to his right at the first one. I immediately heard gears grinding and cursing, which made me think he’d broken his chain or something. Never saw him again. But I had a gap and decided to run with it. I could see nor hear anyone down most of Funner until I KO’d a tree (racing on your local trails is a whole ‘nother set of braking points) and Sheppard was immediately on me. Weird. I got fired up and pushed hard, never seeing him again and not screwing up while riding FAST over the next 30 minutes down COD trail to Tetherow. Where there was a PACKED parking lot and a few hundred people cheering me onto the course as directed by Emcee Alex McLaren. Impressive. Keeping my eyes on the prize, I kept it low and fast over the airs and wagon-wheeled over the turf grass. Then that wily Canadian appeared again, about 20 seconds back. Weird. And annoying, as we still had about 3 miles of headwind pavement on our knobby tires to get down to The Brewery finish. I wasn’t happy about the amount of effort I had to put forth to maintain my gap and ensure enough time to down my Pint to seal the victory. I made it happen though. Gotta keep the “unbeaten by our local cheater” streak alive. 10-Barrel was obviously packed for the finish. Folks were fired up to have action delivered to their watering hole, even if it was in the form of hyperventilating bike riders trying not to boot their beer…
Carl finished 3rd, although he would have been second if there was a “long course” division. Turns out the Aussie holeshot master just thought he’d made a wrong turn and beelined it through the woods back over to my lane on the Y, losing a bunch of spots in the process. Then he flatted. Shoot. I could’ve used the help on the last road section… Nathan Riddle showed impressive speed from the gravity boys by rolling in 6th in what is really an hour-long XC race. Local boys Brennan, James and Brig kept things fast and were stoked on such a warm reception in their hometown. All in all, the Blitz was an overwhelming success, punctuated by a low flyover during the awards by a certain red Cessna 170…
John Frey and I really mix it on the mic... That's a mug full of Benjamins. Some of which are going to be turned into sweet berms by COTA.
The next morning Lizzy, Josh and I loaded up the trusty WRX (will it ever die?) and headed down to Ashland for the 12-Mile Super D and Chainless Challenge. Josh was fairly impressed with the size of the Volcanic peaks and old-growth trees that flanked them on our trip over the Cascade Crest. There was still lots of snow too… We rolled into our very stereotypical Ashland lodging for the week to meet Frank and the rest of the crew for an afternoon shuttle from the Ski Area. Which had fortunately been plowed. The first mile of fireroad bombing was snow-lined and wet. Neat. Evidently it’s been the third wettest winter on record in the Pacific Northwest and it shows in the moisture content of the soil all the way from Mount Ashland to town. Except maybe BTI, that’s always a dust over hardpack skid-a-palooza. Fun. The Aussie import was continually fired up on how awesome and plentiful the Ashland trails are. I never need reminding, but it’s always good to have the stoke delivered with a different accent. He was also quite helpful in shaming me into hitting THE double jump on the course. Which is pretty tiny, maybe 15 feet. I never claimed to be a BMX’er but kind of always wanted to be. Following someone with a Supercross racing background who was on an Anthem X seemed like a good balance. We sent it, twice, Lizzy was impressed, and a good time was had by all.
Friday was the Chainless Challenge. I’d never done a Chainless race before, but it seemed like a good test for a guy who can always rely on pedaling hard (except at World Cups where everyone is) to make up time. Carl and I were real curious about just how smoked we would get by some random local dudes. Turns out just a little. The “Pro” class was decided by a 0.2 second gap between me and a Whistler local (who probably does a lot of coasting. Lucky). He got the nod. If I only hadn’t blown the only corner you could blow, into/under a Manzanita bush… Even with that corner cleaned up I still would’ve gotten owned by Oregon Super D Series promoter Devon Lyons. He had 6 seconds for us “Pros”. Maybe I should’ve kept living at my rental house on Chardonnay Lane. It seems to make people good coasters at least… The chainless was a good challenge for the head though, looking for speed in places where it’s available for free is a good skill to practice instead of blindly sprinting out of every corner to achieve the same thing with way more work. Smarter, not harder.
That was my mantra at 8:01am the next morning, when I left the 12-Mile starting line. There would be no blown corners, none spectacularly stuck either, just a solid, fast, fun, smooth run down through the Siskiyous to Lithia park. Carl was my one-minute man and had a similar morning. We weren’t happy about racing so early but I kind of think it helped, instead of being all fired up we were a bit cloudy, like the morning sky, and probably ended up not doing anything dumb as a result. Aaron Bradford was the first guy who crossed the line looking like he’d just PINNED it. Local (broken collarbone victim) Giant Rep Paul LaCava later confirmed this from his vantage point on the last trail section, BTI. Bradford was hanging it out. And I was nervous. The guy is fast. Turns out what looks fast isn’t necessarily fastest, I had Bradford by 18 seconds and Carl was another 6 out. Josh got a good “slow is fast” talk from us on the shuttle ride up and kept it safe for 4th, a further 6 seconds back from Carl. Not bad for his first Super D race, on his XC bike.
Trying to get a run for the finish chute. I went way to slow to crash. Blowing it...
The morning was warming up and the finish chute was fast enough that as riders finished, most narrowly avoiding stacking on the gravel road exit, we naturally congregated on the inside to see how our competitors would manage the finish corner. Some better than others… The highlight being Northstar/Giant rider Jordan Lopez, who overcooked it in fine downhiller style and ended up executing a flawless double somersault up the embankment and back into the ditch. Classy.
We all hung out until the Women’s race battle made it’s way down the hill. It was really a battle between the Trace X Advanced SL’s of Kelli Emmett and Lizzy English. They seemed to be a minute or so apart and a bunch faster than last year. When the times came in it was Kelli with the faster run. Abby Hipley used her mad descending skills (she was plenty fast on the XC bike too, once upon a time) to land the final podium spot. She was clearly stoked to be racing, and fast.
Carl and I taking a break from the finish line entertainment. Funny to be done racing at 8:30am.
Not as stoked as us to watch her hit a bunch of massive moto doubles on Marty’s trail during our bonus run though. We all had hopped a shuttle back to the top and got together a fifteen person shred posse for an alternative Ashland trails cool-down. Missing link, the aforementioned Marty’s and finishing off with the narrow perfection of Jabberwokee. I love the Super D crowd! Everyone is out to have fun on bikes. Not to seem like I was too into the fun though, when I spotted Subaru-Trek team rider Russell Finsterwald heading out with his SRM on for what looked like a workout, I hopped on and we did a little Nathan Riddle directed double alternative trail exploring on the west end of the Watershed after an hour of climbing as fast as we could. Gotta get in shape for those World Cups sometime…
It's not all Gravity fed these days. Racing the Summit High crit wednesday night was good old fashioned work...
Hopefully these two fun race wins are a sign that the last few weeks of busting my ass, smartly, is going to pay off in the form of good summer legs. We’ll just have to wait until the Mont Saint Anne World Cup on July 2nd to find out! I’m excited to see myself…
I might just apply some of the skills outlaid in the singletrack.com "Novice to Gnar" video series that's dropping right about now at the next two World Cup rounds... Check it out-