Every year in Oregon we have the OBRA championships for each disipline. For the road event, it is tradition to have a “rehearsal” race the weekend before followed by the actual championship race.

The Rehearsal is contested for prizes while the Championship for medals and bragging rights. The course is generally harder than most races around here so it actually somewhat suits a strong rider.

Unfortunately the nature of racing here in Oregon doesn’t because it seems that once a break forms off the front, the rest of the field quits racing. At least that has been the case every in every road event I have done this season.

That being said, I did a lot of hard riding both days and MISSED the break on each occasion. I didn’t have the right finish in either race although I finished both times in the main bunch.

Here are my Motionbased files if you want to check it out and compare each event.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8334653

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8342656

Thanks for reading!

Ah sweet vindication! Back to one of my favorite races–Spring Thaw in Ashland, Oregon. After a year off winning here I came back ready to rain on the GT Golden Bike Parade and all others for that matter.

This race is totally old school MTB–single lap format: long fireroad climb with a little singletrack finishing with a nice long singletrack decent. Kind of like every “fun” ride I ever do!

After wandering around in the mud last week I just went out with my HR monitor and rode just at LBP or a little above on the climb. It was more than enough and I had dispatched all the competition within a couple miles.

So, I backed it off and cruised around the loop for another stop on top of the podium! Good training and nice winning…

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8246825

The only damper on the weekend was missing doubling up with the Silverton Road Race for some extra training.

A win is still a win… Yeah, baby!

After many years of galavanting around the ‘States chasing after some MTB racing dream or another things have changed. I came up with a simple calendar of out-of-state travel for the seaon that included a handful of special events.

The second on the list was DIRT SWEAT and GEARS in Fayatteville, Tennessee. Unfortunately while this event delivered with a great promotion it completely lacked any sense when it came to race day logistics. Now I wish my calendar was at least one trip shorter!

It seems that no one in the organization actually rides bikes because as soon as the race began, everyone racing immediately realized that the race was really over before in even started.

Evidently this part of the country is suffering from some sort of global climate affliction and has been having torrential rain for the last month or more. (note: they have had drought for several years… but I digress–again)

Anyway, the rain started about 5 minutes before the race and water was coming out of the sky, out of the ground and seemingly everwhere where else. While it was just a brief shower the damage was done and as soon as the rain stopped, the said muck morphed into cement.

Within a lap and a half the race had deteriorated to carrying 80lb bikes through the woods. Wow, fun–really worth the trip guys!

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view/234968

To make matters worse, it seems that some of the east coast boys and the USAC officials have forgotten that this was a mountain bike race and supposedly conducted with rules. Rules that state that all repairs must be done by the racer and that the racer must compete on the same bicycle throughout.

While some of us spent lots of cash to fly across the country on airplanes with bikes, these folks evidently thought that switching bicycles twice per lap and having mechanics clean and repair them while they continued to “race” was fair play. I even had them asking me for tire sealer so they could change to cross tires!

Bottom line: I didn’t have extra bikes or mechanics; my drivetrain broke off the bike before I could finish two laps and “racing” was over for me. The “winners” did four laps in 12 hours with all their bikes and support and I went home out about a grand… Enough said!

Ciao,

VP

It is beyond me why we are already nearly half way through the MTB series here in Oregon and it is the first week in May…

Must be time for the Championships! Sorry for the cynical attitude but I still haven’t recovered from snow-bike-walking last week.

On to Blogett, Oregon for umpteenth Mudslinger Classic. Usual Oregon crowd fighting it out in the usual mud bog. I tried to drop them at the starr, and throughout the first lap, but just didn’t have the usual hammer for some reason… Then my seatpack busted off–nice, tools MIA.

Carl Decker (Giant) put the hammer down on his singlespeed and dropped us–Erik Tonkin (Kona), Sean Babcock (S&M),and I. Then silly decided he wanted his tools and tried to make a quick pitstop but ended up wiping out and playing “can I stand up and walk uphill in the mud”.

Racing over with an underachieving 4th place. Makes me wonder what would have happened with a little more bike RIDING last week! Oh, and a little luck with the bag–thanks a lot Topeak! I can say that since they are NOT my sponsor…

Thanks YOU all, though, for your support–maybe another OBRA championship next year for me!

-VP