Bear Springs (snow) Trap?!

It’s already May, and bike racing is in full effect here in Oregon. We’re about halfway through the XC Classics Series and it feels like we only just began. Last year was my first time to Bear Springs Trap, so I still didn’t really know what to expect. I flew home to Portland on Friday, and drove up to Mt Hood Saturday morning in time to help Petr and the guys at Hurricane help set up and get ready for the Short Track Race that afternoon.

As usual, I took my time getting ready to race and showed up to the small start line without much of a warm up. They called out the small number of racers that were there and we were off to a fast start. As I tried to stay with the leaders on the first lap, I crashed in some snow on the descent and watched the rest of the racers cruise by. I played catch up for the next thirty minutes, holding on for third on the day.

The next morning was XC, and I was signed up to help with registration in the morning. It must have been about thirty degrees until the sun came out, and made it hard to choke down breakfast in between the shivers. Once again I made it to the start line with a sissy warm up and it was time to race. By then the sun was higher in the sky and the conditions were beautiful, no arm or leg warmers for me, this was going to be a gentleman’s race!

The start was fast and I soon found myself lost in a sea of spandex. It didn’t take long for the pack to string out, and I couldn’t help feeling like I was dead last. It turned out that many people took a wrong turn, so I wasn’t too far off. About three or four times throughout the race I had to stop and look around for trail markings, scream some obscenities in the middle of the woods, and continue on hoping that I was on the right course!

I finally started to recognize parts of the trail about three or four miles from the finish, buried the pin and finished in sixth, just shy of eight minutes behind the first place rider.

Until next time,
Trevor Pratt