OBRA XC Championships–another title!

Being the year of the single speed and having never raced the category in local events, I took the challenge of competing for the OBRA title. Nothing too great, but we have had some distinguished champions over the years including yours truly in several disciplines so why not?

The race was held at Alsea Falls just southwest of Corvallis Oregon. The state has opened up a few miles of single track in that area for MTB and it was my first visit. The course consisted of a short six mile lap that included a bit of flat pavement and fireroad, a super steep gravel climb and some twisty rooted trail back down.

It wasn’t a great SS course since there was no way to gear appropriately for the climbing and be pedaling much the rest of the time. I geared low (2:1) for me and still struggled just to make the 20+ percent grade thus dashing any hope of duking it out with the geared boys for the overall. Plus the promoter only planned three laps for the single speed event which wasn’t much more than an hour.

I won that easily and continued for a bonus lap just to see where I would end up. While I wasn’t able to overtake all the geared boys, I did finish fourth overall which was pretty cool under the circumstances!