MTB Stampede in Sisters

Just like Cascade Chainbreaker, this year is the first time I’ve done this race. And it won’t be the last!  Weather couldn’t have been more perfect, cool and sunny in the morning with high temp expected in the mid 60’s with some light winds. The rain (and SNOW) earlier in the week made for some perfect trail conditions, not much dust for a change.

Who was there? Well, darned near EVERYONE! Looks like the numbers were in the mid 500’s for a turnout rivaling Echo Red-to-Red.  All the Cat 3’s were staged and started together at 10:30 with a cowboy leadout. I believe the early start was in an attempt to have all the Cat 3’s done before the fastest riders were coming through.  Interesting concept and it looks like it worked.

But it also meant that I was in the last group of starters, all the Cat 2 Women.  It was the biggest group I’d ever seen, pretty close to 50 riders.  They compacted the starts and we were on our way about 5 minutes sooner than expected, chasing the Clydesdales hard through the field and out onto the dirt roads for a few miles before the singletrack started. Kind of strange to have so much wide and flat course to get started, and the group stayed fairly close together as everyone sized up the competition and settled into place.

Once the singletrack started, I discovered who could ride over the rocks and who could NOT. We had started to work our way through the back of the Clydesdales and Cat 2 Mens fields. Unfortunately, it backed up a bit in a few places, but I was often able to ride through or push with a foot instead of stopping, it paid off to be assertive and not wait for the riders off their bikes to clear ahead.  But the trails were really fun and there were several women I was going back and forth with as we measured up each others’ strengths and weaknesses.  In any case, it was fun to have company out on the trails.

Most of the climbing was mellow and on the trail with one climb on red lava road, lots of fun swoopy cross-country singletrack, plenty of rocks, and I’ve been told there are some great views up there.  Good thing I’ve been there a couple of times before and can go ride there again, because I was NOT checking out the scenery, I was concentrating on riding hard and fast! My bike was chewing up everything I could give it and it never let me down.  I had just under 25psi in the tires and front suspension about midway and it was all perfect, up and down everything.

Unfortunately, I still have more to learn about race management. I was thinking we were getting close to the finish, we had a straight screaming-fast downhill on red lava road and left turn back onto singletrack (thankful for reliable brakes, good tires, and GREAT and well-placed course marshals) and I’m mentally preparing for a couple more miles and this guy comes past me and says “good job, only 8 to go”.  Oh crap.  My fault, I should have looked at the course map better and realized that there was an aide station with about 7.5miles to go and I hadn’t reached it yet.  So a bit of attitude adjustment, a little refueling and I was ready to push for the finish.

In the meantime, I had lost the riders ahead I had been keeping in contact with and who had been great motivation to keep me going just a little bit faster. I worked at trying to regain some ground, but I think they were all charging for the finish too! I enjoyed the last sections of singletrack knowing that the last couple of miles were going to be dirt road, and then I could see the big tent and it was just winding back around the parking lot and the field in reverse of the direction we had started and then I was DONE!

There were more great volunteers right at the finish serving recovery food and drink and my family was there waiting for me too, for the first time, I believe, at a mountain bike race.  So time for a little socializing, race recap and refueling, then time to dust off and change before taking advantage of a nice cold delicious and FREE Three Creeks Brewing beer.  My finish tag was buried somewhere in a stack of tags since the board only had space for about 8 Cat 2 35+ Women, so I knew I was somewhere in the middle of the pack since there were still riders I knew finishing after me. One gal said she thought there were 33 in my category!

When results posted, I was 16^th of 31 finishers and I was surprised how close the middle of the pack was. One of the women I had been riding with through the first 2/3 of the race finished 2 ½ minutes and 5 places in front of me. I still have some work to do to make it into the top half of a very competitive field, but it feels good to be closer to my nearest competitors and to finish with a smile on my face and air in my tires this time! With each race, I’m learning more.  I’m looking forward to using those skills next month at Pickett’s Charge!

In other REALL news from the Stampede, Ryan Eisele finished on the podium in third place single speed, Jeremy Warnicke rode to 18th in CAT1 19-34 and David Hill took ninth place in the CAT1 45+.

Julia