NW MTB Series

First of all, my apologies for not posting here this season. As they say “too many irons in the fire”! In some ways, I feel like my “iron” has been in the fire too long! Anyway, what’s been going on? Well, we opened a bike shop in Wenatchee last winter www.ridgecyclesport.com. The kids are growing up and seem to consume more and more time. After taking two months off last winter to “recover” my general health condition is good but my performance continues to be compromised and this season it is worse than ever. The good news is that I have some different Drs. taking a look and despite dealing with this for five years, I still have some hope that the puzzle can be solved! Read more »

What 10 years of MTB racing as “professional” looks like on a screen…

2013
El Paso Puzzler El Paso, TX 1st
Miles of DisComfort Comfort, TX 1st
TMBRA Marathon Series Overall Texas 1st
NUE#1 True Grit Epic George, UT 4th
Mudslinger Stage Race (SS) Blodgett, OR 1st
Sea Otter Classic (XC-SS) Monterey, CA 1st
Stottlemeyer 60 Port Gamble, WA DNF
USAC 24hr National Championship Gallup, NM 9th
Humbug Hurry-Up Yreka, CA 1st
Test of Endurance 50 Blodgett, OR 1st
High Cascades 100 Bend, OR 5th
Cascade Cream Puff 100 Westfir, OR 1st
Park City P2P Park City, UT 6th
Oakridge Fat55 Oakridge, OR 1st Read more »

Pauly on the gas! by Matt Haughey

Salem Short Track 2013 was well represented by Team REALL. The Monday evening series took place the first three weeks in August in Salem at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. On August 5th, my teammates Ryan Eisele and Jeremy Warnicke raced in Pro/Cat 1 finishing in 8th and 10th place respectively. They continued their rivalry in Single speed with Jeremy placing 5th and Ryan placing 6th. My brother Matt and I, performed well, too with Matt placing 2nd in Juniors while I placed 3rd in Cat 3.

On August 12, Julia Fudge came up from Eugene and earned a solid first in the Women’s Cat 2! Matt placed first in the Junior division and I came sixth in Cat 3. Jeremy returned and finished 8th in Pro/Cat 1 and held 5th place for the second week in a row in single speed.

The final race was the 19th. Paul Zweigart raced and placed 4th in the Men’s Cat 2. Julia again finished 1st place in her division. Matt and I, each took first in our categories! Ryan returned to action riding to 12th place in Pro/Cat 1 and finished strong in single speed in fourth place. Jeremy rode to 10th place in Pro/Cat 1 and maintained his 5th place standing in the single speed category. Read more »

Finally Got it Back!

Earlier this year I received word that the Humbug Hurry-Up would be offering riders a return to its old historic course. At the time, I still had grandiose illusions of traveling the country racing hundred milers and national championships so I simply pushed it to the back of my consciousness and forged ahead. After the debacle in New Mexico at 24 Hour Nationals, I did some serious soul searching. While I still harbored a desire to attend some of the races I had chosen early on, reality of our impending move to Washington state was setting in. Then I remembered Yreka and the Humbug! Read more »

Curvy Mojo SLR and Curvy Bridge!

A few weekends ago I didn’t venture south, instead I stayed up here and spent a rainy four hours scoping out some gravel roads and not really doing much more than a lengthy out-and-back ride on Saturday. Sunday, with improved weather, I headed to the Wilson River trail in Tillamook State Forest for a second exploration (I was also there two weeks ago).

I like this trail. It’s not really technical, but it’s up and down and all around, through the woods and sometimes steep and difficult to ascend but a dream to descend. After a few miles on the trail I crossed a pretty neat bridge that happens to be right above the PERFECT summer swimming hole! I felt compelled to snap a picture of the well engineered and delightfully curvy Ibis SLR next to the similarly configured wooden bridge. Read more »

This year, my teammate Ryan Eiesle and I chose Bear Springs Trap XC as our first race of the season. We both entered the single speed class again this year after our good finishes last season. This time I geared down to 32/18 from a 32/16 last year hoping to improve on my 6th place finish. Bear Springs is one of my favorite courses of the year: it’s probably 85% single and double track with just a few gravel and pavement sections. It is very technical riding in some parts with big rocks, roots and some tight switch backs. It also includes some sections that are very fast. I started off the race at about the same pace as last year hoping to be faster on the climbs with the change of gearing. I worked my way up to around 8th place and felt good on one of the biggest climbs but at the 17 mile mark on the second big climb I hit “the wall” and started going backwards fast. I felt horrible and probably would have DNFed if I had known the a fast way back to the start. I ended up in a disappointing 15th place but even with that, this race is still one of my favorite races and definitely one to try if you like a real MTB ride. Ryan finished a very impressive 4th considering the three riders ahead of him normally race the in the pro class. Next up is the Coast Hills Classic. I plan on racing the single speed again–hopefully for a little redemption!

JW