It's always a pleasant advantage racing in your hometown, as was the case this past Sunday. It's nice knowing just how much you can push, drift and slide in the Central Oregon dust and dirt--not to mention the ability to enjoy an all-together agreeable wake-up time and casual breakfast on your own front porch before rolling 3 miles to the start line. And when there's approximately 836 corners to negotiate per lap, it helps to have ridden the same trails innumerable times.
In Bend, one must be wary of the concept Ross Schnell experienced and thus coined here, known as the "eye-bonk." Lots of paying attention to the trail in front of you...After a fast, but manageable start, 4 locals (Ben and myself included) had a nice gap early in the singletrack and worked to distance ourselves over the familiar turns, twists and spotty (tight) rock sections (more on the rocks later), leaving chasers Evan Plews, Brett Nichols and others from out-of-town struggling with the unfamiliar.
With Shep driving the pace, we worked to keep him (somewhat) in sight, which worked for about 35min. We regained sight of Mr. Chris Sheppard with beer in hand, standing at the finish line, 1.5hrs later.
Realizing though I didn't feel exactly bad, I lacked the snap of previous weeks, and decided to "just hang on," letting Ben by to lead the chase of Brig's wheel.
Old Man Thompson made a well timed jump on brief fire-road section, gaining the lead into the next one-track, putting Brig and I in an uncomfortable state while opening a gap for himself. Well done.
Brig chased and I marked Brig's wheel hoping Thompson would repeat his winning move from two years back- when he did the same thing to the two of us.
We were all together at the bottom, grabbing bottles, shovelling GU Chomps down and starting a second lap when a sickening expensive alloy-meets-rock sound ground behind us--punctuated by some fearsome yelling from Ben... poor fella tore off his derailleur hanger weaving his way (quickly) through a narrow and twisty rock field. Doh.
Never one to be easily derailed, Ben made do...read the end of the article below (link included) to hear Ben's tale of finishing, despite.
Seeking to gain some fitness and seeking to avoid being faced with the prospect of sprinting Brig in the final 2k of fire road (which would not doubt end poorly for me), I weaseled away on some uphill singletrack and kept out of sight 'till the finish to take second by half a minute.
I was pumped on how fast I was descending on the Scalpel, much faster than my pre-ride on my hardtail earlier in the week. And with low-weight for uphill pedaling, there's no penalty for riding the full-banger. Neat.
All in all, a fine and proud day for Cannondale. And I made enough money for groceries for the next week and a half...
Next up, defending the state short-track title...
Newspaper article (Bend Bulletin- also known as my employers) describing the race shakedown and why Ben Thompson is (still) "the man": http://www.bendbulletin.com/
