Once again Ripley turned out a "Believe It or Not" course with over 9000 feet of climbing in a great 50 mile mountain bike course. There was plenty of tight singletrack snaking through the dense ferns and mossy Oregon Coast Range forest to offset the gravel road climbing. Check out the Garmin file on MotionBased - ouch.
Team Cannondale (James and I) joined a few other Bendites for the trip east to race on Sunday morning only to find that nearly every other Pro mountain biker in Oregon had the same idea. The likes of Adam Craig, Barry Wicks, Ryan Trebon, Erik Tonkin and others all toed the start line looking to the T.O.E for some training for upcoming races like BC Bike Race, Breck Epic and US MTB Nationals.
The race pace quickly ramped up as Adam and Barry rode away from the 20+ Pro field chasers. Having settled in with the lead chase group I spent the next 4hrs pulling up/down my arm warmers to combat the 50deg rain squalls, popping 2x caffeine Espresso GU gels and wondering if my lower back could possibly tear through my skin. I moved around in the 3rd place to 6th place, getting passed in the last 30 minutes as my legs went wooden and pedalling circles turned to squares.
All in all a good day of racing with the "fast boys", great course with tons of extra bomber singletrack, and as always with Mudslinger Events races, cash and delicious food waiting at the finish line.
- Ben Thompson
