Cascade Chainbreaker MTB Race

This past weekend was the Cascade Chainbreaker MTB race in Bend, OR. Thor and I rolled down on Friday night for a weekend of camping and racing with a group of friends. No pictures, unfortunately, but overall it was a fabulous weekend – not too hot, and no rain either. Lovely.

Saturday was a nice, relaxing day. We leisurely got out of 'bed' and Thor set to work whipping up a batch of his infamous Lemon Ricotta pancakes on his new camp stove that he got for his birthday! After we had thoroughly stuffed ourselves we headed out to explore the Phil's trail system and ended up getting in about 17 miles on our bikes! The trails were dry and fast, and we had a great time ripping around on the flowly corners. There was even a fun log that both Thor and I rode (Margi has some video of this - but it will probably be awhile before that makes it over to Thor and I. I'll post it if I get it though!)

The race started at 10 a.m. Sunday morning, and overall I was really pleased with the way I raced. I think Thor was pretty happy with his race as well (he got 8th for his category!!!)- although you'll have to pester him via email if you want any sort of detailed race report!

I went out harder than I normally would have on a fire road start (which is a good thing – because I tend to just dilly dally on the course when left to my own devices) and this put me in a pretty good position when we hit the single track (about 8th). I held my position until we hit the first downhill and then I cut the inside corner while the other women rode the established line around the outer edge of the corner. This allowed me to pass about three women and I was really glad I did because the remaining portion of the starter lap had some technical portions that I was glad I didn’t have to wait on anyone else to go through!

About 15 minutes into the race we hit fireroad again and shortly after that Margi came FLYING by me at about a million miles an hour. She was talking to me about something, but I couldn’t really tell what she was saying and just watched as she whizzed off up the fireroad on her way to securing her first mtb win of the season. =) Nice job!

I was riding in a pack of about 5 women, one of whom eventually won my race (my good friend, Becky). Things were going pretty well, but Becky and I were stuck behind a couple women who were pretty timid on the single track, but who would just open it up and take off each time we hit a section of fireroad. Becky & I would get dropped on the fireroads, and then immediately catch back up once we got into the more technical riding – unfortunately we couldn’t get around them on the single track! Becky finally managed to pass them on a hill – but I mis-shifted and couldn’t get around them (rookie mistake – but one I make ALL the time! I really have to concentrate on which way to shift for my front ring).

A short while later we hit a short section of fire road and I shifted down, stood up (yes Michelle – I actually got OUT of my saddle during a race!) and virtually killed myself going around these three women on the fireroad. I was determined to put as much distance as possible between myself and these ladies on the next section of single track so I was really pushing the pace, and unfortunately mis-judged the depth of the sand on one corner…. I don’t really remember exactly what happened – I think I dove my front wheel, but the next thing I knew there was a guy standing over me asking if I was okay and if he could help. I told him if he would just drag my bike out of the trail I thought I would just lie there for a bit and he could keep going. And lie there I did. For probably a full minute or two while at least 20 people rode by and asked if I was okay. I wacked my knee on something and hit the ground hard enough to knock my breath away, and it took me a bit before I felt stable enough to a) stand up, b) decide if I wanted to put weight on my knee, and c) ride my bike. I soft pedaled alongside the trail for about 5 minutes just getting my bearings back and contemplated dropping out – but then realized I still had to get back off the course so I had at least 6 miles or so to go before I could stop riding, so I decided to just start slowly going again and see what happened.

Eventually I felt better, and by the time I got back to the start/finish area I had decided to just keep going and do the second lap. A benefit of crashing was that most of the crush of people had passed me so I was able to whiz along at my own pace – I slowly started picking people off that had passed me while I was down, and I rode the second lap clean with no crashes!

Overall I was really pleased with the way the race went – I pushed myself harder than I normally do at the start, and I only crashed because I was pushing the pace and trying to take agressive lines – which is also good practice for me. The crash was frustrating, but I was really proud of myself for not dropping out, and for getting back into the race instead of just staying frustrated that I’d gone down and lost so many positions. I ended up battling my way back up into 3rd (which I didn’t know until Margi texted me after the race – we were already an hour out of Bend), and was only 40 seconds behind the woman who finished ahead of me for 2nd place – so I was pretty happy about that (although I was still a full FOUR minutes behind Becky, and a whopping SEVEN minutes behind Margi!!!).

Chainbreaker was a super fun race and a great course – we’ll definitely be back next year!