Oakridge Super D!

Thor and I rolled down to Oakridge over the weekend for the Oakridge Super D.  It was sort of a bittersweet weekend because Thor woke up on Saturday feeling fluish, and nowhere near 100% on his bike. He has been locked in a battle for overall series champion and needed to be on top of his game for the race on Sunday - unfortunately he woke up feeling worse on Sunday, tried to race anyways even though he was feeling dizzy and had vertigo on the bike - and crashed out (shredding his kit in the process).  Very sad.  Unfortunately all four races in the series count towards the overall standings - so he won't get to drop his worst race.

Bye bye carbon Santa Cruz Nomad bike frame (overall series prize for his category).

 

 My race, on the other hand, went great!   I got 2nd place in my

category, my best finish of the season - AND what I was even more excited about is that I cleared the 15-mile course in under an hour (~59:40)!  Last year's winning time was ~1:06:00 - so I was pleased to shave over 6-minutes off that time.  The woman that beat me is from Seattle and she is a) incredibly fast, and b) possibly the nicest person ever - so it was no problem to come in 2nd to her - because she's just fantastic all around. =) (AND - I would have made the top-5 pro podium with my time - which is also a first for me!).  I won two tubeless ready Continental Tires (a Mountain King and a Trail King) - which was a GREAT prize. I've really loved the Continental tires I've ridden on in the past - so it will be fun to try a few more out.

 

 My run was not perfect (I rode perhaps my sloppiest switchbacks of the season - sooo ugly! - I actually had to get off my bike at one steep, 180-degree turn and flip my bike around to face the correct direction before I could get back on!) -- BUT -- overall I did a much better job than usual of staying off my brakes and accelerating on the straight-aways - so I felt really good about my run even before I saw my time.

 

An extra special treat was the bear grass at the top of the course that was blooming - that only happens about once every seven years - this was the first time either Thor or I had seen it. Absolutely beautiful!