Yes, if you couldn't read the branding on the chunks of log Ryan and Taylor are holding that's a 1st and 2nd respectively.
Let me start at the beginning ... Sunday morning Taylor Bushnell and Ryan Garner showed up at my (Dave Bisers) house at a quarter to five in the morning to take a trip down to the Return on the Jedi race put on by the Pistis team which is about 25 miles NW of Grant's Pass. After a few hours on I-5 cresting that pass and looking onto the Siskiyou's never gets old. After getting off I-5 and stopping for gas (and a special treat for Taylor; read further) our path continued along the beautiful Rogue river and then onto a forest service road to the race course.
After registration and a little warm-up with the 32:18 I wussed out and switched to a 20 tooth cog right before the start. After a litlle sprinkling at the start line Taylor and the rest of the Cat-1 field went off first with a lap around Saturday's short track loop (those who raced on Saturday could have also done a Super-D; I'm definetly am planning on making a whole weekend of it some future year) and took off on their 30 mile ride.
Ryan (Cat 2) and I (SS) started our 23 mile race off with a 4ish mile climb. From what I hear Ryan took the lead and swapped that position a few times during the climb but ultimatley crested the top in the lead and never gave it up. I personally witnissed what seemed like the entire SS and Cat 2 fields passing me shortly after the start as I attempted to spin my tiny little gear as fast as I could; there's something very absurd about singlespeeders racing on flat pavement. We climbed pavement for a while and then entered a short singletrack section where I proceeded to blindly cut the inside of corner trying to pass a slower ride only to discover 2 logs that I at crap on. After this section I climbed for another half hour or so. An aside: I started the graduate program at University of Oregon for Architecture last June. I was in pretty good shape that June and retained alot of that fitness through the cyclocross season but by the time the 2011 XC season started the hours in the studio and not riding had really taken its toll. This season I've been towards the back of the singlespeed field that in previous years I had gotten used to riding near the front of. Settling into a good rythm of sitting and standing on this first long climb and reeling in many of the Cat 2 racers was a good feeling. Its a signal that I'm really getting some of that old fitness back. I've got 3 months till the Shenandoah 100 and want to be in the best 100 miler shape I've ever been in for that race.
Then the fun stuff started. The climb tipped over into a screaming fast, loose, abandoned fire road descent which then turned into some slightly sketchy, ripping singletrack. That singletrack section was my favorite part of the course. I excel at the tech stuff, the loosier and sketchier a race course is the better my results. I got to bring back quite a few riders on this section. We bottomed out at a creek, probably the lowest part of this course, and settled in for a long and shallow (almost false flat) climb and got to actually look around appreciate the scenery this part of Oregon has to offer. The Rogue valley in the summer is more arid than us in the Williamette valley are used to and quite a nice change from all the rain we've had. After finishing this second long climb we were treated to the namesake of this race; the Jedi Trail. Three miles of rolling singletrack that required me to stay on the gas the whole time. When I hit the final bit of road back to the finish I had a smile on my face. For me the point of biking up a hill is so you can go down. Singletrack like that is what I live for.
Pistis put on a race that really exemplifies mountain biking. In addtion to providing a fantastic race course that they had a great barbeque. Ryan and I waited for Taylor to finish while eating some burgers and drinking some Ninkasi Oatmeal Stout and hanging out with Andrew and Maire who are also from Eugene.
Awards treated the team well where Taylor got 2nd place in the Cat 1 19-34, his first podium in that class in the season, and Ryan took the win in the Cat 2 19-34. He's well on his way to clinching the series title. We also got to see Maire get her 2nd place
and another great rider, Cosmic Miller, get his award.
This guy's the real deal. He's been traveling from Everett, WA to the entire OBRA XC series to contest the Cat 2 55+ category. I first met him racing the Sierra Tahoe 100 down in California and have seen him all over the Pacific Northwest since then.
Then the real event of the day started. The raffle. Ryan, Taylor, myself and the other 6 (?) people sitting at our picnic table each won something at that raffle. I've never seen such a dominant showing in my racing career. On the drive home we stopped at the same gas station on the way out where Taylor finally found what he's been looking for a long time.
This is how they roll in the Rogue Valley.
We cruised into Eugene around 5:30. Team Tensegrity laid waste to southern Oregon and was back home all in just over 12 hours. Great race and great showing by everyone involved. Now if we can just remember how to steer our road bikes in tomorrow's crit race.
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