Echo Red to Red XC Mountain Bike Race

Who drives 8 hours for a two hour mountain bike race? Well, when it's early March and you're itching to do some racing, it's not a tough decision, especially when the weather is sunny and warm.

Fri night saw Serena and I loading up the car and getting on the road for a while so that we weren't leaving at 5 in the morning. We got to hwy 84 around midnight and got some shut eye in a state park just across the river from Biggs.

Some coffee and food and we were on the road in the morning, arriving in Echo around 9. It was a beautiful morning and there was a great crowd of folks out for a mountain bike race in some unseasonably warm weather. Echo is not surrounded by mountains or trees, but just endless rolling farmland, not what you would think of for mountain biking, but the race, the course, the crowds of racers...couldn't have been better.

A mass start saw the cat1/pro/single speed combined fields roll out. A little chaos on the dirt road leading into the single track caught me off gaurd and with a gap between me and a good group of folks we came screaming down the hill towards the single track. I got around a few riders at the last second, but immediately found myself slowing my pace in the twisting and turning that would continue for another 20 something miles. I made my way around folks where I could and extended a lot of effort in doing so, but would quickly recover and chase down the next group. I was getting into a good rhythm when an old teammate in front of me had a quick crash, without anyroom to avoid it we got tangled up and crashed, meanwhile some of the 10 riders we had worked to pass went screaming by. Back on the chase. Again I was picking people off one by one, feeling good that I was still moving up and feeling like I had some good legs. Some short fast climbs led into a rocky side-hill descent that was full of sharp rocks. Coming around the next corner I felt my rear wheel slip out and make the tell tale noise of a tire running way too low and rolling off. I pulled off the course and inspected the tire. I couldn't find any leaks or sealent coming out. I figured maybe it just burped some air out. I only had two c02 cartridges to work with so I decided to give the first one a shot and see if the tire didn't just seal up...no such luck, sealant came squirting out of a decent size gash right on top of the tire. I dug through my pockets again and fished out a tube and a gel wrapper to get the tire back going. My last co2 cartridge did the trick and I was rolling again after what seemed like the entire cat 1/pro/ singlespeed field had passed me. I knew my race was over at this point, but I wasn't about to soft pedal so I kept chasing and making my way up. I never made it even close to where I was when I flatted, but it was an amazingly fun course and a great day of racing around in the sun. Miles and miles of sunny snaking singletrack up and down over the prarie...Not a bad way to spend a saturday. A long finish section of dirt road and pavement rolled back into the tiny town of Echo and a welcome burrito.

Great races by the crew of sunnyside folks that were out there. A great win for Don. A great win for Serena. A bunch of second places and just a lot of happy racers!

It was great see so many people out and racing. It seemed like one of the bigger mountain bike races and its only March. I think between the weather and having a winter off, most folks were pretty anxious to get out. It's nice having some early races where conditions are excellent, makes me think we should have some more early races in around eastern oregon...Horse Ridge?

Screwed up and lost my photos, but I can assure you Serena sleeps with her bike, I had it documented.