Sisters Stampede MTB Race, by Greg

For the inaugural edition of the Stampede, Csaba's family and the O'Brien clan rented a sweet house in the Tollgate area of Sisters for the long weekend. We all arrived late Friday, and spent Saturday relaxing and playing with the kids until about 2 when Csaba and I rode to town to pick up our numbers, etc for the race. We then rode a few miles of the course to check it out. Despite the recent rains, the course was pretty darn dry.

Csaba riding smooth!

On Sunday morning, a few raindrops were present as we rode to the start. A big crowd was there, which was great to see for a new race. We started as a huge group of all age groups of men's Cat 2's and singlespeeds. I staged late and had a pretty crummy position. The start was a dirt road that wound around for a bit before getting into the woods. For what seemed like 4 or 5 miles, we were on wide trail/doubletrack that helped to spread out the field. I felt good and went hard to get closer to the front before hitting the long singletrack sections.

Huffin' and Puffin'

The course was 29 miles, and it was fast with no real long sustained climbs. You really had to focus, as there were many, many rocky sections that came up right after speedy descents on lightly bermed fast trail. The penalty for crashing could be severe on some of the hillside traverse sections.

Birthday Boy Mike

I was able to push it hard with no cramping and finished 4th in the Cat 2 45-54 field. Former Cyclismite Justin Serna and I worked well together pushing a hard pace for quite a while before he got up the trail by a minute or so near the end.

All in all a great vacation weekend and race!

Greg

Photos courtesy of Oregon Velo and InFocus Eye Care