Echo Red to Red XC, photo courtesy Oregon Velo
Singlespeed: by Kurt Haas
I raced at the Echo Mtb. race in the singlespeed field. It was a fast and tough race with some out of a state riders pushing the pace. I had a good race considering I had not touched my mountain bike since last fall except for the shakedown ride this last week around town with my daughter in tow on the tag-a-long. I was riding with the #2 & #3 riders for over 1/2 of the race (the winner was long gone at this point) but they slowly started to pull away from me and I decided to cut my losses and not chase. I made sure to not lose any places after that point finishing in 4th place, but saved some legs for today at the BB#2.
On a side note, this is the 2nd year of this race way over in Echo (aprox. 4 hour drive from Salem out I-84) and I have to say it has become one of my favorite races of the whole Oregon Mtb. scene. The long course is 28 miles long and 22 of those miles are on single track without any mud, which is unheard of on most races. Amazing trails, great organization, well marked, and wonderful atmosphere. If you are considering mountain bike racing, I would check this race out next year. Hope to see some of you out there on the dirt side of things.
Mens CAT2: by Dusty Miller
Kurt and I where at Echo, and it was a perfect day for MTB race. The course was almost all tight and sometimes rough single track. I believe Kurt got 4th in the always fast single speed category, and I didn’t fair so well. I was towards the front of the cat 2 (sport) race, my guess 4th or 5th because the group I was with all scored podium spots in their age groups. Well with about 2 miles to go there was a turn off for the Pro’s/cat 1 and for some reason they pointed me that way. Probably the result of the sexy new team kit. Anyway I did an extra seven miles. I guess the moral victory is that I still didn’t finish last even with the extra loop. A bummer considering the drive time.
