I headed to Ashland on Tuesday morning with my buddy Casey Sanchez and Mark Jordan from Decline Magazine. We rolled out about noon in just enough time to park at the top of Mt. Ashland to do a run and I managed to get two flats on the fire road on the way down. Then we had Matt Wittler take us back to the top and we checked into a hotel in downtown Ashland for the night.
The next morning I put on some WTB Weirwolf LT 2.55's on a brand new Giant Reign and we had Wild Bill from Ashland Mountain Adventures shuttle us a few times.
The course is about 12.06 miles with about 5000 feet of descending and 800 feet of climbing to keep it real. It was a real high speed course with only a couple rock gardens, allot of switchbacks, and a few doubles. Every time I rode the course the weather at one end was completely different than the weather at the other. It was raining most of the week at the top but by the bottom it was dusty. It wasn't cold rain, except for Saturday, so it was kind of fun to ride in.
For the rest of the week WTB posted us up in a sick house in the middle of nowhere then five miles down a gravel road....you know the one right next to the Buddhist Temple. We stashed 10 people in this thing!
The race rolled around and I seriously had no idea what I was going to do. There were over 40 pro's and allot of big names. I got decked in my long sleeve Northstar-At-Tahoe skin suit and let her rip. It was about 45 degrees at the top and about 70 in town. The whole week I have been wearing baggies and jackets and to put on a skin suit it was insanely fast. I passed my minute man about five minutes in so I figured I was off to a good start. The climb SUCKED, just pinning it, but it was over in no time. Then it got so foggy I had to go granny style with my glasses just to see 10ft in front of me. Besides thinking I can take a fire road turn with no brakes after spinning out in a 44-11 and having my life flash in front of me the run went pretty smooth. It didn't seem as fast as some times I went but I never went this hard the whole run, just parts a time.
Got to the bottom and changed and headed back up to the top and riders were still going off. Then they announced the top 5, no Nate, Adam Craig beat Jason by 2 seconds. I ran inside to see the results and I got 6th, only 15 seconds behind 5th. I was pretty stoked with that result because it's three minutes faster than my time two years ago and considering who showed up to race it was a solid result.
I packed up and headed back that night and got home around 9:30pm. Took Monday off and did absolutely nothing. It was an awesome week with allot of fun and a solid result, next time I'm getting in on the money though. Next race is All Mountain World Championships in Downieville.
pics:
1.secret bike shop
2.results
3.mark didn't like the bunny we found
4.the top
5.Casey and the Buddist Temple
6. YEAH
7.Casey's truck
8.Ice river
9.Pink Bike Pic
10.It's legal to ride in the back of trucks in Oregon. Thanks Ahland Mountain Adventures!!!!
