Jedi Mountain Bike Festival

I remember Cliff saying last year he wasn't planning on holding the 'Return on the Jedi' mountain bike race the following year, as turnout was low and it was too much work. But something changed his mind, because this year he and the Pistis crew went all out, providing 3 days of quality biking adventure in the Onion Mountain outback.

The setting for the venue was Sam Brown horse camp, a remote and uncrowded camping area that is reached from the Rogue River basin by traveling 13 miles up a winding single-lane road. Free camping and beautiful scenery - I think I've gone over this before in reports from the last 2 years.

The Pistis' (church related group who've gone especially nuts about mountain biking this year) set up the Blazing Saddles kitchen in the main pagoda, where they dispensed breakfast lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday : free for the volunteers, $5 a meal for the general racing public. 3 races were being held : a short track and SuperD on Saturday, and the main event - the grueling cross country race - on Sunday. Short track sees you spin around a short 1-mile loop of fire roads and single track, for as many laps as you can manage in the alloted time - usually around 45 minutes. SuperD is a cross-country downhill - nothing 2 technical - with a few climbs thrown in.

Leading up to the weekend, I had decided again to race the old (heavy) Giant. The fork for the Jet9 had been repaired, but with the suspect linkage, didn't want to have it break on the first of 3 days of riding and then be stuck with nothing to ride. But in a climbing course like the Jedi, with some 5500 vf of uphill, the Giant was going to be quite a bit slower - probably 10 or 15 minutes. Since I theoretically wouldn't be doing too well in the race, I figured may as well sign up for the short track and SuperD as well, since there was no sense in 'saving myself' for the XC race. Similarly, decided to do a ride on the way down on Friday, and probably another ride that evening, when would met up with the Sorenson's at the campground.

So hit Diamond Lake around noon on Friday, seeing there was a cool trail climbing up Mt. Bailey. A few thousand feet of gain, but probably wouldn't get that high due to snow and time restrictions. Sure enough, hit snow quite low down, but got in an enjoyable 1.5 hour exploratory ride.

Got to the race site campground late afternoon, had dinner and a couple of brews, and caught the shuttle to the top so we could do a practise run on the SuperD course. The top part of the course was all fireroads with loose rock - sketchy at high speeds - then it flattened out a bit, with a few climbs, then onto the twisty Jedi trail to the finish. Note to self : riding with a stomach full of spaghetti and beer is not a good idea.

Next morning, time for the short track. Cool little course, but sweltering heat abounds, and race gets delayed until it's baking at 11:30 am. People poke fun at my heavy bike, and in no time I'm in last place in the group of 15 or so. Feel gassed from the first climb, but end up not finishing dead last. So few participants, finish 3rd in my class and medal anyways. A few hours later, and it's downhill time. Another long slow ride up in the shuttle craft. Then a crazy Lemans running start and we're off. After the practise run yesterday, am feeling ballsy, and hammer it well down the sketchy rock roads, making it probably into the top 5. But then hit the flats ands subsequent up-gradient, and get swarmed by half-a-dozen climbers who blow past me and I never see again. Still, finish second in my class, and another medal. The great story is ChrisS and another guy who show up walking across the finish line an hour later, 3 flats and a broken chain between them.


Thunder and lighting make an appearance that night, but only a light sprinkle follows, so terrain still hot and dusty the next day (of course nothing like the real dust in Central OR). The main event is under way at 9am - still acceptable temps at this point. During the prologue loop - which winds its way through trails around the campground - including the famous deep creek crossings, I'm experiencing major sluggishness and overall fatigue, and I slow down and relax, knowing I'm going to be out here 3.5 hours anyways. Then start the 1 hour climb to the top - yep all systems are reporting efficiency levels way below normal - so at this point really stop racing, and decide to just enjoy the ride. ChrisS has gotten way ahead, climb for a bit with DerekF, but he too grows weary of my languid pace and soon moves on. Much later, I walk my bike up the last rocky bit to the top, and who do I see but ChrisS, engaged in what looks like major surgery on his bike. Apparently his Stan's has spewed forth, and he's trying to repair the subsequent evisceration. I stop and offer him tubes and air, but he's got enough of that (as opposed to yesterday, when he didn't have any :). So move in, thinking he'll probably catch me later once he's rolling.

I enjoy the awesome 3000 ft downhill, and resuscitate myself leisurely at the water station at the bottom. After this its only 1000ft of more climbing, onto the Jedi and done. I smirk disconsolately partway up the climb, as I see my elapsed time of 3 hours, 15 minutes, at which point I'd already crossed the finish line last year. Eventually get there, and I'm 33 minutes off last year's torrid pace ! Wow that's a big gap. I ponder how I could be so much slower, and arrive at a 'rule of 3rds' conclusion : 1/3 of it was because I was just whacked from all the riding and racing the previous 2 days, 1/3 was due to riding a bike that was 6 lbs heavier and less efficient, and the other 1/3 due to lack of training. There is some consolation that nobody in the expert class beat my time of 3:14 last year. And another amusing thing is somehow I'm only 1 point out of first place in the overall points classification for my class ! This is partly due to the Jedi being the State Champs race this year, which means double points. Too funny, considering I've missed a bunch of races this year, never been on the podium, etc.

But overall, a great weekend experience, and thanks to Pistis for going all out. They're even producing a DVD of the event : they had high-def video cams all over the place all weekend.
Almost forgot about another great episode of the ChrisS equipment malfunction saga : shortly after I saw him repairing his wheel, he finally got back on his bike, and then his carbon seat-post shattered, so he had to finish the race 'sans seat' - yikes ! And for extra good measure, he left the broken shards sticking out of the seat tube, just in case he had any misguided idea about trying to sit down after that. I'm telling you, these light-weight racing parts just ain't worth it ! :)