Oregon Enduro Series Race 3: Hood River, Oregon - Results
The third race of the Oregon Enduro Series, brought to you by Shimano and Santa Cruz Bicycles, began with unexpected morning thunderstorms that brought life to a dry and dusty course from the previous week of high temperatures and practice. Day one consisted of four stages down the famed Post Canyon trails, some of the best in Oregon. Cannondale/WTB was a solid factor in the day’s events with Hall of Famer Mark Weir attending his first Oregon Enduro Event of the year. Factory Kona continued their strong support of Enduro with Freeride legend Joe Schwartz making the trip to the States to try his hand in Enduro, and also team manager Barry Wicks, and Oregon native and Factory Kona rider, Matthew Slaven all fighting for a podium spot.
The trails provided racers with some well-needed fast, steep and technical terrain that gave the more gravity-oriented racers a chance to shine. Day one consisted of four stages ranging from 2.5 to 8 minutes, with a perfect ratio of descending and climbing. Specialized/SRAM rider Curtis Keen held onto a one second lead over the Nomads Enduro Team’s Chris Johnston, with Santa Cruz/Fox/Easton’s Aaron Bradford rounding out the top three for the stacked Pro Men class, which included more than 40 racers. The Pro Women held another nail biter with just 30 seconds separating the top three: bicycleworld.com’s Carolynn Romaine, eventual overall winner Giant Bicycle’s Kelli Emmett, and Team S&M/Kona’s Allice Pennington.
Day two began with a threat of rain yet again and left racers at the top of Post Canyon, hiding from the high winds for which Hood River is world famous. Racers were given two longer stages with the most technical terrain of the weekend, including two rock gardens that gave spectators and photographers a peek into the World Cup scene. As the track began to settle back into mid-summer conditions, the speeds increased, and Curtis Keene came out on top to take his first win of the season for Specialized/SRAM.
Full results here!
![Press pics by Tim Zimmerman]()
The trails provided racers with some well-needed fast, steep and technical terrain that gave the more gravity-oriented racers a chance to shine. Day one consisted of four stages ranging from 2.5 to 8 minutes, with a perfect ratio of descending and climbing. Specialized/SRAM rider Curtis Keen held onto a one second lead over the Nomads Enduro Team’s Chris Johnston, with Santa Cruz/Fox/Easton’s Aaron Bradford rounding out the top three for the stacked Pro Men class, which included more than 40 racers. The Pro Women held another nail biter with just 30 seconds separating the top three: bicycleworld.com’s Carolynn Romaine, eventual overall winner Giant Bicycle’s Kelli Emmett, and Team S&M/Kona’s Allice Pennington.
Day two began with a threat of rain yet again and left racers at the top of Post Canyon, hiding from the high winds for which Hood River is world famous. Racers were given two longer stages with the most technical terrain of the weekend, including two rock gardens that gave spectators and photographers a peek into the World Cup scene. As the track began to settle back into mid-summer conditions, the speeds increased, and Curtis Keene came out on top to take his first win of the season for Specialized/SRAM.
Full results here!
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"Racers were given two longer stages with the most technical terrain of the weekend, including two rock gardens that gave spectators and photographers a peek into the World Cup scene."
The 2d half of that sentence suggests the rock gardens were similar to World Cup something. There isn't World Cup Enduro yet. So Protour probably assumed it meant World Cup DH.
Hey Swiss guys, what about trying that? Who else would be interested and motivated?
ThreadKiller.pinkbike.com/blog/Oregon-Enduro-Series-Race-3-Hood-River-Re-Cap.html
threadkiller.pinkbike.com/blog/Oregon-Enduro-Series-Race-3-Hood-River-Re-Cap.html