Race Recap: Oregon Enduro Series Round 1 - Hood River
 |
 Hood River, Oregon has a lot to offer; a great trail network, world-class windsurfing and kiteboarding, close to ski resorts, wineries and the home of Full Sail Brewing and DaKine. As Rachel Throop put it, Hood River "has the same vibe at Santa Cruz." Last weekend the first race of the NAET and Oregon Enduro series took place in the hills above Beautiful Hood River in the Post Canyon Trail Network, bringing in some of the top riders. Unfortunately, just days ago the president of the local trail building club the Hood River Area Trail Stewards (HRATS), Matt Klee, died in a tragic accident up at Whistler, so hearts were heavy. Matt's friends were ready to celebrate his life by charging on with the festivities and showing off the trails that Matt had worked so long and hard on for everyone's enjoyment. And aside from a few delays and timing issues the event rolled on and Matt's trails shined. |
 |
| Josh Carlson is all thumbs up and feeling better after crashing hard in April. |
 |
| Neal Strobel, 1st place expert men 19-39. |
 |
| Joe Lawwill with just a few more corners to go before the end of the final stage #8 |
 |
| Brian Lopes was giving the big names in cycling a run for their money, but that's nothing new. 3rd place this weekend behind Keene and Carlson. |
 |
| Kathy Pruitt, Pro Women winner is more known for her downhill prowess but the Santa Cruz Demo Event Coordinator decided to race at the last minute. She was sitting in second going into day #2 but ended up victorious. "I really liked the stages today because I feel they play to my talent, which is looking forward and recognizing the conditions and altering my riding style based of of that, I mean all the years of downhilling I've seen a lot of different terrain and being on a little bike you really have to make sure you know what you are doing because everything you do wrong is just maximized and you have less room for error so I thought 'well it's like a mud race, I'll just look forward and not pull front brake and kind of use my hips to slide around like snowboarding or skiing." |
 |
| Stage #3 start has some pretty epic view of Mt. Adams in Washington State. |
 |
| Curtis Keene took the victory in the first NAET and Oregon Enduro of 2014. "It was a good weekend. I rode solid yesterday and today I rode another good 4 stages...I'm feeling good, I'm healthy again...things are back on track and I'm having fun riding bikes." |
 |
| Joe Lawwill in heckler's row, where riders had to run a gauntlet of costumed revelers in a series of nicely-bermed s-turns. |
 |
| Mike Yartzoff on stage #4 - Bad Motor Scooter. |
 |
| Marco Osborne placed 11th |
 |
| Josh Carlson jumping into the rock garden on the way to a strong 2nd place for the weekend. |
 |
| Peter Ostroski glides down the lush forest on stage #1. |
 |
| Beginner racer James Boyer gets through pinball alley, a steep, tight section right before the ladder drop that is pretty much a controlled skid. |
 |
| Kirt Voreis crashed hard during practice on Friday, apparently trying to do some crazy speed manual through the forest. He was questionable on Saturday and amazingly was sitting 10th Saturday night. After Sunday's stages he was 7th, just 40 seconds back over 35 minutes of racing. Here he is captured near the end of the final stage #8 looking fresh as ever. |
 |
| Massimo Larsen halls out of Bend, Oregon. He rides for Crow's Feet Commons and is the son of MTB XC legend Steve Larsen. He's got some skills, too. |
 |
| Austin Larsen cruises down stage #6 on Sunday. |
 |
| John Frey through heckler's row. |
 |
| Jess Palacios on stage #7, with its fast, loose, swoopy berms and transitions. |
 |
| Carolynn Romaine had to leave Saturday night to get back to her home in Bend, Oregon. A wildfire broke out near town Friday and was threatening homes. Thankfully no homes have burned yet and the fire is being contained. |
 |
| Adam Craig near the end of stage #8. At first you look at the results and see Adam in 14th and wonder what happened. Then you see that he was only 1 minute back after 2 days and 8 stages of racing and you realize that the competition was tight at the Hood River enduro. |
 |
| Shane McKenzie stylin' inches from the fisheye on Bad Motor Scooter |
 |
| Vital Photographer caught riding on the job! Dennis Yuroshek, busted. |
 |
| Curtis Keene throwing signs. I love the look on Cody Kelley's face. |
 |
| David Carr grunts through a small, traversing uphill section of stage #6. Sometimes when you think your near the end and can rest these little section sneak up on you and can make the difference between a podium, or no podium. |
 |
| Darrin Seeds drops into the waterfall / rock garden section of stage #2. |
 |
| Cody Kelley, Rachel Throop and Kyle Strait, post-race and all smiles. |
 |
| Jon Buckell hitting the ladder drop. |
 |
| BMC racer Aaron Bradford showed up to Hood River with an unnamed prototype BMC 29er trail bike featuring unreleased BMC carbon rims. '"This is the happy balance between the 6" long-travel and the 4" XC bike", said Bradford. "It's still incredibly lightweight, still fast and nimble. It has really tight chainstays like the Trailfox and then they do a longer top tube that is designed around running a really short stem, so you still have the fast handling/steering and it doesn't feel cramped. It's incredibly balanced, that's what is really cool about it." |
 |
| Tyler Horton (Dirty Fingers Bike Shop) |
 |
| Jon Buckell on stage #6. Jon ended up in 6th place, 40 seconds back. |
 |
| Marco Osborne near the end of stage #1. |
 |
| Josh Carlson is putting the hammer down to try to catch Curtis Keene and ended up just 19 seconds back after 8 stages. |
 |
| Bell brand manager and 'guy with too many BMX titles to mention', Allan Cooke, was out testing the new Bell fullface enduro helmet. |
 |
| Kyle Strait was in 'The Hood" looking as stylish as ever..even if the jumps are a little smaller than he is used to. |
 |
| Lars Sternberg gets warped coming into the 'waterfall' section of stage #2. |
 |
| Dylan Wolsky enters the rack garden section of stage #2. This section is steep and rocky, plus you come into it going as fast as you want. The motto in Hood River sometimes is, 'slow is fast'. |
 |
| Another view of the steep section on stage #2 and also again on stage #5.. Aaron Bradford showing the way. |
 |
| Brian Lopes missed 2nd place by only .6 seconds. He didn't make the podium to receive his 3rd place accolades, which may have been a message to the promoters that having awards 2-3 hours after the scheduled time is not right. |
 |
| Rachel Throop, Laguna Beach, CA |
 |
| Sean Estes 4th place 19-39 expert |
 |
| The wind was howling on the stage #3 start, but once riders passed this nice view of Mt Adams and dropped in the trees there was some protection from the elements. |
 |
| Joanna Petterson gets tucked near the start of Stage #4 on a jumpy trail trail called Bad Motor Scooter. |
 |
| Nate Hills, 4th Place and just 20 seconds back from Keene |
 |
| Alex Pavon with one of the best rider reactions through heckle alley. 9th place pro women. |
 |
| 2014 Oregon Enduro #1 - Hood River - Pro Women's Podium |
 |
| 2014 Oregon Enduro #1 - Hood River - Pro Men's Podium |
 |
| A memorial was held for Matt Klee, president of the local trail building club the Hood River Area Trail Stewards (HRATS), Matt died in a tragic accident up at Whistler and his family asks that close friends and those in the cycling community honor Matt by donating to the HRATS or the Live Like Matt Scholarship Fund |
http://hrats.org/joindonate/
www.livelikematt.org
Race Results
Must Read This Week
39 Comments
Next time the awards will be over early and will include 67% more Ninkasi beer.