After 17.8 miles of trail on Day 1, yesterday may have looked like a minor reprieve on paper at 15.6 miles, but with the scree slopes, flat switchbacks, and pedal sections, it didn’t feel like one. The course took racers back on some of the same trails as previous days but in the opposite direction. “It was cool to see the terrain that we road yesterday sort of in the opposite direction,” says Barry Wicks, “you think ‘oh we know what we are getting into,’ but you totally don’t because you’re going four times or ten times faster.” Even local racer, Jack Love said, “definitely helpful that I got to see [the trails yesterday], but I wished I had looked a little harder going up them.”

Day 2 included another five stages that at one point allowed the racers to transition through basecamp where they could pickup a fresh made gourmet lunch before continuing on. After completing Stage 9, the racers were shuttled to within a mile of the start of Stage 10. Coming from a cross-country background, Barry says, “the last stage was pretty baller – we don’t usually get to do twenty minute descents unless you ride uphill for two hours. The bus ride kind of sucked and then you realize, ‘I didn’t have to pedal up here and this descent goes forever so it’s totally worth it!”



Staying true to the blind racing format, the routes for each day have only been released at the racer's meetings the evening before. This has led to the development of some technique from riders like Barry, “I like to go last so I can see the lines that everyone is taking – and I’m like ‘how’d did they go over there? They must have jumped like 30 feet or something, I’m just going to ride the normal line.’” And for others it has lead to some crashes. Lev Stryker, currently in second place for Amateur Men, describes his crash yesterday, “I came around a corner [on Stage 7] that was a little blind and I was a little too far outside and all of a sudden my front tire was gone and I basically dug my toes in like I had ski boots on as far as I could because I felt like I had fallen off a cornice. I was just like all claws in the freakin’ wall to stop. The next stage I was shaking in a few little exposed bits but pretty good overall.” But it didn’t shake him up too badly, “I’m still second in Amateur. A local guy, Eugene, came back and now he’s a few seconds ahead of me so that battle is on!”







The scree slope on Stage 7 caught a few people, including Mark Weir, “After we hiked up the sand, I thought ‘oh this is sweet, it’s all damp and nice,’ and it comes in and you could load it high left. So I load it left and I go to do a French nose wheelie because I think I’m good at that and then I realize that I’m not French, and the wheel dug in and was like, ‘oh, but it’s sand.’ I’m going over the bars and thinking that I’ll roll a somersault because it’s so steep and then get back on the bike. I did two somersaults through the corner and then my bike rotated around and I’m like, ‘mother –‘, you know wen you’re kind of pissed off, but I can’t be too pissed. And then the next one came and it looked like a Swiss Army knife half opened and I club-cyclisted every one of them, I’ve never felt so dominated on corners that I thought I could own. It was a humbling zone. I was only 9 seconds off and I was doing somersaults down the hill. And then the rest of the stage, like Lars said, he ran it mad – like f*ck this, I’m just going to go for it.”




Mark may have tomahawked down the scree slope, but it was Lars Sternberg who owned the biggest of the crashes on a transfer stage yesterday, as Mark tells us.

Mark – “We are riding through the river trail and we were like ‘that was pretty sweet,’ and we start cooking, because it’s really fun. Lars is doing these jibs off these tall logs and dropping down. This one comes and he hits this wall turn and jumps into the shadows. I see him and think, ‘well that’s a bold move.’ There’s this one shadow from the sun and in it is this big tree root ball about a foot tall and it’s rounded – he lands in the hole and he instantly tomahawks to his face and all I see are his heels, and his bike eject. There was a mark on the tree at about seven or eight feet and when it hit it his GPS, with the leash, broke off and went straight up.

Lars – “And my water bottle.”

Mark – “And I’m like, ‘oh f*ck,’ and we barely stop in time, but Lars was already up. ‘Jesus Christ!’

Lars – “You were kind of screaming like a high school girl.”

Mark – “I thought you were not getting up, that’s the bottom line. He crashed so hard and I’ve seen these things, and there’s no one that can get up like this but him – bulletproof man. His frame hit it side-loaded like top tube and down tube.”

Lars – “I have earth and bark and all kinds of shit in between my tire and my rim from them folding so hard. My bars turned, my forks were all torqued.”

Aaron – “It was awesome. We had to loosen all the Allen bolts because the fork was all – it was such a loaded move.”

Mark – “And that was on a transfer.”

Aaron – “We were going for transfer hero and he won.”

Mark – “There is no one who is going to dominate transfers like this man.”

Aaron – “It was pretty aggressive.”

Lars – “But it was also really fun.”

Mark – “That was the best transfer I’ve done in years.”



Rosara Jospeh who maintains her lead in Pro Women also had her “first proper crash in the last stage of the day” but she says, “I escaped relatively unscathed I just want to keep having fun, which means riding the same as always and trying to push it a bit, but today was definitely rowdier. The trails were more challenging than yesterday – tighter, rockier, steeper, and just higher consequence.” After Stage 10 and two days of riding, Rosara has a 2:53 lead over Rachel Walker.








Aaron Bradford closed a decent gap and took a 20 second lead over Geoff Kabush by the end of Day 2, “I felt pretty confident after each stage I felt smooth and fast, I stood up every time I should and I certainly feel strong right now.”




Base camp continues to feel like a small community, and the extra touches that the organizers have thought of; fire wood stacked by each fire pit and wine on each picnic table in the campsites, has put the finishing touches on this event - especially for the French contingent who offer each visitor to their area, "would you like some red wine?" For Day 3 Trans-Cascadia moves the riding, and basecamp, closer to Oakridge where racers will experience slightly more travelled trails, but ones that continue to set the standard for fun, flowly descents.

TransCascadia Day 2

Sponsors

Shimano, PRO, Chris King, Pearl Izumi, SMITH, Travel Oregon, Modus Sport Group, Clif Bar, Spot, Stiegl, Clif Family Winery, Defender, One-Left.com, The U.S. Forest Service, OBRA, and Oregon Adventures.

About the Promoters
Modus Sport Group – Modus Sport Group understands that mountain biking is not just a sport, it’s a way to grow an appreciation for the world that we live in, we feel that this is critically important and we understand that it takes effort and work to insure this experience for the generations of riders to come. As Trails Stewards we hope our work will open up new areas of riding and contribute to maintaining current trials in order to create lasting and sustainable riding areas that will be ridden and enjoyed for years to come. For more information visit Modus Sport Group.

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MENTIONS: @shimano / @SmithOptics / @TransCascadia / @parisgore / @dbaker

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