Lindsay Trimble

Lindsay Trimble, known as LT to many of her friends, is an elite DH mountain bike racer. Riding mainly on the North Shore of Vancouver, she lives and works in Burnaby, BC and is on her bike any chance she gets. This season she will be competing in Canada Cups, BC Cups, Canadian National Championships, and the Oregon Enduro Series with the support of Rocky Mountain Bikes and the Bryson Racing Clan. Check in for updates on rides, races and results throughout the season!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Oregon Enduro Series #1 -Bend

When we signed up a few months ago for the Oregon Enduro Series I remember thinking I had always wanted to ride in Oregon because I've heard so many good things about the biking there.  I wondered how, with Oregon being so close (only one small Washington away) we had not made it down there before.  It wasn't until about a week before we were set to leave that I actually looked at a map... Bend, Oregon is about 9 hours away as the Deli drives.  Maybe 8 hours or less for more efficient but far less rad vehicles.

The race weekend started with a bang on Wednesday when D'Arcy realized that his passport was still in the mail.  Whoops.  Turns out that the people at Passport Canada are actually a team of super heros that truly care about the people of Canada and their travel plans, and with a day of frantic phone calls to sort out references, the D man had his passport in hand by 4 pm on Thursday.  D'Arcy is still looking into the address to which he can send a thank you card and maybe some balloons.


At the border, passports in hand, no big deal.

With all that drama behind us, we were on the road.  The Deli was packed with our two new Rocky Mountain Element 999s. With a fresh set of Maxxis Ardents, a Sram 1 x10 drivetrain, and a Fox Talus 36, I was definitely feeling well equipped.  We crossed the border uneventfully and were able to drive all the way past Seattle before we stopped at a rest stop off the I-5 to sleep in the back of the Deli.  In 'merrica rest stops are a lot more elaborate than the ones we have here.  This one had free coffee, bathrooms, and a guy with a giant white parrot selling pink frosted cupcakes.  No joke.  I was going to take a picture but it was 1 am and I couldn't decide if parrot guy would oblige.

Deli Camping, comfy and cozy.

Friday was a bit of a whirlwind day.  Breakfast in Portland, a beautiful scenic drive down to Bend, then straight to the course for afternoon shuttles.  We geared up at a parking lot part of the way up the road to Mt. Bachelor.  We dropped into the first trail "Funner" which for the first 5 minutes was just to get to the start of the course.  As we did our first lap, even taking it easy, getting to know the course these trails were super fun.  Flowy, open, little jumps here and there, only a handful of rocks many of which you could just jump right over.  We stopped at the bottom of stage 1 with giant smiles on our faces.  This was going to a be a fun weekend of riding.


Near Sisters, Oregon, on our way to Bend

6 PBR tall cans for 5.49.  D'Arcy is incredulous.
We called it quits around 7, ate, did a little grocery shopping and retired to the Deli.  D'Arcy was happy to learn that in Oregon they serve 20 oz pints, and PBR costs less than a dollar a can.  I was happy for him, and opted to try something from Deschutes- the local  brewery.








Saturday we raced the first 4 stages.  Stage 1 was about 8 minutes.  When we got to the bottom we rode out to the road and were shuttled up to the start of stage 2.  Stage 2 was only 2.5 minutes of super fun awesomeness, so you can imagine how sad I was that the best stage was the shortest.  It was big berms and gap jumps that got progressively bigger, the last one being about 10 or 12 ft.  I hucked my sh*t but got a little out of control in one corner and lost some precious seconds.  Stage 3 was longer, about 8 minutes, and definitely my second favourite.  It had some tricky punchy climbs over some rocks and a section of loose dusty corners that were tough to nail at speed.  Oregon is a dry, dusty place and so a lot of corners on the course got pretty blown out over the course of the weekend.  Stage 4 featured the most uphill, it took about 10 minutes to ride.  There were a couple of straight-aways where I found myself spinning in my biggest gear...that doesn't happen much in B.C.! By the time I crossed the line on the last stage I was spent.

Here we are getting in trouble from a Safeway worker for taking pictures.  Apparently it's not allowed.

When we found out that some of the motels in Bend were only 45 bucks a night we opted to spend a night in a real bed with a real shower and some wifis.  We were pretty dusty after two days of riding and it seemed like a more restful option.  Also, as a bonus, it allowed us to get up early and watch the Val de Sol WC on my android phone in bed.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Motivational signage in Bend.
After a good breakfast we headed back to to the course, did a quick practice run and then waited until our start times which were not until about 1 pm.  The times from the previous day had been posted and I was sitting in 2nd place which I was quite happy with, but I had only a 3 second margin on 3rd.  I knew I would have to pin it in the last stage to keep on the podium.  Stage 5 was stage 1 plus stage 4 from the day before, plus the transition which was a short climb then a traverse.  I was anticipating it would take me about 20 minutes and it having to climb right in the middle would be tough.  I laid it all out there and rode stage 5 as fast as I could.  I was wheezing, panting, and my legs were burning so much that it was hard to stand at the end.  I ended up finishing second in the stage, but because Mary Moncorge who was in third made up over 25 seconds on first place, she overtook the lead.  I made up a bit of time on first place but not enough to get ahead of her into second.  D'Arcy ended up in a very respectable 10th place in Cat 1 (19-39) which was the biggest category in the race.  Despite being held up by a photographer on his Stage 5 race run.


Post race stout and sandwich. Yum.

Overall I was pleased with my result.  I learned a lot from the race and can now see what elements I must include in my strategy and race script for enduro races in the future.  The best parts about finally being done racing were Dechutes Obsidian Stout, getting told off by the burrito truck guy for eating a ham sandwhich instead of one of his burritos, and having to change all my clothes before the drive home because they were soaked in champange :)

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