Hood River Super D

Last weekend was the Hood River Super D. I knew about it for awhile, and had been riding it with a group that was going to race it, but my sights were on the Downhill at Mt. Hood the day after the Super D race. But the more I rode the course, and thought about the technicalities of the Super D, it really sounded fun...and challenging. For those who don't know me, I'm a bit A-D-D and I am always looking for something different to try. I have raced the Mt. Hood Downhill for many years now, but had never raced the Hood River Super D.

First thing was to figure out which bike to race. It was an extra hard decision, because I had just fond out the week prior, that Ellsworth is sending out a small Moment, which would be the absolute perfect bike for this course!!

The course started out on a Motorcycle trail that was pummice with baby heads everywhere...definetly want your DH bike, then went into a super steep shoot with drops and rocks and roots and baby heads, yup...DH bike. The course then went out on the ridge and it was a fairly smooth, bermy single track with tons of flow, long travel trail bike here. Then....the UPHILL!! Open, exposed south facing, pummice, steep. Super light XC race bike for the next 5 minutes. Back up on the ridge, long trail bike here, down a newly made, very rocky, steep, drop off section...DH bike. Down a super steep shute, across the road and straight up a steep bank to hopefully "jump" back onto the trail. Once you got back on the trail...up we go!! XC bike here. Then gods country! The next 5 minutes of trail were open, smooth, fast, huge berms you can rail and know you will stick. Long travel trail bike. Well, I have two bikes...a full DH bike with 9" front and rear, or an XC race bike that's super light (with expensive, breakable parts). Hmmm...do I lose time on the down or the up. I rode the course on both bikes, and on the DH bike the uphills were so steep that I couldn't peddle, so I would be walking up the hills. Unacceptable in a race. On the XC bike, the uphills were cake, but the gnarly rock sections were a little sketchy with my steep head angle and little weeny XC tires. I decided that my best bet would be 2.2 tires with super thick sidewall on my XC bike. Worked like a charm! I actually passed the two girls that went off in front of me...on the uphill! With the big tires on the bike, I was able to have more control in the rocky sections.

I won the pro women's class with a time of 20.56. Fastest male time was about 15'. The winner of each field recieved a comp. entry to the Crankworx Garbonzo super D. Unfortunatley, it's 2 days after my wedding...next year! Can't wait for more Super D races! I will have my new Moment in about a week! Yea!!!