I just got back from the Return on the Jedi. Another stop on the Oregon XC Series with just two races to go and the points chase was still tight. I knew it was time to seal the deal, so I packed up the MoHo and headed south.

Jedi is a rad race. Total old school--it starts pretty much in the middle of the southern Oregon wilderness. The only cell coverage involves driving up a hill a couple miles, getting out of the car, and standing on a mound of dirt! Oh, yeah--good bye civiiization!

The latest stop on the Oregon XC Series was Test of Endurance in Blogett, Oregon. While the weather has improved since the Mudslinger utilized some of these trails, we woke up to drizzle and 50 degree temps--again.

Three years ago I came a close second while I got it all right in 2007 when I won this event by a large margin. Last year I was out of town chasing NUE events so it was great to be able to ride a marathon an hour from home.

Our Falls City Fat Tire Festival weekend fizzled into two separate weekends of racing this year. While both were super successful promotions from a logistical sense, the sum of the parts hardly made up for the potential whole.

The XC race never materialized due to Weyerheuser refusing to allow recreational use of the Socialist Valley Road easement in Falls City, Oregon.

Instead we hosted the OBRA Short Track Championship in the Upper Park. While we had ridiculous T-storms the night before and throughout the day, a few die-hard racers showed up and we had a fun time.

Had to do the double with some of the multi-day races still on the calendar later this summer. With Mt Hood Classic off the table, we decided to make a quick trip up to the Indie Series for the Bavarian Bike and Brews Festival.

Even though I tried my best to miss the start, I made short work of the up/down course and demolished the competition--and almost myself when I ate it hard over on the last lap. Lucky lucky. Over the bars at speed never feels good but I managed to escape with a few scrapes and bruises!

One of my biggest objectives for 2009 is the Intermontane Challenge in Kamloops, British Columbia. This will be one of the first MTB stage races to offer SOLO categories. It will also have legitimate prize money and all stages will begin and end in the same location. I have secured a great local sponsor, Domenic's Marine LTD, so please stop by and check them out.

See you in "Oh, Canada" next month!

We were supposed to have a race this weekend, too. Unfortunately we haven't been able to convince our neighbors at Weyerheuser to let us use their Socialist Valley Road easement so it looks like we will postpone our event to June 13th in Falls City.

http://csc.brettluelling.com/?q=state_championship

Instead Brett, Ryan, David, and I went out to Blackrock and provided timing for the first annual FLOWCUP. BRMBA hosted the event and it went off well. The course was fun and some quality riders showed up to test their wares.

Every year in Oregon we have the OBRA championships for each disipline. For the road event, it is tradition to have a "rehearsal" race the weekend before followed by the actual championship race.

The Rehearsal is contested for prizes while the Championship for medals and bragging rights. The course is generally harder than most races around here so it actually somewhat suits a strong rider.

Ah sweet vindication! Back to one of my favorite races--Spring Thaw in Ashland, Oregon. After a year off winning here I came back ready to rain on the GT Golden Bike Parade and all others for that matter.

This race is totally old school MTB--single lap format: long fireroad climb with a little singletrack finishing with a nice long singletrack decent. Kind of like every "fun" ride I ever do!

After many years of galavanting around the 'States chasing after some MTB racing dream or another things have changed. I came up with a simple calendar of out-of-state travel for the seaon that included a handful of special events.

The second on the list was DIRT SWEAT and GEARS in Fayatteville, Tennessee. Unfortunately while this event delivered with a great promotion it completely lacked any sense when it came to race day logistics. Now I wish my calendar was at least one trip shorter!

It is beyond me why we are already nearly half way through the MTB series here in Oregon and it is the first week in May...

Must be time for the Championships! Sorry for the cynical attitude but I still haven't recovered from snow-bike-walking last week.

On to Blogett, Oregon for umpteenth Mudslinger Classic. Usual Oregon crowd fighting it out in the usual mud bog. I tried to drop them at the starr, and throughout the first lap, but just didn't have the usual hammer for some reason... Then my seatpack busted off--nice, tools MIA.