Echo Red to Red

From Echo Red 2 Red

Last weekend(sat) was Echo Red to Red a mountain bike race around the city of Echo, Oregon. Echo is a very small town about 3 1/2 hrs east of Portland. The terrain, is dry, rocky mountain bike single track, lots of rocks and spiky tire puncture things in the fields. This race is 28miles of pure pain with quite a few climbs and some fast descents.
We headed at to the race at an ungodly hour of 6am, meeting my friends Alan and Dylan to share the car journey. The 3 hr drive went smooth, got to Echo, registered, set up, all good to go. The day was gorgeous, high temperatures which was unheard of for early march, sun was out, all was good.

In hindsight, I committed a couple of schoolboy mistakes with this race, .. #1 The bike I rode was completely rigid (no suspension at all, think olden days) #2 Only 1 gear, yes singlespeed.
To preface all this, single speed is a very fashionable thing nowadays, before any race you have to do a lot of research into the terrain and talk to peeps, get some recommendations on gear ratio, since you only have one, you don't want a too difficult a gear which will mean you have the hardest time going up, and equally do don't want a too light gear, meaning you will spin out going down. there's a fine balance here which comes with experience and the understanding that one is not gonna get you everything (thus geared bikes). The benefits of a singlespeed bike are very pure feel of cycling with minimal gear and supposedly less mechanical issues, due to the less parts to go wrong.

So back to the race.....

The start
A gentle roll out down some main roads behind a pace car, We had a good position at the front of the pack, riding with the Cat1 / Pro. Alan was just behind me and Dylan slightly ahead (both riding singlespeed). Then we made a left onto a gravel road, race on!. Dylan took off (hes a fast race ready dude) After only 20 mins my hands began to hurt, the type of deep hurt from clenching the bars too tight and also having no suspension so that all the imperfections (and there were a lot) get transmitted through your hands. At this point I sorta knew the next 26miles were gonna be hard on my body.
Single track, mixed with rock gardens and sandy burms followed, gradual and continuous climbs and swift descents. Some of the riding was fun, most of the riding was shock directly transferred to my hands, arms and lower back! right. Dylan was no longer in sight, probably battling for 4th place with the fast guys, Alan was somewhere behind me.

From Echo Red 2 Red

Mid ride
At one point I asked this bloke, how many miles we on for, 14, he said, at this point I flatted on the front tyre. Shit. So demotivating. I tried riding it for a while, as there was a little bit of air in it, but cornering was poor and slow. I stopped to fix it. The rest for my hands was proper welcome at this stage. As I was fixing on the side, quite a few people passed me, then Alan caught up. His lower back was fried from riding the rigid. After mile of riding, i asked Alan how far we had gone, he said 12.8.... bloody hell what's happening, so it turns out had a lot further to go.

Close to the end
I decided to pick up the pace and leave slow Alan behind, after all he was a slug and I needed to at least try and regain some ground after the crappy flat tyre. After another good 45 mins on the bike transverse mountains going up and some fast downs, I entered a section of single track down near the river, this was a newer part for Cat1/Pro/ SS riders only, it added 8 miles to the course along the river bank with creek crossings and mini wooded bridges which were proper fun.
The last 2 miles to the finish were on loose wide gravel, by now I had caught up and was battling place with another singlespeed rider, he was a bit of a nob, not mr.friendly, he was more like yeah, I'm not here to make friends, even though were were fighting over a stupid 25th place or something. In the end the Buckroyd conquered and after a bit of high spin cat n mouse drafting, the buckroyd sprinted to the finish at a super high cadence, only way to go.

This is a great race, well organized with a good diverse trail, good amount of climbing and wicked section near the river, soft dirt, log hops and bridges. If you like MTB you will like this.

RACE TAKEAWAYS: (from a 35yr olds perspective)

DO:
• Ride a bike with some kind of suspension, even if only front, it will make a big difference and not ruin your next day with back ache and hand fatigue!
• If you ride a Singlespeed, I had the perect gear... round about 49.2 gear inches. This is good for someone who is quite fit and is willing to climb.
• Go full tilt from the start, since this is single track, passing can be difficult and when you do pass off the trail, you risk getting a flat from spikey little goathead things all around Echo.

DON'T
• Ride a fully rigid bike, your back, arms and hands will hate you, early into the race.
• Ride off trail, there's lots of crap in the fields to give you a bloody flat tyre.

From Echo Red 2 Red