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Friday, September 17, 2010

Oregon Stampede 2010 : an epically proportioned bike race

An epicly proportioned bike race.

Summary: A rural bike race set in east Oregon, a few hundred miles east of Portland. Lots of miles on gravel roads riding with my team in the Dalles (east of mount hood), lots of climbing and beautiful views of mountains , fields , sunsets and rurality

Team Beer (6 blokes and 2 girls) set off  Friday night, the race starts early early Saturday. We jumped in a hotel room just outside the Dalles of which all 8 of us crammed in. Matt Case, who we suspect is illiterate showed us that he could read, we think he was just pretending, what a divvy. the girls Sharon and Taylor took the bed the boys got the floor. Needless to say the room smelt pretty bad the next morning.
Here are some of my fav photos that I took. But there is a whole album of crackers if you click the link.

Matt Case pretends he knows how to read the night before.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Off to the race dang early
From Oregon Stampede 2010
All the loosers at the start. 7am bright and early.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Taylor hammers it up the hill.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Tons of this awaits us.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Great view of Columbia river and the Dalles from the top of a climb.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Rustic Countryside shit
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Many a hill to come:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
A few ruins and countryside shit.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
A few odd buildings out in the middle of now where!
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Mountains and Mountains in the distance
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Still tons of gravel:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Just letting people know:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
A few shop stops when available, load up on snacks n water.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Clearly stated, this was most of the ride
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Awesome:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
The road climbing begins:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
On top of the world:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
More Pretty:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Rural buildings:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
The sun gets lower:
From Oregon Stampede 2010
Time to kick out the last 30miles and hope we don't get caught in the dark.
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
From Oregon Stampede 2010
After this, it was too dark to take photos:
From Oregon Stampede 2010

We managed to get back to the car just after dark, thats a long day on a bike. The last 5 miles were pretty sketchy, very tired and no lights! Great team time, one of the best rides I have done in my life!

 Here are some stats.
127 miles
9521 ft of climbing (905 meters of uphill)
13 hours, 5 minutes out on the course
34 mph on the final gravel descent by Clint and I in the pitch dark with no
lights
70+ miles of gravel.
Great team experience.

Here's the route http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48703683

Cheers!

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