The Osprey Brand Team, a group of 10 ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, checks in with bike racer and brand team member, James Whitesides. Here James describes the enormously active (and slightly contentious!) Pacific Northwest cyclocross scene…

Come to Seattle because good fun is being had by everyone in the PNWCX scene! If you don’t know what that is don’t worry; Scotty came up with it last month for our beer cozies. Rivalries have been restarted, racing has been fast (and big), and we are just about to get some real rain. After spending the better part of four days in Las Vegas at Interbike it has been great to be home and enjoying our trails and racing. Lots of people are sure that the Northwest is rainy and nasty in the winter but being from the MItten I find it to be much more enjoyable than everyone lets on. As the days get shorter out come the lights and the knobbies and everyone gets their lube on nice and thick.

Nick and I started sampling the joys of fall and winter riding here in the northwest last week at Tiger Mountain State Forest. Logging constantly disrupts our use of the trails, and we are forced onto about 1/16^th of the parks trail system to stop “erosion” caused by mountain bikes. I find it a little hard to swallow some of the vitriol that greets us every time we run into hikers on trails that are designated multi use when they have just walked through a massive clear-cut to get to the trail we are riding in the trees.

Talon 5.5

Luckily, Nick and I only saw one other soul out there and he was cruising up to the top of the hill to ride the Preston Trail down and up (not the usual exit) thanks to a closure so we knew that there would be little to distract us from some great riding in the rain. I had the Talon packed with my camera and we played around with shooting a few poor quality movies just for the heck of it. Nothing like tight rooty single track in the wet! Only two and a half hours of riding and I was sore that night. I realized that I hadn’t ridden over an hour since the Rapha ride in the middle of September!

Despite a little mountain biking, Cyclocross (CX) has been dominating my riding schedule lately and I am finally having consistent races. As of today I am 4^th in the MFG Cat 3 field after three races and I think I might be able to get that top step with a little bit of luck. I raced the Cross Crusade race in Rainier, OR this weekend and I am more than impressed with what they bring to the table. If anyone doubts that Oregon is the heart of CX in the good ol’ US of A then they need to take a look at the result sheets.

Our biggest races in WA bring out 900 people for the day. Their average is around 1200 and they just held the biggest CX race ever with about 1450 racers. That’s a lot of people! Not only do they have a ton of racers but they also make it feel a lot more like Europe than anywhere else I have raced. However, we did steal the Grail de Grunge this weekend with a fine showing on Saturday in Seattle and a little bit of craziness on Sunday. There will be a lot of talk over the next week in the blogosphere about how crazy seven guys from Seattle are for stealing the cup from right under the noses of a guy with a sledgehammer. If you doubt my story go check out the pictures on the Cross Crusade site. I can only say that I acted in the heat of the moment and we are all lucky that no one really got hurt (except Brett but he only bled for ten minutes). People are keen to defend the honor of the their cross scenes! I hope that means we are going to see a more consolidated racing schedule over the next couple of years where SCX, MFG and the Cross Crusade work together for the betterment of each series.

Ed.’s note: Check out this story and video on Wend for a better idea of what James is describing!

Driving home from Seattle all of us were stoked to talk about some long rides this winter and we are all planning on doing some long races this winter. After seeing the new hydration pack online and the Flapjack at Interbike (Thanks Osprey for supporting Bike Hugger) I am really excited to test the new stuff and I am already dreaming up ways to abuse some packs!

For more information about James, see his profile page here.

Brand Team posts, Outdoor Activities, Product Bike Hugger, Cross Crusade, Grail de Grunge, Talon, Talon 5.5, Wend

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of 10 ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, checks in with bike racer and brand team member, James Whitesides. Here James describes his team’s experience in the 24 Hours of Spokane endurance mountain bike race …

You never know how much you are going to suffer until it is too late to change your mind. About a week before the 24 Hours Round the Clock in Spokane it looked like my four-man team had shrunk to just two healthy members. Nick had a sinus/lung/generally-not-good illness going on and Jon was nursing a tweaked knee (and he rides a single speed). Despite all of this, the “uBRDO Man Bots” made it to the line at noon on Saturday and finished the race the next day in 8^th, only three laps off of the winning pace.

The “Round the Clock” 24 hour event is a team relay mountain bike race, beginning at noon on Saturday and ending at noon on Sunday. Teams compete for medals, prizes and bragging rights. Anyone who can ride a bike can do this. Bring your camping gear, bike gear and whatever else will keep you going for 24 hours…then come out and get dirty with us.

I “chamoised up” at 11:30 to start the race and with a Lemans start (a 400 meter run uphill to the bikes) and in a flash I was racing. I started my first lap on my singlespeed; big mistake. My run put me immediately in 12^th and the first climb was short and steep, perfect for my gear ratio, and allowed me to move up a couple of spots. Then we got to the first flat section. Geared riders, most of them expert or semi-pro racers, were slowly catching me then hovering just a few feet in front of me until we would hit little downhills where they could accelerate. 12th soon became 20th after the long climb on the course proved too long for my gearing. I slowly clawed my way past a couple of riders on a technical section, and then they passed me back on another long flat. Winding through a burned clearing I could see the leaders about six minutes up on me just exiting the section I was just starting. Then I got to the pavement. I hovered in between riders and caught a couple towards the long descent that marked the end of the lap. I handed off my timing chip to Mark and immediately felt drained. With the run I clocked in at 1:01.

Night laps proved to be almost no impediment to our lap times and we had some great rides. My lap at 1 am was crazy. I had my light helmet mounted and I felt like I was riding almost in daylight wherever I looked. I let my eyes drift a little and the edge of the light was so dramatic that the woods looked pitch black. Without a moon to help light my peripheral vision I really relied on the power of the Seca 700 light to see. This was my fourth lap and I was amazed to pass so many people. I finished the lap and immediately got back to camp and into my sleeping bag for about two and a half hours of sleep. I woke up around five, kitted up, and left for another go-round. After Nick’s fifth lap I decided to go out for a sixth to keep us in the top ten. I rode my third fastest lap and felt that I could have done another had I needed to but we decided that finishing on 21 laps and feeling at least a little bit normal was going to be better than having me or Mark attempt to ride a 22^nd. I finished the last lap through the timing tent with a little bit of flair and we all felt good about our race.

Our team did pretty well: I learned that my Osprey Talon is absolutely awesome (I was the only one who didn’t complain about my pack) and that I can push myself longer than I thought (91 miles on six laps to be exact), Mark learned that eight Coors the night before is not a good idea (he was still the fastest on the team), Jon learned to stick with what he knows (but that he can also ride four laps missing most of the skin on his left hip), and Nick learned that he should not let himself get sick (and that he is, after all, a redhead).

If you never considered racing your “thing” or thought that in order to race you had to be super fit you should come to a 24 hour race in order to see that the best part about racing is not the race itself but the people you get to meet and the sheer fun of being sleep deprived and giddy. Despite spending all of last week in a fog we are already planning for next year. Endurance racing is a bug that is hard to ignore!

Brand Team posts, Events, Outdoor Activities 24 Hours of Spokane, Talon 5.5, uBrdo

Craig Randall, our brand team member from Boulder attended the Muddy Buddy Ride & Run race in Austin, TX this past Sunday (May 17th). Amid a mild (still humid for this Colorado boy) and overcast Austin day, nearly 1,800 men, women, and children participated in an annual event that is equal parts obstacle course, singletrack, 10k run, and of course…MUD. Be sure to check out the photos and videos below!

The Muddy Buddy Ride & Run is an interesting race in an endurance sporting world usually dominated by ultra serious cyclists and runners. You take these two hyper-competitive activities, add a burly mud pit and *POOF* out comes the costumes, beer tent, laughs, and good times!

Held near Pedernales State Park about an hour west of Austin proper, this edition of the race was greeted by an epic Texas downpour the day/night before. This led to a mud pit that was a little light on the mud and heavy on the splash.

Racing got underway at 8 AM and I headed out (in bright neon yellow skinsuit, Elvis sunglasses, and Osprey hat) to the start line to see eager participants of all ages (teams of men, women, co/ed, and children/parent combos) all towing the line for what would be a race punctuated by tight singletrack, two hills hastily described by finishers as “death marches”, and lastly about a 30 ft. mud pit to conclude the suffering.

I wasn’t alone in celebrating the festive atmosphere that took place; I saw racers dressed up as SNL speedo wearing “party boys”, 1950s-era milkmen, rodeo clowns, Rastafarians, an array of bug/larvae costumes, and one lovely lady wearing little more than a black wig, miniskirt and a yellow top with “June” written across her chest…hmmm. The more serious racers stuck to the traditional garb: running shoes, bike helmets, and technical running shorts and shirts.

The first racers to come barreling into the mud pit on the home stretch of the race were actually treated to better conditions than those who would come in later. The mud had yet to be stirred around so these guys came out with just a brown sheen as opposed to the “mud creature”-esque looks of later participants. With early times coming in at ~ 1/2 hour, MB is a quick, but memorable race. By the time most of the “of-age” racers finished and headed to the Red Hook Brewing tent (Texans know how to party BTW; it was barely 9:30 AM by the time the beers started flowing!), I headed in to chat with the folks, hand out Osprey hats and beer coolies (how appropriate!) and shoot the breeze about race experiences, memories, and Osprey products.

Fittingly for this crowd, I came equipped with my Talon 5.5, a great multi-use day pack, perfect for mountain biking, trail running, and day hikes. As soon as I uttered the word “Colorado” and how far I’d come to check out the Austin edition of MB (a race that is put on all over the country), trails of envious drool could be seen flowing from the mouths of some of the people I talked to. Two guys in particular (seen in the photo below with the green Osprey coolies) shared with me their experiences of rafting the Arkansas river through Buena Vista and Salida as well as mountain biking in Osprey HQ’s sister city, Durango. As it turns out, Texans love Coloradoans! Not so sure about the other way around, but I digress . In all seriousness these Austin folks were some of the most engaging, warm, and genuine people I’ve met. You can always rely on the outdoors crowd to be a happy bunch and these folks didn’t disappoint.

By the time noon rolled around and people had had their fill of midday libations, the awards ceremony commenced. And in true MB fashion, awards weren’t limited to race performance – prizes were also given out for “best costume.” On that note, I have to extend thanks to all the racers I spoke with who refrained from pelting my pristine costume with mud. I’m sure it must have taken a lot of self-control to not give the one spotless guy at the entire event a special taste of the brown stuff! I also want to say thanks to the two ladies at the R.E.I. booth in the vendor area who let me litter their table with Osprey stickers and temp-tattoos. As an official Osprey retailer, be sure to check them out at these two Austin locations:

R.E.I. # 103
601 North Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78703
USA
Phone: 512-482-3357
www.rei.com
Get Directions >>

R.E.I. #32
9901 Capitol of Texas Hwy. North, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78759
USA
Phone: 512-343-5550
www.rei.com
Get Directions >>

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Brand Team posts, Events, Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities Austin, Muddy Buddy, Talon 5.5