Momentum Sports Super D, 9/13/2009 by Chris Bentley

The first of it's kind for Mt Hood. A Super-D that is Sanctioned by USA Cycling. Yes - it's another Downhill event at Mt. Hood, but this is much different than what the Ski-Bowl has been dishing out for us adrenaline junkies the past few years.

Saturday's practice started off slow with not as many showing up as expected. But by the end of the day the event Sponsors were content with over 50+ riders registered. This Super D brought you to a new area.....north of Ski Bowl is actually the South side of the REAL Mt. Hood. We shuttled up our in cushy 12 passenger vans towing flat bed trailers full of bikes all-day to the Timberline Ski Lodge. The start of the trail was right next to the chair lift at 6000' elevation. We then blitzed down 4000' of the mountain in 15-20 minutes. By my 2nd run the timing clocks were established and a rider could then time themselves. I put out about 90% effort on my 2nd run and had a 17:15 time. I told myself I should be trying to break 17 minutes in the race run.

The upper 5 minutes of the course was fast and rocky. However, by the end of the day enough riders had helped to establish good lines that assisted in safely getting down the long sweeping 'S' like sections. The pros probably helped define the course lines the most. Kudos to them! The remaining course then took a right turn and headed west down fun hard packed lines. It was then mostly twisty single/double track trails that were lined with small roots and plenty of flat corners and the occasional turtle shells that could catch your pedals if you weren't careful. The forest was very thick most of the way down and something to remember for sure (if you slowed down in practice to take a glance around).

Come Sunday a.m. the race was off to a great start at 10:15 with 2 minutes between riders. They warned us about a small revision near the bottom and everyone got acquainted with it during their warm up run. This revision would make my goal of breaking 17 minutes more challenging, however. After my start, I headed into the fast upper section with a bit too much adrenaline and had to remind myself that the course was rather demanding and to save some energy for the last couple miles would be smart. I passed 2 riders from another category and finished with a 16:57. Yay...I met my goal and the bike and body held together well. This Super-D went off well and should be much bigger next year.

~ Chris Bentley

Team TAI Race Results:

Men Cat 1 40+
1 Chris Bentley

Photos from the race can be found here. Chris is shown in photos 12,62,63 and 64.