The Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder is always a highlight of any race season. 5 days of proper gravel racing and camping across the Cascades. Being part of the Gravel Earth Series brought in a solid field of pros, making it a proper battle for a top 10 every day. Unfortunately, I came in with a stomach bug in the first 2 stages, struggling to finish, soon finding myself 2nd to last in GC.
Thankfully, things came around on stage 3, the "rest day" as we had 3 small time trials, 1 up the mountain, 1 across, and 1 down. Going across, I'd finish 4th, then down, I nearly ended up in the woods, barely saving a sketchy two-wheel drift. It got the adrenaline going, and I was stoked to still be upright and finally feeling healthy for the last few stages. It was great to be able to push the Kona Libre to its limit again!
Camp life was awesome as always, with the 2 nights at Oakridge being the highlight, complete with a refreshing river to swim in after the days of racing. The racing was super hard with Unbound winner, Cam Jones, leading the charge, but getting to relax in such a great setting each evening made it a little easier, as you had something great to look forward to each evening.
Stage 4 was a big day with nearly 2700 m of climbing over 120 km. We had a solid lead group of 10 riders, which would slowly splinter. Young gun, Cassius Anderson, and I'd find ourselves together in 7/8th as we raced through some secluded wilderness on some fast rolling gravel to cap the day together, along with Payson, who would join us later.
Stage 5 started with a big climb over McKenzie Pass on some pavement before dropping into the dusty east side of the Cascades on some loose gravel roads. We had a nice lead group of 8, which I decided to attack with 60 km to go.
Going on a solo break, I found myself off the front for nearly 2 hours, nearly getting caught at the King of the Mountains by Skyler and Payson. With 3 snow piles to run across I would hold them off and would grab the KOM crown on the stage. Pretty soon, I would be passed by them and a small chase group, but still landing on the wide-angle podium in 5th for the stage.
With the back-to-back solid stages, I'd climb up from 2nd to last in GC to 11th. Not ideal but a solid comeback nonetheless, given the rough start to the week. A post race BBQ was a great cap to the week before hopping straight in the van with Usha Khanal for a 10 hr travel day back to Victoria to start BCBR Race the next day. 5 days of racing down, 7 to go!
