Mudslinger XC!

Mudslinger XC hit last weekend and it lived up to it's name!

Bob thoroughly covered in muck

Shane's poor bike...

Sam definitely had fun racing in the mud! The goofy smile proves it.

Four-wheelin' the ferns... Bob took a pretty good spill off the Panama Canal trail.

Here's Cory proving he can get muddy just like everyone else. 

Swamp thing...

Sam brought home the glory for the team, taking the win!

This past weekend Sam, Shane, Bob and myself headed into the valley for the annual Mudslinger XC race. Sam and Shane headed over Friday night for an epic Saturday on Sandy Ridge near Portland while Bob and myself waited until Saturday evening to make the journey. 

We stayed the night at Shane's folks' in Corvallis and were treated to warm showers and a comfortable place to sleep. And Shane's mom made us oatmeal the next morning!! 

We got to the venue and weather was alternating sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain, so we really weren't sure how to dress for the 22 miles and 3800 feet of climbing (3800 feet. That's higher then the city of Redmond by about 600 feet. On a bike. In the rain). Once we decided how many layers to don we warmed up and rolled neutral to the start line with the rest of the racers. After about 15 minutes standing in the cold rain waiting to start we were off. A 3-4 mile gravel climb started the race and after that I'm not sure what really happened... Just a lot of gravel roads that went up and muddy trails that went down! It continued to pour rain, then shine sun, then pour rain, and pour rain. We were truly soaked with mud and rain. Rain.

Bob took a good spill and we were lucky enough to get a picture of it (posted above). The rest of us came out unscathed, which I think means we weren't trying hard enough. The muddy trails were incredibly fun and the gravel climbs were brutal as always!

At the end of the day Bob took 17th, Shane 10th, I finished in 13th and Sam won her division! We were stoked to have Sam on the podium, especially after none of the rest of us did too well. 

Thanks Mudslinger Events for yet another great year on the cold and wet hills of Blodgett!!

-Cory Tanler