Hood River, Oregon Super D - Jordan Lopez

What a Memorial Day weekend: drove 1200 miles in 19 hours over a 3 day period and raced in one of the toughest Super D’s I have participated in.

Practice:
The first practice run on Saturday morning was wet and wild; the course had several “buttery” mud sections, boulders covered in mud and the top half of the course was hidden in a rain cloud. After this run, I and many of the racers decided to take a break for a few hours and let the course dry out. 3 hours later when I did my second run the course had completely changed and had dried out significantly. Many of the buttery mud sections were dry and the course in general was significantly faster. I then proceeded to take another practice run and again the course was even faster and now all of the mud was dry.

Race:
I was the 13th racer on course and as I went down my legs felt good and I was excited for the race. In the rock section at the top of the course, I got off my line and I almost had a “yard sale”, luckily I was able to save it and continue on. At the hill climb, my legs felt good at the base and as I topped the hill I was breathing hard but not deterred. Yet, from this point my run began to fall apart. I lost the front tire in a tight steep section of the course and I crashed off the bike down a steep hill. I then had to climb back up to my bike and try to get my flow back for the steep sections that followed. Finally, as I neared the finish line, I pushed to hard into a wet berm and lost the front tire again, going down onto my side and losing the much needed momentum for the last flat sections of the course.

With my two crashes, my finishing time was 24:13 which was off the top guys and put me into 13th place in the PRO Men Category and 15th overall.
Yet, with the disappointment of a poor race run, I still had a great weekend with friends and I was able to ride on some amazing terrain in Northern Oregon. Also, thanks to a good friend, a couple of items were revealed to me about my race training and prep which I now am working on and I am excited to see these correction to fruition.
Thank you all again for your support and sponsorship and I now look forward to the Ashland Super D and a little retribution