24 hours of Willamette Pass is coming up this weekend! Fraser has been wanting to do a race this summer and this will be his race! I am excited to be his support and pit crew ... it should be a fun weekend.
We spent the past 2 weekends finding and then riding the course ... and it's a good thing we did. The laps are 15 miles and will take around 1:50 to 1:55 including pits. They are a bit longer than expected! The course consists of loads of single-track - most of it with passing options ... and is basically one big climb followed by one big descent. It takes just over an hour to get to the top of the mountain, 25 minutes to get down, about 10 - 15 minutes on the road, followed by another 10 minutes of single-track! It is a challenging course with about 1600 ft of climbing and I would guess about 70% single-track.
Eating just before the big descent, using water to keep cool, and bringing enough to eat and drink will be crucial in this race! I did an 8 hour race sim on the course yesterday .. it is definately a course for the full suspension! The downhill is fun but long and will get tireing on the arms after a while. It is a good course for Fraser as he is a very skilled (fast!) single-track/technical rider.
