This past weekend, The Oregon Gran Fondo, held in beautiful Cottage Grove, Oregon, was another fantastic experience for many riders ready to get back to cycling events. The Gran Fondo is a well-catered, timed cycling event. I absolutely love the energy of a great sporting event! And any event put together by Mike with Mudslinger Events is sure to be a great one! I always feel so privileged to be the photographer at these races.
I haven’t photographed any real events in over a year, so it was pretty exciting to travel a couple of hours north of Medford, Oregon, to Cottage Grove to experience this fun event. The weather was fantastic, overcast with minor drizzles throughout the day, but nothing to make the roads wet. Apparently, it was blazing hot last year, so this was a comfortable day of riding.
Click on any of the image collages to view larger in a blog post gallery, if you want access to ALL 1,000 images from the event, you can access them through my galleries page (click the big button below). This event photography is for promotional and sponsor purposes and I am not there to try to achieve capturing every single rider at the event. I love to share the photos of those I do capture for your own personal use. I love seeing them on your Facebook and Instagram posts, so please feel free to use them. You can find me under @FrizzStudio or Hashtag #FrizzStudio if you want to mention or tag. If you would like to use any of the photos for any promotional use, please get in touch with me.
This event kicked off with the Adventure Route (see the map) group heading out at 7 am from downtown Shady Cove. Once they were released from the downtown truck-lead-out they headed up the gravel-based incline of Gowdyville Road ( << google map link location) and a splendid view of the valley from my viewpoint watching them power up their first big climb.
This was a small but mighty group. I’ve seen some of these guys (and ladies) at the High Cascades 100 (Bend, Oregon) over the years and they are a robust group of off-road cyclists who seem to love to take a beating on the crazy courses, Mike puts together ( Mike with Mudslinger Events).
The next groups were for the Gran Route, Medio Route, and Mini Gravel Route. While the Adventure Route is the rough and tough off-road, on-road route, the Gran Route also included some off-road gravel-based action as well. The Medio was a fun all-road route. I did not get to catch any of the little Gravel Run, but apparently, those can be a bit of fun too. Check out the race map pdf here.
This big group left at 8:30 am from the downtown area and split of in phases according to their routes. The Cottage Grove Police Department did a stellar job on the lead-out for this full group. I love the shot of this lead out with the original, signature-covered bridge which is a significant landmark of Cottage Grove. Fun fact, Cottage Grove is known as the “Covered Bridge Capital of the West” (according to Eugene Cascades & Coast guide to Cottage Grove covered bridges).
This group continued a nice leisurely start winding through luscious landscapes of springtime landscapes.
I followed these groups for a bit and worked on getting past them to head to the top of Oxbow Summit ( << Google Map) to catch both the Adventure Route and Gran Route riders coming down the steep, winding, gravel decline. Once up there I had a good 30-45 minutes hanging out with zero cell service, so I had no idea when the first rider would come through.
You can hear the whirrrr!!! of their wheels zipping around the upper curve just above where I was positioned. And then ZOOM! They’re blazing by you in an instant. The camera was ready to capture! It’s like an instant adrenaline rush, and then pause…. which feels like forever for the next rider to zoom on by, but it’s only a matter of minutes, then they start coming in batches.
I work on moving around to capture different angles while not missing my marks; which can be tricky! I lay off to the side of the road on my tummy, hoping I am very much out of their way (unless they lose control and run me over… which has actually happened to me in the past! But I was able to roll out of the way). I stress when the riders take their hands off the bars to give me a fun shot, but if they happened to crash because of the photo op, I’d be devastated. Thankfully no one crashed on my account!
This is Ben, rocking it until a second later. He came walking up from around the curve with a broken spoke situation. It snapped so badly his tire was wobbling and he couldn’t continue; thank God he did not have a ghastly bail. And luckily I was done at the spot I was at and had planned to head back down the hill. I gave him a ride in my Subaru Outback back to the last Aid Station and Mark Lipchick with the LANDSPEED FIX Bike Shop (based out of Eugene, OR) was thankfully stationed here and was able to fix him up to at least ride out the remainder of the course. Mark plays a dual role as a Master Wheelwright custom crafting bicycle Wheels through his company, Fastcarbon Wheels.
Let’s not forget the value and hard work that goes into prepping and running these aid stations. This awesome crew has been volunteering at this cycle event since the beginning! They were all so positive, fun and attentive to every rider making sure they had the nutrition and needs for the last leg. I loved their stories regarding why they had certain foods on the table. Apparently one year they brought twinkies, but not enough as those were such a big hit! I loved that they had things like snack-sized baked potatoes and homemade gluten-free cookies. There was truly something for everyone.
At the end of the day, Mudslinger Events truly lives up to their slogan of “More than a Race!” — you can see the pure joy of every. single. cyclist. at these events.
