Kona Gravity Team Rider Hannah Bergemann is off to a stellar season, taking her second and third victories in the Cascadia Dirt Cup, the premier Northwest enduro racing series. Here’s her recap of the past two races.
The CDC round 2 took place in Hood River, OR in Post Canyon. Growing up in Hood River, Post was the place where I first started to mountain bike, so it’s always an awesome experience to come back, see my progression, and ride the trails where I first learned about mountain biking.
This year our Bellingham crew headed down and pre-rode the trails on Friday before the race with my dad, Timmy. Lots of fresh rain revived the dry dusty trails into epic tacky dirt just in time for the race.
Bonnie Burke and I decided to pull out the denim race kits for this round.
Kona Product Manager Mark “Donny” Allison was going for max speeds. Most of the stages were classic Post Canyon Trails, full of flowy berms and high-speed sections.
Stage 2 was notably different with a baby-head rock-filled trail followed by a chunky rock garden in the woods. Strangely, this was my favorite stage of the race, with the added length and technicality.
I was stoked to take the win on my old home trails, on an especially pedally course! (which is definitely not my strong suit).
Round 3 took place in Capitol Forest, near Olympia, WA.
We lucked out again with the weather and trail conditions, getting a little moisture and cool temps right before the race. The trails were much more downhill oriented and technical than the Hood River race.
Stage one was full of high-speed gaps and doubles, with an optional double-black section of trail full of steep to catch-berm sections. My favorite stage was the 3rd one which was a short, steep and loamy DH track called Lowkey. It featured several raw & soft corners, was full of roots, and a few large gap jumps.
This race definitely suited my style more, and I felt good on most stages except for a minor crash on the last stage.
I was stoked to take another win for the CDC series, and I’m even more fired up for the rest of the race season!”
-Hannah B.
