Bashing Bush, Redlining, and Winning Without Bikes: Team 4HF’s Improbable La Pine Loop Victory

If you were following the pre-race buzz for Bend Racing’s La Pine Loop Adventure Race, you’d probably have had Team 4HF pinned near the top of your leaderboard predictions.

And why wouldn’t you?

The duo of Chelsey Magness and Matthias Arnbert is pure adventure racing royalty. Fresh off racing together at the 2025 Adventure Racing World Championship (ARWC)—where they battled into the 5th and final podium spot—and with Matthias coming off a massive win at Raid the Rockies, they brought formidable speed, experience, and grit to the start line. The 9th annual La Pine Loop was meant to be their final high-octane tune-up before heading to the USARA National Championships next month.

Then, 24 hours before the race, disaster struck. Well, disaster struck earlier but a doctor confirmed it.

The pre-race 24-Hour Curveball

Chelsey had been managing a lingering hand injury sustained during her Yukon 1000 expedition race earlier this summer. Lots of physio, acupuncture and rest led to it feeling better and a return to training. Then somewhere during a long weekend with a full schedule of teaching acrobatics (fairly grip intensive), and a few marathon mountain bike sessions…that hand announced that it was definitely not healed.

And just a day before the race, a hand specialist delivered devastating news: Stop everything. She needed an immediate MRI, was facing likely surgery, and was looking at a 12 to 16-week recovery timeline.

The mandate was strict: No mountain biking. No paddling. Full rigid splint on her right hand.

For an elite endurance athlete on the eve of a race, it felt like a crushing blow. Worse still was that this race was a warm up for the higher stakes races of the USARA National Champs, and the World Series qualifier Expedition India.

But after the initial shock settled, a crazy idea started brewing.

Could they still race? At least this smaller race?

Matthias took a little convincing, but the plan was hatched:

1. The Paddle: They’d use double packraft. Matthias would do 100% of the paddling (with a paddle) while Chelsey hang off the front, rigid splint intact on one had, other hand pulling through the water like a one-armed swimmer.
2. The Bike Sections: Abandon the mountain bikes entirely and run all four bike legs on foot.

In almost any standard adventure race, trying to foot-race the mountain bike legs is a guarantee to finish dead last. But La Pine State Park is unique. The terrain is mostly flat, the singletrack is twisty and flowy, and the embedded orienteering sections are off-trail, technical, and dense. If a team was fast enough, navigated tightly, and took clever lines, maybe—just maybe—they could stay within striking distance.

Redlining for 4.5 Hours

From the opening whistle, 4HF put the hammer down. Without the rolling advantage of two wheels, there’d be zero room to catch up once they got to the bikes. So the team took off on the first trek like it was the only stage of the race. And each subsequent stage they did the same. Chelsey’s heart rate averaged 160+ BPM over the entire 4.5-hour effort—a relentless, redline output. She could feel her heartbeat in her hand as it throbbed with pain.

Matthias’s navigation was flawless. Knowing they were losing time on the open trail stretches where mountain bikes could easily cruise at 15+ mph, he looked for every micro-advantage on the map. They cut sneaky corners, bush-bashing off-trail through dense Oregon pine and brush while the biking teams stayed on the easy riding trail networks.

It was a dramatic game of cat-and-mouse all afternoon. The top bike teams would fly past them on the trail stages, building a gap, only for 4HF to claw their way back to the front during the foot-orienteering sections.

The Finish Line Drama

The final CP was only 100 meters before the finish line. A nice beach along the river held a note: CP is 40 M due east. They stood there looking across the water toward the cut bank and CP flag. Matthias was cramping painfully. Chesley is a poor swimmer with two good hands. The finish was so close.

Break squeals broke their reverie. A team barrelled down the hill and found the note on the beach.

Matthias grabbed an optional life jacket (he was worried his body would seize up during the short swim) and ran into the water. The other team followed.

The Outcome

Matthias and Chelsey crossed the finish line - first overall in the 9th annual Lapine Loop. It was Chelsey’s first win of the event in all those 9 editions.

• The Margin: Team 4HF took the overall victory by less than 30 seconds.
• Distance Covered: Team 4HF covered 22.8 miles entirely on foot and paddle. The other top teams logged 24 miles (15 of those on bikes).

It was a stunning, triumphant display of adaptability, grit, and pure sufferfest spirit. They turned what could have been a weekend of defeat into a unique, highly effective training block. Both Chelsey and Matthias crossed the finish line utterly shattered, exhausted, but grinning from ear to ear.

The Verdict & Looking Ahead to Nationals

Chelsey cried a bit the finish line - happy and delirious with the effort, but very sad thinking it was her last real effort for a long time.

The post-race MRI brought the official diagnosis: a total extensor pinky tendon rupture.

The silver lining? The doctor’s updated prognosis gave them a green light for Nationals: The damage is severe, but you can't really do any more damage to it.

Chelsey’s task now is simply managing the pain and powering through the next few months with a heavy cocktail of physical therapy, acupuncture, and probably some vitamin I.

It’s at least one answer to a question that plagues AR racers from time to time…”Would it be faster without a bike (or packraft)? Could we just run the whole thing?”

I’m not sure that I’d point to this weekend as proving that theory. La Pine State Park may be the only place this would ever work. But if the weekend proved anything, it’s that you can take away Chelsey’s bike, take away her paddle, and immobilize her hand, but you can’t take away her fight.

Huge congratulations to Team 4HF on an unforgettable La Pine Loop victory—next stop, USARA Nationals!