Bend Adventure Racing Team Now Ranked 7th in the World
Bend, June 14, 2017 –Bend adventure racing (AR) team Team Bend Racing/Yogaslackers is now ranked 7th in the world’s arguably toughest sport after a 4th place finish in May’s grueling Huairasinchi race in Ecuador in May.
This ranking also takes into account their impressive 2nd place finish in the 2015 Expedition Alaska and their 2015 and 2016 2nd and 4th place finishes in the Wyoming Cowboy Tough races. Back home in the United States, the team has continued to see success with three 1st place wins this season in the Cascadia AR Series’ Wicked Winter, Spring Sting, and Summer Solstice races.
Most of these massive successes have come even after what could have been some debilitating setbacks, including one teammate’s major hip surgery and both of the team’s females delivering babies within the past year.
Teammate Jason Magness said, “This whole year was restructuring and seeing if we could still be a world class international team with two new mothers and a new hip, so this ranking is a pretty big deal for us.”
The team, consisting of Jason, Melissa Coombes, Chelsey Magness, Alexandre Provost, Daniel Staudigel, and Stephen Thompson, attributes much of their success to their backyard playground that is Bend. In 2010, the entire team relocated all of its members to the town with the intent to turn professional in the sport of adventure racing.
“We wanted to see how far we could go in the World Series,” said Jason Magness. “So we relocated to Bend because we knew this was an ideal place to train. With everything from world-class mountain biking to class-five rivers, Central Oregon holds everything we need to become leaders in our sport.”
Their move has paid off. The team has steadily increased their rankings since entering the World Series in 2011. With momentum continuing to build, the team is focused on preparing for the upcoming AR World Championship race, which is to be held for the first time ever in the United States in Wyoming this August.
The team and its main sponsor, Bend Racing, are also dedicated to the sport of AR in another way. With the intent of encouraging new racers into the sport, Bend Racing hosts numerous races and training camps in Central Oregon each year.
In addition to racing all around the world, Team Bend Racing/Yogaslackers is an eclectic group of athletes who are just as likely to found training on Mount Bachelor as walking iconic highlines at Smith Rock or performing cirque-style partner acrobatics on the banks of the Deschutes River.
Learn more about the team, past and future races, and more at bendracing.com.
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