Sometimes mountain bike racing isn’t nearly as fun as mountain bike riding. That’s because race courses often include long sections of fun-draining dirt or gravel roads. In Central Oregon, of course, we’re fortunate to have so much undisturbed singletrack, where one could pedal for hours and hours without encountering more than a doubletrack crossing.

It’s fitting, then, that Central Oregon’s longest-standing mountain bike racing tradition — Pickett’s Charge! — is a celebration of the area’s much-loved twisty and narrow mountain bike trails located in west Bend. And for the 16th edition of the annual race, nearly all of the previous dirt road sections have been replaced by singletrack. We’re talking 80 to 90 percent of the course.

The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association-sanctioned cross-country mountain bike race is this Sunday and will be staged just south of Phil’s Trailhead. Categories will be offered for all levels of riders, with race distances ranging from 11 to 34 miles, depending on ability. The event is hosted and run by the Sunnyside Sports bicycle club. Proceeds generated by the event go to support the team, which is separate from Sunnyside Sports bicycle shop.

This year is likely the last chance to race Pickett’s Charge! in the Phil’s Trail area, the race’s home since 2003. The event is expected to move to Wanoga Sno-park starting in 2010.

Pickett’s Charge! is a tribute to Central Oregon mountain bike pioneer Tom Pickett, who died in 1993 of brain cancer at the age of 52. Pickett was a friend and customer of Sunnyside Sports in Bend, and he encouraged the bicycle shop to embrace a new cycling movement called “mountain biking” back in the early 1980s.

“He was very instrumental in getting our store involved with mountain biking — and me personally,” says Don Leet, co-owner of Sunnyside Sports, who remembers being introduced to mountain biking by Pickett back in 1983. “He was the one that said mountain biking isn’t a fad, it’s a real sport. I had Trek’s first prototype mountain bike, and that was partly because of Tom getting us into mountain biking early.”

According to Leet, Oregon’s second-oldest mountain bike race (Mudslinger — in Blodgett, west of Corvallis — is the oldest) was first held in 1994 at Virginia Meissner Sno-park. That year, the event was a cycling duathlon that included a mountain bike race on trails followed by a road bike race on Century Drive.

Mountain biking turned out to be a great fit for Leet, who 26 years later, at age 58, is still riding and racing at an expert level. Leet is the course director for Sunday’s race, and he is also planning to compete.

“I like to make this race the way I would like all races to be,” he says. “Mainly singletrack, somewhat challenging, not too long — so people aren’t out there forever — and I like results to be done immediately.”

Leet recently invited me along for a preview of Sunday’s race course — a ride he’s hammered out hundreds of times. It was easy to follow his smooth lead and well-practiced lines. The course favors a strong singletrack rider — not necessarily the one who can bury his or her head and grind up steep, never-ending inclines. Rather, the upper hand at Pickett’s goes to the mountain biker who can deftly navigate through technical sections, and who can whoosh through sweeping turns without touching the brakes.

After a two-mile thinning-out section on dirt road, the course climbs gradually — with a few short steep sections — up COD, where several technical lava rock outcroppings await to play pinball with tires and pedals. Racers then connect to the undulating Storm King trail before hitting a wonderfully curvy descent on Grand Slam, which at times can be tight and tricky. (There are a few spots early on the trail where most racers will dismount and walk their bikes over nearly unridable rock outcroppings.)

It’s a short jaunt on to ELV before riders then sprint back to the finish on the same dirt road on which they began. Pro riders and most Category 1 men will perform two laps for 34 miles and 90 percent singletrack, while the older Category 1 men and Category 1 women and all Category 2 fields will perform just one lap for 19 miles on 80 percent singletrack.

Category 3 riders will compete over a shortened 11-mile loop that will include lower sections of Grand Slam and COD.

“The beginner race will be slightly more technical than what they’re used to,” Leet explains. “It’s an 11-mile race with some really fun trail, not just a dirt road and call it a beginner race.”

To register for Pickett’s Charge!, go online to www.sunnysidesports. Registration is also open from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Sunnyside Sports, located at 930 N.W. Newport Ave. The final opportunity to register is Sunday at the race site from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Avoid late fees by registering for the race by Wednesday. Beginner riders can register anytime without a late fee.

Pickett’s Charge!

What: A cross-country mountain bike race with categories and race distances for beginner to pro riders.

Where: On trails in the Phil’s Trail area west of Bend.

When: 10 a.m. this Sunday.

Register: Online registration and printable registration forms at www.sunnysidesports.com.

Entry fee: $26 for adult non-beginners, $21 for beginners, $16 for juniors through June 3. Add a $5 late fee after June 3. Add $10 late fee for day-of-race registration.

Info: Contact Chandra at 541-350-2456 or online at www.sunnysidesports.com.