When Carl Decker finished the 20th annual Pickett’s Charge! mountain bike race Sunday, a young volunteer helping post results had a hard time believing the Bend pro had already completed the 25-mile course that started and ended at Wanoga Sno-park.

“You’re an Elite?” the well-meaning volunteered asked Decker, who cruised to victory in the Elite Men’s division in 1 hour, 41 minutes, 15 seconds. “You’ve already done two laps?”

Decker, who did not sign up for the race until Sunday morning, bested runner-up and fellow Bend rider Brig Brandt (1:44:31) by more than three minutes on a course staged primarily on the Tiddlywinks and Funner trails southwest of Bend.

Light rain throughout the morning was a blessing, according to riders, who did one or two laps of the approximately 13-mile loop, depending on their race category.

“I was racing in Ashland yesterday, so I didn’t know if I’d be back to do this,” said Decker, 38, a former U.S. national champion in the Super D (a mix of cross-country and downhill mountain biking). “This (rain) was a special treat. We never get this warm rain in Bend, it’s always cold. This was great.”

Part of the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association’s Mudslinger Oregon XC Series, Pickett’s Charge! hosted about 200 racers on Sunday. Riders started on doubletrack trails off of Wanoga before climbing up and down Tiddlywinks and returning on Funner. Elites, Cat 1, Cat 2 and Clydesdales raced two laps, while Cat 3 and Beginners raced one loop.

“It was a blast,” said Chris Trask, 26, a first-year racer from Albany who finished fourth in the men’s Cat 3, age 19-39 division. “It was a lot more technical than a lot of the races I’ve done this year. … The jumps coming down Tiddlywinks were great. I used to race BMX (bicycle motocross), so it was fun to see that. That was the first time I’ve grabbed air like that on a trail bike.”

While Decker claimed victory on the men’s side, Serena Bishop Gordon, another Bend rider, was the fastest female rider of the day, winning the Elite Women’s division for the third consecutive year. After surviving 90-degree temperatures and an extremely dusty course in 2011 and then unseasonable cold last year, Bishop Gordon cruised to victory Sunday in the Elite Women’s field, in which she was the lone finisher. Her time was 1:57:59.

“I was riding up here the other day and prayed for rain,” Bishop Gordon said about how dusty the course was earlier this week. “All that rain we got in Bend (last week), it didn’t really hit up here until today.”

Bishop Gordon, 34, was primarily a cyclocross racer before 2011, when she started entering and winning mountain bike races, including Pickett’s Charge! that year.

Since then she has wrapped up two Oregon XC Mountain Bike Series championships and last year won a Cat 1 cross-country national title in her 30-34 age group.

“This year’s course was a little bit different, which was nice,” said Bishop Gordon, who, like Decker, is scheduled to race next weekend in the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships in Sun Valley, Idaho. “There was about 4 1/2 miles on dirt roads before we headed up Tiddlywinks (that allowed for some separation).”

Familiarity with the course helped Decker and Bishop Gordon — “I live 12 minutes from here,” Decker said — but experiencing two of Central Oregon’s newer trails for the first time provided plenty of thrills for out-of-town racers.

“Super fun,” said Paul Springer, 30 and of Akron, Ohio, who was in Central Oregon visiting his sister. “At first I thought it was going to be kind of like a road race, and then we started heading uphill. Going downhill (on Tiddlywinks) was super funky. And it was cool that there were places to pass.”

Springer, who raced in the men’s Cat 3 division, was all smiles after the race — even after going over his handlebars at one point in the race.

“I hollered ‘On your left!’ to pass a guy and then went flying,” Springer said with a grin. “It’s cool though. We’re out here racing in the mountains with all this beautiful scenery around us.”