Carl Decker smiles at the finish of the 2015 Blitz mountain bike race.

Carl Decker was winning mountain bike races in Central Oregon long before the region became renowned for its endless miles of singletrack.

Now, at 42, he is still winning races with no plans to stop.

Decker, who has lived in Bend since the early 1980s, this past weekend won the 100-mile Lost and Found Gravel Grinder in Lake Davis, California. On Wednesday night in Bend, he will vie for his third title in the eighth annual 18-mile Blitz mountain bike race from Wanoga Sno-park to Tetherow Golf Club.

“As you get older, you have this body of training that you can rely on,” Decker says. “It doesn’t take as much. You have a well of strength that young kids don’t have.”

Decker grew up in Bend racing a BMX bike on dirt roads, because neither mountain bikes for kids nor much of the singletrack in Central Oregon existed yet. He entered his first mountain bike race in 1984, the Cascade Cruise, which started at Mount Bachelor and finished at Shevlin Park.

Decker says the Blitz race, which has been a spectator favorite over the years, has that same “old-school feel” as that first race in which he competed.

The idea of racing from mountain to town is always appealing to mountain bikers. Back in the 1980s, though, none of the trails on which the Blitz is contested had even been built.

“Nobody complained about it being doubletrack because that’s just what you did back then,” Decker says. “What that race was a lot like is these gravel-grinding races that are all new and everybody’s pumped on. Basically, that’s the way mountain biking was 30 years ago because the bikes are similar, with smaller tires and a rigid fork. The courses were mostly just dirt roads.”

Decker won last week’s Lost and Found race in just over five hours. The event is part of the Lost Sierra Triple Crown, three mountain bike races that are staged in a remote region of mountains and forests north of Lake Tahoe. The other two races are the Downieville Classic (to be staged this year on Aug. 5) and the Grinduro (Oct. 7). Decker won the Triple Crown last year, and he won the Downieville Classic all-mountain title five consecutive years from 2010 to 2014.

Now into his 40s, Decker is showing no signs of slowing down on his bike and competes in a variety of disciplines — but he admits that rest and recovery are more crucial now than when he was younger.

“The good days are like a drug,” Decker says. “It doesn’t take too many good days to keep you going through a lot of bad days. The downside to being 42 and trying to be a professional racer is that you can’t ride as hard as often, because you can’t recover. But the upside is that you can’t ride as hard as often. You’re forced to rest more — which is great by me — and just have some balance in your life and do other things, which for me is dorking around in the garage a lot with bikes, cars and motorcyles.”

Decker’s side hobby is rally-car racing, and he even competed in the 2010 X Games in his modified Subaru. He says his rally car is currently in a state of repair, but he is planning to use a friend’s car to race in a three-day event on the Isle of Man, between England and Ireland, later this year.

Sponsored by Giant Bicycles for the past 15 years, Decker has been able to carve out a comfortable living as a pro mountain biker. After last season, his longtime Giant teammate and fellow Bend resident Adam Craig retired from bike racing. A 2008 Olympian in mountain biking and an 18-time national champion, Craig, 35, is now focused on trail building and stewardship.

“That changed the dynamic a little bit,” Decker says of Craig’s retirement. “I’m kind of just the old guy, instead of Adam and I being the old guard of the team. I’ll retire when it stops being fun or I’m not competitive.”

Decker won the Blitz in its first year in 2010, and also in 2014. Craig is a three-time Blitz winner, his last victory coming in 2015. On Wednesday, Decker will be going up against last year’s winner, Todd Wells, of Durango, Colorado, and 2013 winner Geoff Kabush, a three-time Olympian from British Columbia, Canada.

Katerina Nash, from the Czech Republic, is a favorite in the women’s race. Nash, 39, is a four-time Olympian (1996 and 2012 in mountain biking and 1998 and 2002 in nordic skiing) who now lives in Emeryville, California.

“I like my odds,” Decker says. “Geoff Kabush will be tough to beat. He’s good at winning everything. Todd will be hard to beat, too. But I can beat either of those guys if I have a good day.”

Erik Eastland, founder and organizer of the Blitz, always likes Decker’s chances in the race that draws hundreds of spectators to the big-air jumps and finish area at Tetherow.

“I’m thinking Carl could win,” Eastland says.

The jumps in this year’s Blitz will be different from years past, according to Eastland. Instead of built up on scaffolding, the jumps will be all natural, made of dirt and rock.

“We got out there with the Mt. Bachelor Bike Park crew and a bunch of heavy-duty equipment, a ton of dirt, and sculpted it right into the side of the hill there,” Eastland says.

Decker says the Blitz is one of those races that “you dream of having in your hometown.” He has been lucky enough to have it here for eight years, now he just wants to win it again in front of family and friends.

“The start of June is when stuff starts happening for me, generally, in terms of being able to ride well,” Decker says. “Things seem to be kind of on target … we’ll see.

“I’m old, but I’m not done yet.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318, 
mmorical@bendbulletin.com

“The good days are like a drug,. It doesn’t take too many good days to keep you going through a lot of bad days. The downside to being 42 and trying to be a professional racer is that … you’re forced to rest more — which is great by me — and just have some balance in your life and do other things.”— Bend mountain biker Carl Decker

If you go

What: The eighth annual Blitz mountain bike race, an 18-mile mountain bike race that includes about 40 of the top men’s and women’s riders in the country. Competitors do not officially complete the race until they drink a pint of beer at the finish area.

When: Wednesday, women start at 6 p.m. and men start at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The route starts at Wanoga, about 11 miles west of Tetherow Golf Club along Century Drive, and takes cyclists down Funner, Storm King, C.O.D., Marvin’s Gardens and K.G.B. trails and into the big-air jumps and finish line near Tetherow’s patio. The finish-line party includes beer, food, bike demos and other vendors.

Watch: Spectators can watch for free all along the course, and no admission will be charged for the post-race festivities at Tetherow.

Prizes: The race will award four cash prizes (primes) of $1,000 each along the route from Wanoga to Tetherow. The primes include winning the hole shot, big air, fastest on pavement, and arm wrestling (after the race). Winners in the men’s and women’s divisions each earn $3,000. The total prize purse of $20,000 is one of the most lucrative in the country among mountain bike races, according to organizer Erik Eastland.

Website: www.blitzbikesbeer.com