Thursday, November 29, 2007

The pucker factor

Here it is, Thursday morning, and I am just starting to get that gut wrenching nervous feeling for this weekend’s USGP races in Portland. Not bad, usually it hits by Tuesday night, or Wednesday morning. These things seem to have a predictable cycle. Monday and Tuesday are spent reminiscing/ruminating about Sunday’s race. By Wednesday the mind starts to look forward to the upcoming weekend; The weather forecast is clearer, time to replace anything on the bikes, make sure the clothes are clean etc… and hence the pucker factor. You know, that feeling deep in the bowels every time you think about the weekend. From there it radiates out to the limbs with that “too much caffeine” feeling, and leaves the mind all scattered. Can’t say Thursday and Friday are my most productive days at work, as I am sure you can tell by this blog.

Why so nervous/stressed/amped you ask? Good question. I won’t delude you with any bullshit about being a dedicated and focused athlete. I’m just a compulsive competitor. I once had a great idea to start a Competitive Anonymous support group, but realized we would just sit around and try to out-do one another, trying to prove who is the most competitive, luckily I thought better about that one. Basically I am just a freak. Even luckier for me I’m joined by about 900 other freaks every weekend to make me feel normal.

This weekend is the last 2 races of the year for me, and the last 2 races in the USGP series that I traveled to L’ville and NJ for. No offense to the other venues, but I feel pretty confident that these races will be the best, by far. There are already 99 pre-registered riders for my race! By comparison, the other races had somewhere around 60 riders. Damn I am glad I have that one series point to get a decent start position. The weather has also been downright nasty. Raining on and off the past couple of days, and there is a chance of Snow Saturday night. It will be cold and wet, especially Sunday. The fun folks from the Gentle Lovers team will have their Wood fired hot tub on the course again, and I hear they are going for an inside corner this year so racers will be riding around the hot tub, and getting some nice warm water splashed on them as they pass. And, this being a race put on by the Cross Crusaders, I have no doubt there will be some additional excitement. I just hope the marching band is there. Something about that drum corps that just seems to fire things up during the race!

I just hope I have a couple of good races……

If you are in town, you should definitely come out and watch. It really is a fun exciting time. The races are out at PIR, and I’m racing at 12:15, followed by the Elite Women and then the Elite Men. Dress warm, wear your rubber boots, and bring the cow bell!

And for any of my fellow local Masters riders, let’s show them Out of Townies why Portland is the epicenter of ‘Cross in North America. Let’s work together when we can and make those candy ass Californians and sandbaggin' East Coasters sorry they ever laid rubber in Portland!

Hope to see you all out there.

p.s. Meadows opened last week, and skibowl opens tomorrow night with over a foot of fresh snow yesterday....but bring yer rock skis ;)

Monday, November 26, 2007

Always the bridesmaid….

It’s always good to find an outlet to work off the Tofurkey and Thanksgiving beer. Amazingly, sitting on the couch watching football for two days really doesn’t seem to cut it. What a shame. Luckily, we were provided with an early showing of the Kruger’s Crossing Cyclocross race on Sauvie Island to make amends.

Being on an island that is really no more than a series of wetlands in the Willamette River flood plain that have been turned into farms, it doesn’t take too much rain to turn the place into a bog, and it takes awhile for it dry out. So even with no rain in the previous week, there was still ample mud. And it was the sticky peanut butter type of mud. It was hard to get a good feel for the course as it continued to change throughout the day. In the morning it was firm but getting nastier as the ground thawed. Yet as the day progressed and the sun came out, things began to dry up. After my first pre-ride, when my front wheel pretty much stopped spinning from all the mud, I had been planning to ride the pit bike with the Project 2 fork for increased mud clearance, but once I switched the wheels over and walked around a bit, I realized things were drying nicely, so I switched back to my A bike.

I know, life with two bikes is tough, ain’t it?

I lined up in the Master’s A again, I had thought about doing the Sr A race, but since my family was there to watch I kinda wanted a better shot a good race. It’s never nice to get your butt kicked in front of kin. Not that I was taking candy from a baby in the Master’s field either. While some of the regular bruisers in the master A field were racing in the Sr A (Bravard, McCaferty, Leithiser) there were still a lot of fast guys, and it looked like some new guys, in the Master field.

I got myself in the front row and had a great start, right to the front. Martin Baker got around me on the second corner, a nasty mud hole that I rode horribly, and then I was passed by Brooke Hoyer, but I quickly jumped back in front and rode my butt off trying to separate myself. I kept on digging in and I eventually dropped the rest of the race by opening a 15 second gap. For a second there I thought I was going to ride away with it... a fleeting second. From seemingly nowhere I noticed somebody gaining on me. I was Steve somebody (Yenne?) according to the fans. After having my lead swallowed up in a lap’s time, he got around me, at the same time Mike Benno caught up as well. Mike went around both of us and I jumped on their wheels. We rotated leads for a lap or so. After Barton, I was determined not to do all the work, so I made sure to ride their wheels and rest, and took some pulls too. It was fun being in a more strategic position, and the crowds were great. Although I did tell Margi to “settle down” at one point as she was enthusiastically cheering me along. Ooops. After a lap or so of this cat and mouse, Benno went down in front of me entering the corn maze, and while I tried to avoid him I heard Yenne(?) get tangled in a corn stalk, so I attacked in the maze and through the muddy parking lot section. Benno must have gotten up quick as he was right there, but we had gapped Yenne(?). At that point we worked together to open a big gap on the rest of the field. A lap later it was just us playing cat and mouse. I had made the mistake of mentioning to him that the corners after the finish line were giving problems all race, and that’s right where he attacked at the start of the bell lap. I knew it was coming, and was prepared, and managed to keep with him, even slipping past him before the last corner to slow him back up. We duked it out a bit on the remainder of the last lap. I made a move right before a corner on the back side, but he attacked right back on the last straight before the barn, got past me, and I ran out of room to get back. Mike got the win by 50 feet.

I found out later that he got tangled up with Mitchem at the start and was back in 12th in the first lap and came back from there. That’s impressive.

I was psyched with my form in the race, I felt good, and feel like I raced smarter than normal. And even though I was 2nd, I can’t help but replay the last couple laps and wonder “what if?”. Like should I have attacked earlier on the “start climb” or some of the straights to see how he responded? I think I may have been a bit quicker in the upper tree section so attacking right before then may have been a good plan too.

Hindsight is too unforgiving.

At least I know I am feeling good going into the final weekend.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

On the board

They say four’s a charm! I don’t know who they are, and I am pretty sure they don’t say it, but it was for me.

Woke up to a cold morning with light rain. Saw a few flakes falling here at the house early on, but mostly just rain. I have to admit, I did not feel like racing. Something about dealing with all the muddy stuff so far from home. But I came all this way, I was pre-registered. I really had no choice.

Got to the course and they had made a few changes. Nothing too drastic, changed some turns here, added a short stretch through some mulch a la’ Hillsboro of old, but ridable (fitting since Hillsboro was today in PDX). The rain wasn’t incredibly heavy but enough to make some of these turns slick. It also made the sand pit a mess. The stuff just stuck to the drive train. I rode about 3/4 of it and my whole drive train was just coated in sand. What a mess!

ANYWAY….It was cold as all get out at the start, 39 degrees or so. I had 37 for my number, but I am pretty sure I was higher as some folks weren’t there. Still there were supposedly 63 starters. I had a much better start today and moved up a few. We must have been lined up in a better sense of speed today as we all seemed pretty well matched. I spent most of the race going back and forth with guys, probably in the mid to upper 20’s. But come the last lap, I became a possessed man, I am not sure where it came from, but I just turned it on and started reeling in guys. The field was much less spread out which allowed me to pass 6 or 7 guys. Towards the end of the lap some guy got on my wheel and I thought “I am not letting this guy beat me at the line!” I turned myself inside out, I passed by Donald Reeb who was warming up and he really cheered and spurred me on so that by the time I hit the finish straight away I had dropped the guy behind me and I could just cruise to the finish.

I really had no idea where I was in the race. I figured I finished about the same as the past races. I saw Sean Kelsey was two ahead of me right after the finish. I caught up to him, asked how his race was. He had the opposite of mine. He had moved up to 10th, but unraveled at the end and got passed, he thought by 6 or so. That gave me the possibility of getting a top 20, and some USGP points. I was psyched, but more because I felt like I finally rode well. When I went and looked at the results after the ladies race (Georgia rode away again for a win) I was 20th! I got my 1 point! Which is good as I believe it will line me up in front of the PDX top 10 masters in 2 weeks, a place I probably lost today anyway.

In the men’s race, Todd Wells got the hole-shot, but bobbled at the first turn and took out Wicks. Johnson and Powers took the lead. Trebon spent the next two laps chasing as Johnson pulled ahead of Powers. Trebon just rolled through Powers, then Johnson and opened up a 10 second gap until he had a bike change, and it was clear his B-bike wasn’t as good for him. Johnson caught him and got a few bike lengths in one lap, but once Trebon swapped back he was right back on Johnson and then rode away in the last 2 laps, winning with a 20 second lap or so. Parbo had a good race, as did Adam McGrath. I think he took 2nd in the U23, and looked to be riding really strong. He’s such a nice guy it was great to see him have a good race.

My luck continued as I found a hose with good pressure and no line to get my bike nicely cleaned. And on my cool down ride, I found a nice “almost new” travel mug on the side of the road, it was like a prize for my point! The bike is in the case, and the wet clothes are packed in plastic bags ready for the trip back home.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Quick Report

It's a little late here and I am whipped, so I'll make this quick.

Got a decent number, 40, but had a crappy start, went backwards right off the bat. Spent the first half fighting up to the mid 20's, where I ended in a pack of 7 or so that included Sean Kelsey who moved to PA from PDX earlier this year. I missed a break when he and another guy went with 2 to go. I was able to drop all but one guy from the remainder while trying to gap up, and that wheel sucker pinched me at the line by half a wheel in an all out sprint. Dang! I have got to learn some smarter racin'. I raced pretty good except for the start, and I owned the sand pit, passed my whole group every lap. I guess the long legs help for running in sand.

In the women's race, there was no Katie Compton, and that left Georgia Gould to pull off a pretty decent imitation by decimating the field. Sue Butler did pretty well at 7th, while Wendy Williams looked to be having a rough race finishing around 11th.

In the men's race it seemed like the Kona Twin Towers has something to prove. They moved to the front by the second lap and took off, dropping everyone. Tim Johnson who raced with a bloody nose after a wreck killed it to try to gap, got within 5 secs at one point, then faded back to a consistent 15 seconds. The bell lap was the typical scene of Ryan dropping Barry for the win. They really turned it on for that lap. It was odd without the normal Portland crew there. No Tonkin and no Cameron. Adam Craig was just inside 10th with a typical smile on his face race. Sheppard wasn't too far behind. And Donald Deeb was back a bit but seemed to have a good race.

There's a 60% chance of showers tonight, and even a chance of it mixing with some snow! it will be a completely different race with even just a bit of rain. Ok that was a pretty obvious statement, I'll just stop right there.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Feeling like a rock star

I’m livin large in the land of The Boss and Bon Jovi. Me and my bike arrived safely in NJ, nothing too exciting, once we got off the ground in Portland. I did a get a chance to meet one of Mercer County’s finest. I was driving down to the course for a ore-ride and on the way I managed to get lost, even with a talking GPS system, I found myself going a little fast when a cop passed me going the other way. He pulled a “Uie”, and the next thing I he was tellin’ me I was “driving a little fast, 55 in a 35” and asking if I had a license, insurance and registration. Since I was in my mom’s car I told him I hoped so and that I’m not from around these parts. He saw the bike in the back seat and asked if I was going to the race. I said I was going to race and was heading to the park to check it out. He thought it was pretty cool, and as I was looking for the registration and insurance, he told me not to worry and handed back my license. We talked about the race for a minute, and he gave me directions to the park. Had to have been the nicest cop I ever met. Or maybe I am just used to the bike hatin’ police back home.

If getting some respect from a cop didn’t have me feeling like a rockstar, then getting to the course and doing a couple warm-up laps in a pack with Tim Johnson, Parbo, Georgia Gould, Jesse Anthony and some others certainly did. Especially with local media and photographers there filming and taking pictures. Now if only I can ride like a rock start! That’d be sweet!

The course is pretty cool, at least I like it better than L’ville. It has a slightly longer start straight on an uphill and then goes a little more gradually on to the grass. From there is a good mix of twists and turns with some straights, and lots of room for passing. There’s a lot of grass, almost 80%, one real long sand stretch through a volleyball court, that, at least during warm-ups, Parbo was the only one I saw ride the whole thing. I could get about halfway through, and man it sucks your energy. They also built a “flyover” that isn’t as tall as in L’ville but seems steeper and ends on rougher terrain. Overall it is pretty dry, but soft. There isn’t any mud, so all the corners are pretty quick. I ran 50psi (too lazy to drop any, but I will) and had no problems doing a couple hot laps. There is a slight chance of some light snow on Saturday night, but pretty slight, otherwise just cold and partly cloudy.

I do have to say that NJ is prettier than I remember. The trees here still have some color on them, and there are some really nice places here. It also feels a lot richer in history here. All the places the American Revolution was fought, and homes that were built in the 1700s. Of course there are plenty of malls, both of the strip and full-scale variety, and plenty of sprawl to boot, but it isn’t as bad as you hear.

Checkout the cool antique cowbell my mom found in her attic and gave to me:

Thursday, November 15, 2007

CCX Master A BCS

It's way too early on Thursday morning, and I am sitting in the Portland Airport. At least they have free wifi. I’m heading back to Jersey to see my mom, and race in the next 2 USGP races in Mercer County Park, and you all thought I learned my lesson when I went to Louisville!

Anyway, since I am sitting here with some time to kill before my flight I thought I'd look over the Cross Crusade series standings, and see what my chances are for making the top ten. Thanks to Brooke Hoyer for posting the totals from Mike Wilson. Unfortunately, because the series is the best five scores of seven, and some people have raced six races and others less, it’s a hard thing to figure out (for me atleast), but this is how I think the situation is:

If two or more of the following happen I will NOT finish in the top ten:
Ian Leitheiser scores 16 points or more (11th or better)
Martin Baker scores 18 points or more (10th or better)
Mike Benno scores 18 points or more* (10th or better)
John Mitchem scores 24 points or more (7th or better)
Ed French scores scores 24 points or more* (7th or better)
However, if Mike Schindler scores less than 10 points*(14th or worse) then I pass him and 3 of the above can happen.

*If a rider scores exactly this amount it would lead to a tie and I have no idea what a tie breaker would be.


Now let's look at how the above finished this year:
Ian finishes near the top 5 (4,5,6 2DNFs 1DNS)
Martin finishes top 10 (8,8,9,11,17 1DNF)
Benno finishes all over (2,6,13 hasn't raced last couple)
Mitchem finishes near top 10 (9,10,11,12,15,17)
Ed French finishes just outside top 10 (7,10,12,14,16)

So I guess it is not impossible, and there are other guys who could have great races and bump me as well, while that would be out of their normal finishing place, I'm really just too tired to figure that out. This is already more information than anyone wanted, BUT if you happen to be watching the race, and just happen to have a stick in your hand, well.....let's just say it would be a shame for any of those guys if that stick got stuck in their wheel! No no, I would hate to have that happen to any of these guys. I made this bed for myself by missing two races, they’re all strong racers and any of them would deserve to get a top 10.

Good luck you guys, I'll see you all at Krugers or PIR.

It turns out my flight is an hour late, so getting up at 5am was pretty much a waste of time, and I need the sleep, I have been fighting off a head cold for the past couple days and I need all I can get before getting on a flying petri dish for 6 hours. This whole thing just sounds dumber and dumber.

Random observation, it's 7:30am and a family sitting here is feeding their young girls french fries for breakfast, is there any wonder why there's an obesity problem? That reminds me, go see King Corn if you get the chance, a really good movie/documentary.

Clearly it is time to go check on my flight status, or anything other than this for that matter. I should have internet at my mom's so look for a race report Saturday night.

Monday, November 12, 2007

4th and goal to go

Sunday was my final Cross Crusade race. This week’s race was at Timber Park in Estacada. It is a classic cyclocross course and many people’s favorite course. I have never done well there, but I like it all the same. This year’s course didn’t fail to please. It had a bit of everything, including some soft ground, almost resembling mud in places.

The rain that had been forecast throughout the week kept getting delayed but it finally came on Friday, and it dumped. But Saturday and Sunday were rather nice. The course was soft in the grass and downright boggy in a couple of places. But in the trees it was nice and firm. It was a longer course, and had it all, twists an turns, straight aways, off camber, hills and even a six pack. It was a livelier race than normal as it shared billing with the first Unofficial Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships. This brought out some big guns like Ryan Trebon, Barry Wicks, Adam Craig and Carl Decker, as well as the other local big cats and some folks from out of town. Add that to a lot of free beer and you get a rowdy crowd. This made the racin’ all the more exciting.


I got a call up again, as I was in 8th place in the series. I lined up behind Tre and Bravard, figuring they would be the guys to keep an eye on. Unfortunately I missed a pedal at the start and missed out on a hole shot. Then coming into the second corner that had a slight rise to it, Tim Butler went down right in front of me. To keep myself from crashing I put one foot down, right on his new carbon wheel! Sorry Tim, I hope the wheel’s ok. This left me in 12th or so. I spent the next two laps fighting past people and trying to keep an eye on Bravard, Tre and Bannik. By the time I got up to 4th they had gotten away, and I was feeling it from working so hard to move up. Before I knew it I had a couple guys on my wheel. We duked it out for a few laps, and on the last half of the bell lap I just put my head down and rode as fast and hard as I could. They had been riding the last hill/run-up better than me so I wanted a gap. Turns out it worked. I got a few seconds and was able to pull off 4th. Respectable. Bravard took the win with an old fashioned ass kicking. Seriously, he had quite a lead on the rest of us. He lead it from tape to tape. Impressive.


While I had a race with no real disasters, I did break my rear derailleur hanger while scouting the course before the race! I guess I am destined for a mechanical every SUnday, so I got that one out of the way pretty quick. I pulled the hanger off the pit bike, but then I went by the River City tent and they had one there so I also had my pit bike if I needed it which luckily I didn’t.

The highlight of the day was being able to hang out and watch the SingleSpeed Championship race. It was quite a scene. People in costume, and folks just going crazy. Pouring beer on racers, racers pouring beer on spectators. There was even a tequila “Shot Cut” where you could take a 30 second short cut if you took a shot of tequila. Only in the single speed race. It turned out to be a race between Adam Craig (World Mt Bike Single Speed Champ) Ryan Trebon (US CycloCross Champ) and Barry Wicks. It looked like Craig won the race but the crowds at the finish were crazy, Trebon and Craig got caught up and Wicks got past and took the win wearing a Team S&M hockey jersey and baggy Mt Bike shorts.


Sorry for the lame post, I've had a busy day,including cleaning my bike as I didn't get to that last night since we got home so late and I had been drinkin. I still need to change my cables and housing too, and I leave Thursday morning for NJ for the USGP. Gonna be a busy last few weeks of the season.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Psycho-Cross

It's official.

'Cross has made me neurotic. Don't believe me? OK, check out this dream I had the other morning:

I'm in a hotel lobby in NJ located at the start line for the USGP. The lobby is full of racers and gear, including my bag with all my stuff for the race. I find I am wearing my kit under my street clothes, complete with my bib number (#20, a good call up). A race is about to begin so I wander down to the start line to check out the course and watch the start. I quickly realize they are getting ready to start MY race! Not only that, the promoter says that they intentionally re-ordered the numbers to make it seem like they were assigned randomly, specifically mentioning #20 is not the 20th number and will be lined up further back, figures. Off I go back to the hotel to quickly take off my street clothes and get lined up. It's bad enough that I am all stressed-out about not having gotten a warm-up, but to make it worse, I realize I have no idea where my bike is. As I try to remember where it is, I realize I can't remember anything since I packed the bike up in Portland. My memory is suddenly like a foggy dream within a dream. I see Erik Tonkin and think to ask him if he has seen my bike, but I am too embarrassed to admit I can't find it! So I get the bright idea that maybe it is in my hotel room, and all I need to do is ask the front desk what room I am in. On my way to the front desk I start talking to some other racers, and explain that if my mom didn't live in NJ I wouldn't have come this far. That's when I realize I was going to stay with my mom and borrow her car to get to the race. That's where my bike must be! Only where's her car? Why don't I have keys for it? I can call my mom, but I can't tell her I lost her new car. I look out the window and my race hasn't started yet! I need to hurry! Where's my God-Damned bike?

Luckily I woke up at this point. It was like one of those dreams when you can't run no matter how hard you try. Maybe it says too much about how caught up I am in all of this stuff. For God's sake it's just a recreational activity. It's supposed to be a hobby I do for fun, not something that gives me freaky dreams. Sadly enough it is not the first time either. Before the season began I had a dream that I was in a race and I just could not remount the bike. No matter how hard I tried I kept jumping over it, or bouncing off it, and when I went to practice in the dream, as I remounted, there was no bike under me and I fell on the ground waking me up.

OK, OK, maybe this is all TMI to be putting on the web. Hopefully you all get a good laugh at my expense. You don't need to be Sigmund Freud to realize I am stressed about the USGP start position and the bike mishaps I have been having. Two things I have little control over. Just gotta remember I am not racing for a World Championship here, or a National Championship. Hell, I'm not even racing for the local series win! Time to lighten up. And if I think I have it bad, I was looking over the results and I saw that Daviney had 4 DNF's, that's not a typo, 4. That sucks, seriously, he's a really nice guy and I read on Laatste Ronde that Daviney crashed towards the end of the race and may have needed stitches. Heal well man.

Here's a little clip from the race on Sunday thanks to Ms Adventure (finished 2nd in her race, nice!)


That's all I gots for ya. Still calling for rain by the weekend. Not sure if that is good or bad, but I'll make a prediction. I have (good/bad start) fight for a lap or so then(crash/mechanical) think about quitting then ride real hard to finish the race for a disappointing end to the series. Oh wait, that's negative thinking and will get me nowhere. How about, I get the hole shot at the start and drop the hammer leading the race from tape to tape, demolishing the competition. Well, however it turns out you can read about it here on Monday.

Monday, November 05, 2007

So close


Sunday was a trip to the quarry in Barton for a bike race. I know, a quarry doesn’t sound like much of a place for a bike race, and to be honest I am not sure if it is, but I’m just a passenger on this Crusade; it’s not my place to make these decisions.

Leading up to the race, I had planned on just simply going balls out and try to kill it, inflict some self suffering, and if I was lucky, cause some pain and suffering on anyone who wanted to play along. Sitting at my desk today, I can say I certainly caused my self to suffer, hopefully some others are feeling as miserable as a result.

Barton was a totally different race this year, Being in a gravel pit it featured a lot of …..gravel. Shocking I know. It also had some pavement, some dirt, some gravel covered pavement and some gravel covered dirt. Even with all the dry weather, they managed to find a couple spots of mud for us, nice guys. Threw in two lung searing run-ups and some gravelly corners sprinkled on top. Overall it was a flat course. And it was a fast course. I had a call-up to the second row, as I had dropped to 11th overall after missing last week’s race. I still got a good start and was up near the front going into the first corner. By the time we came around at the end of the first lap I had moved to the front with a mind on driving the pace. We had a group of about 11 off the front, and I was anxious to whittle this down. I knew that being in front for so long was not a smart race tactic, I even remember thinking to myself that I was just being a chump for the strong guys behind me. But I don't think that sitting in a paceline and letting others do the work is going to make you a stronger racer, so I kept trying to go to the front, at least for the first three laps. I eventually had to drop back in the line for a bit to recover. At the start of the fifth lap or so I started moving back up until I dropped my chain on the run-up. Not only did I drop my chain, but I got it wrapped around my crank arm and jammed in between the chain rings. I can’t figure out how that happened. I think it may have been sabotage while running up the hill….ok maybe not. No matter, I was forced to stop, get on the ground, and wrestle with my chain for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably 20-30 seconds, if that. We must have had a significant gap on the rest of the field as no one really got past me, just a few stragglers. I got going again and passed those guys up. I was obsessed and gave all I had to try to catch back up, but working alone was just too much and after a couple laps I could tell I wasn’t gaining on the front. I was able to grab on to some of the A men riders as they came by, and that helped me some, I even got within sight of a couple guys who eventually fell off the front pack, but that was in the last lap, too late to catch them. In the end I was lucky to finish 9th. Partly due to a couple guys in the front DNFing (Did Not Finsish).


I like I was so close to a good finish, but crappy luck, or poor skill, took it away again. I was hoping for a better finish from the day. The 9th place was enough to move me back into the top ten overall, but since I will miss the double points race, I will need a strong finish next week to secure my goal of a top 10 overall. I know I can do better. I just need to prove it.

On the bright side, or should I say, dark side, it looks like there is some rain in the forecast later in the week. Could be a muddy Estacada race.

Edited to change my finish from 8th to 9th, John McCaffrey finished 5th he did not DNF as first reported, nice race John.