Priceless

Cost of a race: $20

Cost of my spare bike: $300 (I got a great deal!)

Cost of being able to run to the pit for a bike change: I don’t know, but it sure isn’t worth $320!!!!!

Yesterday was the Crusade race out at Ranier HS. It was a great venue, and before the race everyone seemed really psyched for the race. The course had a long paved uphill start, with a turn on to a tacky muddy grass/treed section with a long gradual decent. Then on to the track, up a steep but rideable climb, down to a sloppy muddy section along the pits. From there it entered the woods, or as I like to call it, the back 40. A wooded off camper slick, slightly climbing section with two short climbs at the end. This lead to a quick run along a sidewalk then around to the crowd pleasing sandpit, back around and down to the pits, then the long painful climb back up to the start and into the start climb.

For the Master’s 35+ race, there was a crusade first; Call-ups! I am not sure how they figure out the call-ups but I got the second call-up, pretty cool, my first ever. I tried my best to live up to it, and got off the line first and lead it through the start line, but then I thought I rolled my tubular, glanced down and in that split second a half dozen or more guys slipped past. That’s how fast, and heartless these guys are! Unfortunately for me, my sucking was just beginning.

I started fighting back some spots and was somewhere in the top 10 or so, but I kept taking horrible lines, or I would be in the wrong gearing. Just ugly. Then coming out of the “back 40” I broke my chain! My first thought was that I could now drop out and save face from my sucking. But, having a second bike had me feeling like I had to run to the pit. I haven’t run that far in months. Not very fun. And when one guy passed me and joked with “if you need a chain there’s one back there a bit (meaning my broken one on the course)” I wanted to strangle him. Lucky for him, he was on a bike and I was running, and I was too winded to even shoot back a witty retort like "screw-you!" My only bit of luck was having Bro-man watching at the sandpit. He ran ahead and got my pit bike ready, and executed a great hand-off.

From that point on all I could do was just hammer it for the rest of the race. It just became a hard training ride for me, and I tried to take some more chances and push things a bit more since I had nothing to loose. After working my through the first clump of racers I came across David Davini, and I asked him what happened as I was surprised to see him back this far. His response “Nothing, I just suck”. I hope I didn’t offend him. He’s a good rider who kicks my butt in short track and a nice guy, but that response cracked me up!

Anyway, I finished the race feeling more exhausted than the previous few races. That one took it out of me. I must have done ok once I got going as I ended up in 14th. Not too bad all things considered.

My goal for the Crusade series has been to finish top 10 overall for the series. Right now that is going to be a tough one to accomplish. With the Alpenrose barrier issues and yesterday’s race result, I am left with just two races that I probably need to score top 5 or better, as I will miss two races; One of them a double pointer. It’s not impossible, just going to take some good riding and some luck. But no matter what, I am racing well this year, so I got that going for me……

Bonus Footage

At Sunday’s race, Adam Craig, world cup Mt Biker and Single Speed Mt Bike world champion, graced us with his presence at the race. Or should I say disgraced all of us while he raced!

Even the pro's don’t pull it off perfectly every time. Below is a little footage of Craig almost taking out the crowds with his bunny hopping madness:

My Nemesis

Sunday brought us chapter 2 of the Cross Crusade Cyclocross series. This installment was held at Horning’s Hideout. A venue more often associated with Jam bands and their patchouli wearing, pot smoking followers. So I am sure the resident peacocks were in hiding at the sight of the 906 lycra clad bike racers that descended upon the hideout for a cross race.

The course was a tough one. Last year a racer crashed bad and was airlifted out. As we rolled in this year a fire engine and two ambulances showed up, quite a foreboding sign. Luckily, the course was little more tame for cross bikes, just a little. It was a no rest rough and tumble course. Quick descents, short punchy climbs and lots of kidney bruising bumpy fields. Leaving hardly anywhere to rest.

This week, Margi was along not just to cheer on her favorite racer, but to give ‘er a go in the women’s beginner race as well. She did AWESOME. Taking sixth place in her first race*. She seemed really psyched afterwards, and I bet you will be able to find her in a park this week continuing to practice those cross mounts in preparation for the next race. Another addict is born!

Once again I was giving it a go in the Master A field. I got a good line-up on the front row, and narrowly avoided McCaferty’s mechanical in the start. That may have broken the field a bit, and I was in the front group, 5th or 6th, and we were off. Halfway through the lap it was three of us, John Michum, Tre Harris and me. Tre won last week, and finished second to me at Hood River, so it looked like it would be a good battle. I sprinted past him to take the first lap (hey, there was a bottle of wine on the line) and for 3 or 4 laps we switched off. He was better on the descents, especially the hard right turn in the field. I had him on the hills. It was a lot of fun racing him neck and neck. At one point I thought I was gapping him off, but he got back on me on the descent. Then on the next lap we caught up to the back of the A men, and on the descent he got away from me. It was that moment in the race were I was hitting the wall, and even though I was thinking I had to stay on his wheel, my body just didn’t listen and in frustration I watched him open a lead on me. It took me a lap or two to “wake-up” again, and I started to gain back on him, at one point I got within a couple seconds, but I bobbled a turn and lost some, by which point he had me and I just hung in for second.

It was a fun race. And except for those two laps I felt real strong. And I certainly can’t complain about 2nd. After the race Tre was gracious enough to not count last week’s result due to my crash, leaving us tied at 1 apiece. You can bet I will be gunning for him next week.

Look, I really can clear a set barriers:


*In the spirit of full disclosure Margi did do a cross race 2 years ago. On a borrowed bike, with no prep or prior practice.

Man Down

I was just sent this wonderful evidence of me biffing it in the barriers
And the aftermath:
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/cc070107/cc0701a05896#photo_s
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/cc070107/cc0701mjb010838
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/cc070107/cc0701mjb010947#photo_s
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/cc070107/cc0701mjb011056#photo_s
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/cc070107/cc0701mjb01114#photo_s

Awful nice of them to document it all and post it on the web. Remind me to thank those guys! Luckily the only bruise was to my ego, and after seeing these it just got worse.

Leave it me to show you how the Pros do it!

The Crusade Begins....

The Cross Crusade Cyclocross series started on Sunday, and once again that meant racing at the popular Alpenrose Dairy. And once again that meant near record attendance, some where near 1078 racers in 6 races.

I was back racing with the Masters 35+ A race (the fast old guys). After last week's fiasco with the bike I felt I had gotten the shifters working well, that and the course was pretty dry, so I was feeling better. The course was a little softer than last year, but no mud as the rain had let up the past few days. Either way I was taking no chances, thanks to the guys from Sellwood Cycle I was able to get a second bike built up for the pits. Together, they make the Fluorescent Fleet.

Leading up to the race I was a nervous wreck. I kept trying to convince myself that it was just a race, and meant nothing. But it didn't work. I was nervous, stomach cramps and a headache nervous. Not good. Made we wonder why the hell I do this, but once I got there, rode around a bit, joked with some folks I felt a lot better.

I got a good line up, in the front row, and was feeling good. From the gun I was off the line with the top 5-10 guys until one of them pinched me off against a curb. That just pissed me off, and I motored back up. I worked my way up to around 6th. Then, remember that right shifter from last week? Somebody (me) didn't tighten it up enough and it started flopping around, making the climbs and the decents pretty tough. I wanted to make a bike change but I was afraid to loose too many places. I was looking for someone I could yell to to grab my pit bike so I could have a quick exchange, well, lady luck, or as I now call her, the bitch of misfortune, smiled her gap-toothed grin at me again. While going through the 6-pack. I went down. Luckily right between the barriers, and luckily in front of Bro-man. I yelled "I need a bike change, same bike, in green!" After putting my chain back on and losing 3-4 places I was back on. I came into the pits and Bro-man was waiting like a good pit bitch with the bike change. As I change bikes a group of 4 or so got past me. From there I just did all I could to get as many spots as I could back. I did ok, finishing in 11th. Not too bad.

Overall I felt good, and am happy with an 11th. I think I could have pulled a top 5 finish, and the guy who won it I had beat in HR, so if nothing else I feel like I am up there with the top guys in the field.

The nice thing about the dry course: No bike cleaning to be done!!!

Time Out!

We interupt the bike interuption to bring some very important information about:

SNOW!

That's right, one day it was summer, and the next it was fall, and week later it's winter! Pretty fast changes this year. So fast that I have been caught off guard and haven't had a chance to get my winter forecast up.

Well wait no more Snow Curmudgeon fans, it is time for the Winter Outlook.

After painstakenly looking at all the data, historical trends and mostly just reading a few other forcasts and plagarizing, I have a good grasp of the winter forcast.

Some background:
Pac NW winters can often follow the trend of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. Two year's ago we had a record winter, that was following the busy Hurricane season that included Katrina. Last year we had a close to normal winter that peetered out early, and a correspondingly unremarkable Hurrucane season. This year we have had a somewhat average to quiet Hurricane season. There were a few early, and they were big-uns too. So maybe we can expect some early winter activity, then leveling off?

There is also some correlation to years when we have a wet spring we have a dry fall and vice versa. We certainly had a dry spring this year, and so far a wet fall.

We also tend to have active Winters in La Nina years, and miserable (dry and sunny) winters in El Nino years (see 04/05 the year without a winter). Right now we are boardering on a La Nina year, some forecasts call for it to weaken as the winter goes on other call for it to remain.

I think you have figured out where I am heading with this one. Expect this year's winter to come in roaring and then temper somewhat. But I am going to keep uncharacteristically optomistic and call late winter as average. I envision an early build to the snow pack with above average snow and below avergage temps through early January, with close to average temps and precip mid-January through may. That second half is hard to predict, but it looks pretty good for the first half right now.

I am not saying we will be skiing by Halloween. These early snows are exciting, but there will still be soem dry periods and warm fronts to keep the pack from building too much. But I think we can expect soem wild weather none the less.

For more enlightened forcasts check here:
http://www.ocs.oregonstate.edu/index.html

I now you return you to your previously unscheduled interuptions, I gotta go tune the skis and sno seal the leather boots!

Mud Snot and No Gears

I had somewhat jokingly thought to myself the other night, that I should change my Ridley into a SS and do a double race, since this one was just going to be for practice. Well I didn't, but I ended up racing with a SS in the end.....

September went out as one heck of a wet month. I believe it set a record for rainfall for the month, if not, Friday and Sunday certainly set records for the day, but I'll leave the weather for the Snow Curmudgeon. Either way, it resulted in the Barlow HS course being a muddy sloppy mess of a course. I mean ridiculously muddy. With plenty of running to be done. Overall though, I think it was the same course as last year, more or less.

I lined up with the young fast guys to try to gage where I am in that catagory since this was an independent race with no real bearing on the season. I was pretty much in the last row at the start and managed to move up a bit to the back of the second group on the course, which was most of the field. Early in the race (after the Finish line barrier)I was running on an off camber spot and slipped, and went down with the bike, dumping the right side into mud (foreshadow). I regathered myself and for the next lap or so I picked up the momentum and started moving through some riders, starting to feel good, by the third lap though things started to change.

My right shifter no longer wanted to shift into a smaller cog. And ended up stuck on the second to largest. With my front derailleur this left me with 2 gears. The frustration of it seemed to just take me out of the race. Then to make things worse I had problems shifting to the large ring up front, leaving me stuck in the granny gear and just spinning out for a couple laps. Pretty frustrating. Then I just started falling. I think on the second to last lap I fell three times! If there was anymore than one lap to go when I came through I would have dropped out. But I continued to slog along and try to ride some sections I was having problems on, not very successfully either. In the end I was 30th out of 41. I'd like to imagine I lost 10 spots with my mechanicals and could have broke the top 20. Hey it's my blog and I can imagine all I want.

Well let's hope I used up some of my mechanicals for the year on that race. I was by no means the only one.

Anyone know the best way to clean out a Dura Ace 9-speed shifter?

Next Week: Alpenrose and the first Cross Crusade series race.