Ruckus Racing // Shawnzyoo: The Battle of Barlow

I just got my new High-Five but didn't have time to finish building it before todays race, the Cross Crusade series doesn't start until next week, so I decided to take my mountain bike and enter the men's B/singlespeed event. Now Rita is a nice bike about 22.5 lbs, 32/17 gearing, 29x2.3 tires, and midge drops bars, but she is certiainly no cross bike. I really had no idea what I had in store for myself today, being my first Portland cyclocross race, it was truly an interesting race.

There were maybe about 40 singlespeed riders and we had 45 minutes of work to do under the 80F sunshine. Hand-ups were not allowed (not sure why honestly) so I carried half a bottle of water (turned out to be the best decision I made all day).

I had lined up toward the rear of the pack, mainly because I was on a mountain bike and wasn't trying to prove anything besides just having fun. The race started off in a flurry of speed. Being a singlespeed only category you have riders of every different skill level out there. Let me tell you there were some crushers on the front. I just sat in and worked.

The course was intense, more intense than anything I have ever rode for cyclocross. They threw everything at you in this order

Loose dirt off camber riding

Fast paced downhill pavement

a curb jump and then instantly a barrier that leads to an 270 degree off-camber uphill loose dirt turn

Lots of switchbacks

10 foot long 8 inch deep sandpit (mountain bike very useful here)

A barrier and then a run-down that was terrifying (all rutted out and steep)

Run through a creekbed

the steepest cyclocross climb I have ever done that had railroads ties spaced far apart

lots of fast wooded singletrack

slight relaxing ride through a small vineyard

more woods singletrack

a 5 pack of barriers that destroyed many riders through-out the day

more woods

I am not sure on the total distance of this insane course, but we ended up doing 6 laps of it and I was very tired at the end. But I had paced myself well for the entire race. My major strengths of the days were definitely my mounts and dismounts all very clean. My major problem of the day was anytime I should have have been shouldering my bike. Rita's small front triangle makes it so I can't shoulder it. My arms got very tired while doing the run-down and rup-up, I had to suitcase my bike.

I am looking foward to having a cross bike that only weighs 17 lbs and is easily shoulderable. I am just looking forward to everything about riding a cross bike in the next race. Overall I think the B category will be a good fit for me. There are some cat A sandbaggers though, but I m there to have fun.

Also I have never seen such an amazing amount of bike porn. For the entire day there were only a few entry level cross bikes, it seemed like everyone was riding the best cross bikes.

A special thanks goes out to Vivian (for taking some photos), Andrew, and Zach for being the sideline cheerleaders and support.

apparently I got 26 out of 48 riders not bad

3/5 of a barrier set