Ruckus Racing // Shawnzyoo: Cross Crusade 4 (Clatsop Fairgrounds)

This weekend was a double Halloween race weekend in Astoria, Oregon (coastal harbor town) at the Clatsop Fairgrounds.

Andrew wasn't able to race anymore due to an "accident" that his bike sustained, but was still kind enough to come along for the 2 hour drive. He brought his road bike to climb the Astoria Column, while I was racing around. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive to Astoria. We successfully made it a 3 hour drive by attempting to get closer to Seattle.

Strange side note, the weather prediction for Oregon has been nothing but 65 degrees and beautiful. The closer we got to Seattle the more it clouded over and soon began to rain.

Since we took some extra time to get to the Astoria, I only had one hour before my race. My favorite part of racing in Oregon is that it literally takes one minute to register. I suited up and dropped my wheels in the pit and went off down the road to warm up a little. There was no way that I would be able to pre-ride the course at all since there were people racing back-to-back before my race.

Since my number was drawn last for the race at Rainer Highschool, this week I got the chance to line up first. I got lined up around 30th place or so behind the points leaders. The major downside was that I didn't know where I was going at all, this makes it incredibly hard to go really fast.

After the customary feat of strength (this week it was an egg toss) that is performed before every race to decide who goes first (Mens B vs Singlespeeds), the singlespeeders were off first. The B's were off a few minutes later. We were quickly led down a steep bumpy section that had lots of swoopy turns. These turns at first seemed really slow to me and I was taking them slow and getting passed. The bottom section then led into steep climb, which was very rideable until they put a barrier in the middle of it.

It is generally very difficult to remount your bike going up hill so I just ran it. This was the last time I ran it because I was getting passed here as well.

This hill kicked us into section that went like this
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
and finally out. All the turns going in and out of the barns were strangely wet and slick. Various people were sliding out here. This was one of my favorite sections of the course.

We were then kicked through the standard 6-pack of barriers. My barrier skills have really improved a lot and I have been passing many riders through them. I pass people not because I am a fast runner (which I am not) but due to the fact that I dismount at the absolute last second before going in. While everyone else is already running or in the middle of a dismount I am still pedaling into it.

The next section was a longer and steeper uphill bumpy climb. The first lap I wasn't very efficient in this section and just held my line. Everyone had little traction because of the bumps and were pedaling in the same fashion. Mashing down and then relaxing with each pedal stroke. I noticed this quickly and changed my own tactics.

I started saying "round round round" in my head. I was trying to apply power all the way around the stroke. This worked extremely well, this evened out my power transfer and soon on every lap thereafter I was able to always pass multiple people going up this section.

Following this hill there was a long bumpy downhill section that was super fast and fun. This course was so bumpy and fast that I actually gave myself blisters on the sides of my hands from holding my brifters (brake/shifters). FYI: I was wearing bike gloves as well.

A few large swoopy off camber turns, an awesome kicker for air and then another horse barn. This one was a large show barn, this was trickier to ride than it seems. Mainly because you were coming in from the outside sunshine and coming into a shadowed area of loose dirt/gravel/sand. It was amazing.

It took me about two laps to figure out the course completely. This is when I started taking every turn at full speed and hammering out of turn. I dominated the barns and hills. I started passing all the riders that took off in front of me. I felt fatigue during part of the race and this is mainly due to my lack of road miles right now. Overall I finished 25th out of 80 some riders.

This has been my best finish to date. This was a great race for many reasons. I was tactically paying attention to the course and the other riders going my speed, this helped immensely because I knew where to recover and each lap I knew what I had to improve on. I attribute a lot of this to my good starting position.

Usually the first two laps I am much too focused on passing all the slower riders to get up to a good position that once I get up there I don't have a good tactics base yet.