The OBRA Cross Crusades championships, I have done all the races (except for one) this entire season, it has been a season of delicious oatmeal, hot apple cider, minor injuries, bad starts, and lots of mud. But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
This race yielded another bad lottery starting position (I will never gamble) and I was third from the last out, so that started me around 80th or so. The start was fast, but since I have been starting at the rear of every race I have been greatly improving my starting style. I am able to quickly pass 15~~20 riders before the first technical section. This is where it always gets complicated.
The first technical section was a “mystery” steaming wood chip pile section that was about 100ft long or so. With a wood chip burm going into it and another wood chip burm coming out of it. Being early into the race this yield into a 100 person pile-up. Like everyone else I dismounted and started running passed people until I snagged my rear wheel on some guy’s handlebars and I started dragging him. It took a second during this mayhem to unhook this dead weight and I was quickly back on the bike and riding off.
Overall it wasn’t an overly technical course, almost all the turns were rutted and slippery but compared to everything else that has been thrown at us this season it wasn’t a big deal. There was the standard 6-pack of barriers but with a straight and fast entry and exit.
The major hilariously technical section was the rodeo arena where we pretty much had to do a large u-turn around 100 yards long. I pre-rode this section three times to see if I could figure a way through it. The first time I rode and got about 40% in, when I hit a hidden hole that sucked my front wheel in up to my hub, I stopped instantly and almost fell. A quick mental note on the location and I tried it again. This time I avoided the hidden pit, but it was still next to impossible to ride. On my third attempt I tried constantly popping wheelies to keep my front wheel from being sucked in, this also put more weight on my back wheel yielding some more traction. This surprisingly worked fairly well and I was able to power through this ridiculous section.
After pre-riding this section my bike was beyond muddy as was my body. I had to go over to the wash area and clean everything off. Oregon is probably the only place where you get beyond dirty from pre-riding the course.
Overall it was a very fast paced race. I ended up finishing around 38th on the day, which is fairly mediocre, but considering my starting position I am still fairly happy with it.
While the Cross Crusades series is over that does not mean cyclocross has ended in Oregon at all. The US Grand Prix series will be in Portland at PIR in December. I am really looking forward to this race because all the fast boys/girls are coming to town to show off what they got. This was also one of my favorite courses so far this season and I am also looking forward to some first rate super fanning to happen. Ryan Trebon will be back and I am ready to yell at this fast fast stork of a man that has more seat tube than top-tube on his bike.
Also I just found this, Portland offers a bicycle racer specific yoga class…..interesting http://www.umakleppinger.com/bikeyoga.html
A Vanilla rider powering through the slop
The easier section of the rodeo arena.
A lot of people actually ran the whole length of it and it proved to be fairly successful. I opt to ride as much as possible because well I race bikes to not run.
Steaming wood chip section.
I think she has a smile on her face.
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