Ruckus Racing // Shawnzyoo

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 80^th 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 38^th 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.

Now I have been bicycle racing for almost two years now and I was very unprepared for todays events. The magnitude of everything today was extremely off the charts and it has been the most fun I have ever had bike racing or super-fanning.

For starters it was Ruckus Components give-away day. One of the lucky recipients gave me a custom cowbell of epic proportions and the tastiest garlic mayonnaises french fries in existence. Also to boot for $3 you got a nice Cross Crusade pint glass. Which comes with UNLIMITED BEER ALL DAY. Yes UNLIMITED BEER ALL DAY. 21 kegs were demolished through-out the day.

My friend Alex has been in town and was interested in trying a cross race. He told me that he had been biking quite a bit. So I lent him Rita, my 29er mountain bike. Alex got the DFL award (dead fucking last) of the beginner category. He came back muddy and extremely tired and then proceeded to drink his share of beer (11 pints in total). Alex did a great job, he never quit and finished the race completely and had a great time and seems to be hooked now.

Having about 3 hours to kill before my race I got in a lot of good scouting and pre-riding in. It was very very very necessary. The course was muddy. Not wet spray in your face muddy like last week, but slow, sticky, energy sapping muddy. Some parts were so sticky that even on the flats it was near impossible to ride.

I don't know what it is, but apparently I suck at lotterys. My number was second to last today (started about 90th). Luckily the start was a decently long straight-away before it reached the first technical section. I dropped every hammer I was carrying and passed a large number of riders quickly working up to mid 60s.

The first technical section was insane. There was a tough muddy off camber uphill section which then kicked you down into a 6 inch deep sticky mudhole that basically grabbed onto you and took away every bit of momentum you were carrying. This was brutal sometimes I was able to punch it out of the hole and then attempt the next hill which was painfully muddy as well. It was really hit or miss if people could ride it or not. If you were able to stay on the bike and keep moving you would definitely pass people. But if you had to dismount at all, you were screwed. It was pretty much impossible to get riding again and you had to end up running a long ways before you could remount.

Part of this section also had a rutted muddy downhill section which put you in a water pit area about 30 ft long. This was almost a relief because your tires would get cleaned off a little, but shortly there after more energy sucking mud.

After this brutal hell hole of mud. You had a short section of crushed gravel which lead to a large concrete "barrier". This was a great place to super fan because various people were able to launch up it and jump it. Following the "barrier" there was a calm section of large swooping grass turns. A lot of riders were recovering here and going slower. This is when I would turn it up and pass a lot of guys.

For the B race, they decided to add more barriers and put in a small double barrier section along the grandstands. After this there was a few quick turns a short downhill and then a four pack of barriers up a muddy hill through a wind mill that would turn periodically. Following this set there was a very slippery off camber turn and then onto some more crushed gravel onwards to the second technical section.

A quick uphill and then a mud pit which would quickly wreck any plans of holding a line going into the hardest section of the day. A very very very steep dowhill section with a 180 degree turn at the bottom and then back up it. Imagine the steepest hill you know, run down it go 10 ft then try and run back up. Now do this when it is extremely rutted out and so muddy that you can hardly stay upright. This was the best place to super-fan because everyone was sliding down the hill hilariously. The uphill was way too steep to ride so some riders would just run the whole section. These got heckled. Others would try and coast to the bottom, sometimes successfully and other well lets just say they made it to the bottom. I slid down this hill on my side four out of nine times I attempted it. Luckily three of those were during warm-up laps. Once past this section there was a long twisty fast and muddy section and then the finish line.

Overall I felt great and raced fairly well. I passed over a hundred some riders and ended up 30th overall. My main personal victory is that I only got lapped ONCE by Ryan Trebon.

SIDE NOTE: They made a special qualifier for Ryan Trebon for him to race the SingleSpeed World Championships race. He had to win the regular SingleSpeed race and then must win the Mens A race on a SingleSpeed if was going to race in the last race. Three hours of brutal racing should tire him out and it kind of did. He very very easily won the first two races and then got third in the championship race. Also I heckled him to a hilarious degree every time he would come by.

Now that I was done racing it was time for some serious super-fanning with my new cowbell for the SSCXWC. I got a good number of beers in me first and then was ready. I really regret not doing this race. It looked like an amazing amount of fun. They were setting off smoke bombs on the course, had the windmill rotate faster, put out more barriers and turned on a large foam machine to make a foam wall. More than half the field was in costume of some sorts to some ridiculous degree. Tandems/burleys/eXtracycls/bmx it was all legal as long as it was singlespeed. My favorite of the day was one guy had nine 19 tooth cogs in the back and two 39 tooth chainrings in the front and full derailleurs. Now he could shift but it would always be the same gear. This race was amazing too watch, it was pure insanity.

EDIT: Bike weight before race 17.2 lbs. Bike weight after race 24.5 lbs. That is a lot of mud.

Cutest tandem couple ever. This guy from Canada got heckled a lot.

Who wears white shoes, white socks, and a white shirt to a muddy cross race? Oh wait Alex does.

Pink Spider Man attacking the foam.

Me running the concrete barrier.

Polka dot biking+Cowbell+leg warmers+rain boots = Portland Cyclocross

Foam wall part 2.

This area was hilarious to watch.

This guy and I went back and forth for the last two laps. He could bunny hop barriers and ride everything I couldn't but was slower on the straight aways. He beat me.