Horning's Hideout

Another weekend, another cross race. A foggy morning gave way to a beautiful blue sky with pillow-like white clouds. The setting was in the hills NW of Portland, and it was perfect.

The course was... rugged. No pavement, a bit damp for the C race, lots of off-camber corners, and short, slippery climbing sections. Interspersed were a couple of gopher-hole covered meadows. The only barrier was a double near the finish line - no six pack this week.

There are many accounts of the course - in fact here is a helmet cam of it. It makes my lungs and legs hurt just watching it.

I staged in the top 1/3. By the top of the climb out of the bowl (the off-course starting area), I was around 1/2. There was a traffic jam heading out of the bowl and I ended up doing a lot of running right off the bat. Onto the single track I was doing fine. Into the first bumpy meadow with a sweeping right hander, which I did not handle well and 3 people passed me. While I can't corner well, I can ride bumpy meadows well, so I hammer. Next is an off-camber left turn. I come into the corner a bit hot and well off the desired line. I lock up the brakes in the slick braking zone and completely shoot through the corner into the ferns and the woods. This move is documented here and here. I lose about 20 places. One of those was Strader (my teammate, left) who yells at me to get my act together - thanks!

I tried to catch on, but my inability to handle my bike on tight turns and gravel is barrier to progress. When we get to the meadows, I would pass a lot of people. We would hit the run up and I would blow up and people would pass me back. I would then catch them on the hills and they would bobble and my limited handling skills would prevent me from getting around them cleanly.

Repeat for 5 laps. I got lapped. This was all capped off my getting passed by 5 people in the last 1/4 of the last lap. I got behind someone on one of the slick hills. They bobbled and I was in a bad position, so I had to get off and run. 5 people go by and I can't catch them. I am pissed at myself because I handled a bike better when I was 7 than I do now.

I got 70th. However, it was a beautiful day. Afterwards, I had a couple of "recovery" ales with my buddy B Hall who rode his 1982 Bianchi road bike with down tube shifters to 65th (yes he is one of the 5 that caught me at the end).

See you at Rainier.

Cross Crusade #1 - Alpenrose

Well, another week and another race report. There were 1078 racers at Alpenrose, and I think each one has a blog and is writing the report right now, if they didn't already do it last night.

I decided to be a bit more assertive and start more towards the front. This didn't go as planned. I was not aggressive enough about it. After they sent the C's off, there was a massive reshuffling of the group, which pushed me in the back 1/3. Then we started. As luck would have it, the mass I was in included someone who had significant problems clipping in and brought everything to a halt. This put me solidly in the back 1/4 before the first turn. This may not sound like a real big deal, but remember, there were 131 people in this race. By the way there were another 124 in the C's, so there were >250 people on the course at once. I can't believe the officials are able to keep all of it straight. I am truly impressed.

Anyway, was making some progress and after a couple of laps I put my head down and started passing some people. This went really well and had finally gotten through a group of about 10 riders that were all riding together. I poorly dismounted for the run up and at the top realize that my chain has come off. I stop to put it back on. Combine my poor run up with my poor chain re-installation and I lost all those places again.

I get back in it and start to work through them again. On the out and back, I see my teammate Strader again and notice that I am making ground on him. I make it my goal to catch him - it is always good to have a carrot. I wanted to encourage him while pushing myself. He was having a rough day, but was able to start closer to the front.

I finally catch him and ride with him encouraging him. He picks up his pace and we enter the velodrome. On the track I tell him to catch my wheel, but he missed it, so I 'powered' on. All was going well and I was getting a bit more aggressive about passing people. Then I come into the staircase. I am really tired as Mac's Six Pack just killed me every lap. I am going too fast for my tired legs to sustain if I dismount, so I bobble the whole thing and go down. There 10 people go past me, including Strader. I pick it up and try to work back through on what ended up being the last lap.

In the end, I finished up on the lead lap in 74th. When I was on the bike, I was pretty strong and was able to pass quite a few people, although I need to be much more aggressive about passing. I was spending too much time just following instead of forcing my way through. I also need to start further forward. I have the bike fitness to hand with the upper half, so I need to start there.

However, the big hole in my game continues to be mounting, dismounting and running. Every time I got off the bike, my heart rate when through the roof. Fortunately this course had much less running involved, but I still paid the price for my ineptitude when not pedaling.

The Fat Runner did well at 30th. I think he may have found his calling, the bastard! He is really gaining confidence and is moving past participating and into competing. It is good to see and it is great having someone to obsess about this stuff with.

Battle at Barlow - Epic

The word EPIC has become a bit cliche, but I think it applied this pas Sunday. The mud was incredible. There are pictures for the A's and women at Photo Faction. The run down to the bridge included stomping into mud that came up past the ankle. I had never ridden in such muck and it showed. I fell 3-4 times and was generally slow. The mounts and dismounts were considerably better due to some focused practice. However, there wasn't much opportunity to do it at high speed as everything was a bog.

The race required a lot of running as a lot of the off-camber stuff couldn't be ridden. I am not a good runner. I have not practiced it and the minute I get off the bike, my heart rate goes through the roof.

However, the Fat Runner did quite well. Did I mention that he is a triathlete? He runs a lot. He does a lot of running in Forest Park - so he can run on trails. This served him well and put him in the top 1/3 of the results, despite starting at the very back.

Anyway, I will start fixing the fitness issue this week earnest. See you at Alpenrose!

Hood River CCX

I talked the Fat Runner (aka Troy) into going to Hood River with me. Troy is a tri-athlete and is bears quite a bit of responsibility for getting me back on a bike - so take your complaints to him.

Anyway, I was feeling confident because of the clinics and more injuries were healing. I had no idea what was in store for me.

We got there early and rode the course. It was a real eye opener! Not all barriers are at the end of a wide, smooth, flat section of grass. These guys were putting them behind blind corners on single track. I haven't practiced that! What the #$^@?

You know what else I hadn't practiced? Practicing mounting and dismounting when I am tired. By the end of the race, I wasn't even trying any more. I was coming to a complete stop to get on and off the bike. It was pretty pathetic.

Also, 3 weeks off the bike has a price.

CCX Clinics

Fitness is something that disappears quickly... After "The Bruise", I didn't spend much time on the bike. My hip hurt, my back hurt and my arm hurt. While I was unable/unwilling to train, I did find the strength to go to the cyclocross clinics put on by Tonkin and his crew. The clinics were awesome!


I had watched the videos on Velo News and tried practicing them. However, I was having a lot of problems. The first night with Tonkin, all of my known problems were fixed (there were many more to be discovered). The secret? When you grab the top tube, load that arm so that your left foot has much less weight on it. This makes it much easier to get out of the clips gracefully.

Design an Argyle Kit

Vaughters dares you to design a more unusual kit than Slipstream already has. I like their current uniform and whish I could find a place to buy a long sleeve jersey/jacket.

Check out some of the submissions.

There are some really good ones, like these:

But then, there are these:



Go ahead and submit your ideas... Make Payne Stewart proud!

Cowbell

Say hello to my new cowbell (well soon to arrive anyway).

You can get one too.