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.