Last race / cross

I guess I should fill in some words here ! Way back on Sep 9th or so was the last race I did. I hadn't raced since early July, and was having a blast just riding for fun, with the occasional lunch-hour training sessions thrown in, such as the Awbrey Butte Climbing Star : 5 different steep climbs up that Butte, 6-8 minutes long. I wasn't going to do the race, but then I was curious how it would feel, since I hadn't trained nearly as hard as last year. So went up to Ski Bowl, where the familiar race trails are starting to get boring. But this time they added a nice little twist : every lap (and there were 3 of them), near the end you got routed down a 'downhill' trail, with big rock drops and other treacherous features. This was tough on the soft-tail, and I think this was the first race where I consistently bottomed out my fork. The 3 laps were all a bit different, so race turned out fun.

There were 11 in the 40+ Expert class, which was great. 2 new guys, and 2 'fast' guys, so I figured 3rd was possible. However 1 of the new guys turned out to be faster than the 'fast' guys, turning in a time over 10 minutes faster than the other regular fastest dude. And the other new 1 was not too far behind. So I came in a respectable 5th.


Then I did a couple of cross races in dusty Bend. Cyclocross is fun, except for the fact that you have to get off your bike and run over objstacles, and you do lap after lap of the same course. Hmm, but that's the whole point of the sport - oh well I guess I'm not too into it. It's a good workout though, certainly better than running the treadmill in the gym. The first race I did pretty well. The second race I couldn't get motivated what with the repetitiveness of it all, and I faired poorly. The 3rd one I did lap-counting volunteer - part of the bike shop sponsorship requirement. And there was 1 more which I just didn't bother about. A lot of poeople are nuts about it here, and will travel 3-4 hours to get to a race where they compete for 45 minutes. Not me - I'd rather get my money's worth with a 3 hour mountain bike race. But there is a cool social scene I hear - beer gardens and live music.