Bier en modder

My Grifo Challenge tires that came with the Guerciotti have been slowly coming apart.

I’ll be using a suggestion from the Cross Crusade Forum and picking up some barge cement to hopefully repair them later this week. That should go well. What can possibly go wrong with using strong cement on the sidewalls of glued-on tubulars?

First, the Smack Talk forum has been getting downright frisky lately.  I’m not sure if it’s the weather or just that we’re coming up to the end of the season and people are feeling they won’t get a win without pushing out the top riders.  Whatever.  There’s just been a lot of shit flying, particularly in the Master C’s.  Deserved or not, Kurt Robinson seems to have a bullseye on his back.  Personally I think he should have moved up long ago but it’s more or less too late now.

I mentioned in my race report that some wash-outs claimed a number of riders in the paceline we had going.  Shane at OregonVelo caught a fantastic sequence that occurred right at the finish line of lap 2 here, here, here, and here.  It looks like Johnny Vergis from CyclePath that went down.  Nasty.

Week and a half until the finals at Hillsboro.  I’m hoping to finish my training schedule strong this week and go easy next week before the race.  I feel good and strong. 

Obviously before that is my own personal Waterloo: Timber Park.  For whatever reason, I have done nothing but suck ass at that race.  Believe me, I have a whole bag of excuses I can pull out but I’m thinking this year will be different.

Barton Park
04-Nov-2007

It sounded like Barton was initially presented as a new course.  Like Alpenrose, there’s always been a finite amount of space to work with so the course looked pretty similar year to year.

The course from previous years stayed largely within the gravel pit area, was usually incredibly muddy, and was notoriously hard on riders and equipment.  Having raced on my mountain bike for the first 3 years, I always looked forward to Barton because the rough terrain leveled the playing field so to speak.  While I empathize with people not wanting to break equipment, it is after all a cross race and in my opinion, anything goes.

It wasn’t too long ago when the Cross directors announced that the course wouldn’t be all that different due to a last minute conflict or change of mind.  They did promise to try and mix it up as much as they could.

Loaded up the minivan with my junk and the kids bikes.  Rach wasn’t feeling all the hot and Ingrid had a pretty good cold going.  We got there with time to get registered and the kids a Belgian waffle.  Rach took the kids while I dropped my wheels off at the pit and watched the back area for a couple minutes.  We made our way up to the old finish line near the garage at the top of the 1st run-up.  With about 20 minutes to go, people were already starting to line up.

By the time I left the kids with Rach, I lined up somewhere in the middle.  Bob Jacobs offered me a tight spot up in the front but I didn’t think it mattered.  From what I saw, there was plenty of open space to move up.  As long as I could keep the front group within 20 yards, it would all work out.

Starting cold (as usual), I was a little concerned about getting psyched enough to race all-out.  Usually I’m mentally ready but today I felt a little mellower than usual.  I tried reminding myself how much I’d worked this year for the cross season and that seemed to help out.

The race started and I made some strong moves to see about 15 in front of me swinging right around the first big gravel pile.  Crap, that stuff was loose.  Not only that but it felt like I was maybe a pound or two low in the back.  Felt a little mushy.

We would our way though the pit area and up the first run-up where Rach, the kids, her mom and Dan were watching.  Zak and Ami showed up later along with Rudin and Hunter.  It was my biggest crowd yet and was really motivating.

I picked off a few on the run-up (usually a strength of mine) while mishandling my bike and dropping it on my forearm.  Ow.  We headed out along the berm and by then, the top group had maybe 6 or 7 plus about 3 or 4 of us chasing 10 yards or so back.  Going down hill and through the muddy bumps knocked off one or two more.  By the time we made it through the pavement, I closed the gap to the lead group.  We had a pretty decent paceline of 7 with Bob Jacobs, 2 Half Fast guys; Wade Goff and Kevin Thompson, plus Ben Johnson from Portland Velo (I think), 2 others, and myself riding caboose.

The paceline slowly shrunk with riders washing out on some of the corners.  The corner near the back run-up claimed one.  The tight corner near the finish line claimed another.  One of the corners on the pavement got a 3rd, which in my opinion was pure karma from the guy taking the corner way too hot with a couple junior riders swinging wide to give us the inside track.  He tried to cut back in hard and it looked like he rolled his rear wheel.

On a side note - there’s few simple rules with riding with juniors.  1. Call out that you’re behind them and tell them what YOU’RE doing, not what you want them to do.  Don’t order them around.  2. Don’t make any dumb moves that will endanger or even scare the crap out of them.  No race is ever worth hurting a kid over.  Lastly, 3. No f-bombs please.

By the middle of the 2nd lap heading off the pavement, there were 3 ahead of me; Bob, Wade and Kevin.  I passed Bob who looked like he was maxing out and told him to grab a wheel.  I’m not sure if he did or not.

On the final gravel straightaway of the 2nd lap, it was down to me and the two HFV guys.  I was thinking, crap - if they work together to drop me, I’m toast.  I wasn’t maxing out but was definitely working to hold on to the back.

Somewhere in that 2nd or 3rd lap, we dropped Kevin and it was just Wade and I.  He said we should work together and I agreed.  For the next 2 laps, we took turns pulling but he stayed in front a lot longer.  I never looked back but it felt as long as we rode clean and strong, we had the 1-2 locked up.

Last lap.  If I was going to make a move, it was going to come here…but where and when?  I figured I had one last match to burn that would last a minute, maybe 2 at most.  From the other laps, one of the run-ups or the short mud stretch after the bridge would be it.  Attack early on the 1st run-up?  No.  He’d been opening a small gap on the off-camber downhill.  Any gap I’d open would get closed there.  The bumpy mud?  Too short to make a move.  I decided to wait until the last run-up.

Hitting the last run-up, Wade looked like he slowed down a bit and I used my leg length to sprint up the hill on the right.  I got up to the top, remounted and took off all out to the end.  I remember thinking on the gravel straightaway, if he can catch up and pass here, he’ll totally deserve the win.  But he didn’t.  I never looked back until the finish, taking the win.

Aside from one PIR race, this was my first win.  Pretty sweet.  My legs and lungs felt good, the bike handled beautifully, and the tires held out.  I ran the Grifos around 40 psi, bottoming out about 2 or 3 times.  I thought that the rear was a  little low during the race but in retrospect, it was probably just about right.  I’m a touch over 200# so I probably run a little higher than most.

The celebration was short lived as I parked the bike and ran over the Kiddie Cross with Ingrid and Owen.  Owen is 6 and can go on his own.  I ended up pushing Ingrid through most of the kiddie course.  She seemed mildly interested and was just fine turning back early.

Got home & cleaned up.  The frame is a little dinged up from a chain suck and the tread on the Grifos is slowly coming off the casing.  Not good.  My forearm hurts like hell where I must have bruised a muscle or tendon.  Some Arnica helped but not as much as the ‘05 Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws from the beer cellar.  That’s good stuff.