Oct 23, 2011 at 11:31 PM
A quick race report --
I was up at 5:30 to the sound of steady rain. I was expecting another mud fest which Hillsboro has become famous for. By 7:30 I was at the registration tent and it had turned into a mild and dry morning. I kitted up and applied two coats of the extra spicy embro with hopes of achieving "the anger."
I went to check out the course. 1.8 miles, almost no elevation gain, mostly grass. Underneath the grass was the hardest, bumpiest ground I've ridden on in a while. I dialed down my tire pressure as far as I dared, which seemed to help a lot.
The technical bits: a big pile of sand that sort of served as a run-up, two sets of double barriers with about 15 feet between the two sets; two 180 degree turns through a barn covered in about 4" of sawdust; another pair of barriers; a little 5 stair runup.
At 9:40 the C race was staging. About 15-20 people got call ups and it was random lots after that. I got lucky and wound up in the second row, one rider from the left side. The start was a really long grass and dirt straightaway.
"The anger" must have kicked in because I buried it and after 30 seconds I found myself alone out in front. I started building a little gap on a group of 3 or so. I aced the first runup, took some sweepers really well, and was feeling more or less absolutely terrified at finding myself in the front of a cross race for the first time. That lasted for a couple of minutes which seemed like eternity. Then I came into the first set of barriers way too fast, bobbled, smacked into the second barrier, and yard-saled.
Luckily only my pride was injured so I scrambled up and proceeded to have a good race. I was feeling fit from the two days at Granogue. The really fast guys passed me during the first lap. After that I battled for and kept a spot in the low 20s for the rest of the 6 total laps. Jim was warming up with the Portobello team and shouting encouragement which was great. I lost my chain to the bumps on the last lap and gave up a few spots fixing it to finish 26 out of 107.
Watched Jim and his brother Eric do the Master B race, hung out with the Portobello team who were all very cool, saw some old friends, ate a big paper cone of frites covered in mayo. Good times all around.
I was up at 5:30 to the sound of steady rain. I was expecting another mud fest which Hillsboro has become famous for. By 7:30 I was at the registration tent and it had turned into a mild and dry morning. I kitted up and applied two coats of the extra spicy embro with hopes of achieving "the anger."
I went to check out the course. 1.8 miles, almost no elevation gain, mostly grass. Underneath the grass was the hardest, bumpiest ground I've ridden on in a while. I dialed down my tire pressure as far as I dared, which seemed to help a lot.
The technical bits: a big pile of sand that sort of served as a run-up, two sets of double barriers with about 15 feet between the two sets; two 180 degree turns through a barn covered in about 4" of sawdust; another pair of barriers; a little 5 stair runup.
At 9:40 the C race was staging. About 15-20 people got call ups and it was random lots after that. I got lucky and wound up in the second row, one rider from the left side. The start was a really long grass and dirt straightaway.
"The anger" must have kicked in because I buried it and after 30 seconds I found myself alone out in front. I started building a little gap on a group of 3 or so. I aced the first runup, took some sweepers really well, and was feeling more or less absolutely terrified at finding myself in the front of a cross race for the first time. That lasted for a couple of minutes which seemed like eternity. Then I came into the first set of barriers way too fast, bobbled, smacked into the second barrier, and yard-saled.
Luckily only my pride was injured so I scrambled up and proceeded to have a good race. I was feeling fit from the two days at Granogue. The really fast guys passed me during the first lap. After that I battled for and kept a spot in the low 20s for the rest of the 6 total laps. Jim was warming up with the Portobello team and shouting encouragement which was great. I lost my chain to the bumps on the last lap and gave up a few spots fixing it to finish 26 out of 107.
Watched Jim and his brother Eric do the Master B race, hung out with the Portobello team who were all very cool, saw some old friends, ate a big paper cone of frites covered in mayo. Good times all around.
