Missed it by that much!Day two of racing for me and my first time in the infamous Oregon Cross Crusade series. My strategy was to be conservative as they race for 60 minutes (where everywhere else is 40 minutes). With solid competition including Wendy Williams, I was excited to test myself against the "Queen of the West."
I must have been wearing a sign on my head that read "Go easy on us!" because that's how I was also greeted by the Oregon cat A women racers. I guess word travels fast...
It was a much longer course than I'm used to as well, but a blast to race! A little bit of everything, except mud and the Portland 6-pack barriers. At least it did include lots of grassy corners, dust, rocket-launch-you-off-the-bike bumpy sections, dust, lots of off-camber hill riding & corners, sand, dust, barriers, dust, riding up & down hills, and more dust. Tons of fun. Plus the spectators were incredible! 3-5 deep along the sides in places and felt like there was someone cheering for you at every part of the course.
Feeling a bit tired from Saturday's race (I was the only one there who did both days of the Clash - gold star for me!), my legs felt like they had a bit of rust to work out on the start. So I grabbed 3rd wheel on the hole shot and just tried to keep pace and spin out. By the end of the first lap, I finally loosened up and got my racing legs back and spun past the leaders on the steep climb before the finish line to take the lead! 3 laps later I was still leading, but loosing some steam (with 20+ minutes to go rather than the 1 lap I would normally have). Wendy Williams managed to bridge up to me and I enjoyed her wheel for a bit of fast paced "rest" for a couple laps. With one lap to go, I attacked on the steep climb again and put some distance between us. I dug deeper to try and open it up into a more comfortable buffer to secure the win. All was looking good as we approached the steep climb for a final time. A River City guy came soaring past us and I followed his line (thinking he was obviously going faster than us, so he would be a good one to follow). With about a 1/3 of the hill left to climb, I almost rode over his wheel as he lost speed. I looked down to see he was a SINGLE SPEEDER!!!! Great! Having the local advantage of knowing the riders, Wendy, brilliantly took the other line and passed me as I lost traction in trying to pass Mr. Singlespeeder. I charged again ahead of Wendy (legs screaming and actively cramping) and mistimed my bike thrust a bit on the early side
As you can see in the picture above, that didn't work out so well for me...
Lessons learned: Don't leave the race for the final climb. Don't get behind a single speeder on the final climb. And bike thrust at the line (not way before).
I also got to give my first post-race interviews!
Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCM87oX_eFQ
(the kid on the "trainer" steals the show though!)
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