Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Portland Grand Prix

This past weekend I headed up to Portland for my annual mud pilgrimage. I made sure to get lots of sleep the week leading up to the race as the week before I had been too ill to race. The travel up on Friday went smooth and Alaskan Airlines gave me no hassles about the bike case being too heavy.

Day 1







Day 1 started off in the low 50s and sunshine ! The course today was a real mix; smooth grass, tacky dirt, tacky mud, along with a deep muddy stretch through the BMX course. Based on Anthony's advice I went with 32 psi in both tires and 35 in my pit bike which was running slightly thinner tires at 30 cm.

I was determined not to let this freakishly good weather throw me off as I went about my pre-race preparations :-). There was momentary panic when my tubulars seemed to inexplicably loose their ability to hold air pressure ! I was about ready to pull out the latex syringe before I realized that it was the temperature difference from the basement they had spent the night in and the outside air, phew ! Back to it with a decent warm-up and off to the staging area.

I had been given #21 and I was hoping that in past years your number gave your starting position. Sure enough I was called up in the 3rd row !, with 82 racers that was a big boost.




Photo Courtesy of Tim Gaperak
Copyright Tim Gasperak



I got off to an excellent start and red-lined it to stay in the top 15 for most of the first lap. Eventually this pace got to me and I started to fade. I was riding smooth and fast through most of the course except for a particular boggy section that I found faster to run. However I just couldn't quite hold the wheels of the racers around me as I lost about 1 rider per lap. The race seemed to go forever !. On the last lap my legs found some power and I started catching the rider just ahead. I came onto the finishing straight on his wheel and out sprinted him to finish 23rd ! For my best USGP result.

Day 1 ended with a red sky and whispers of rain the next day, yeah !





Day 2



Day 2 started warmer, high 50s, under overcast skies. An hour before my race the skies opened up and it started to pour. I was really looking forward to this race as I knew it would be an absolute mud-fest ! The course had been changed slightly to add a nasty sharp run-up and more of the muddy BMX course. I stuck with the same psi as the day before 32 front and rear, not confident enough to ride with much lower.



Yesterdays good result kept me in a 3rd row starting position. For some reason the race started 15 minutes late which kept us all shivering in the pouring rain and somewhat cold going into the race. This is the suffering that I look forward to every year :-). I initially got off to a clean if not super-fast start. As soon as we got off the starting straight a few riders just totally lost their front wheels and I was lucky to get by.



The course was super-slick and there was lots of standing water. I barreled into a large section of standing water just before the run-up when my wheel caught a rut and launched my completely over the tape. Damn ! By the time I had untangled myself I was dead last over the run up ! Oh well, these are my conditions and I set about climbing back from the bottom. Today was I feeling really good and by the end of the 2nd lap I had climbed back into around 40th. I was riding the course well, dodging the fallen riders, making sure to de-weight my front wheel through the rutty mud-bogs, cleaning the slick corners. I continued to steadily pass riders through out the race, running certain sections helped. I had a great cheering section of some local friends which definitely helped me go full out.




Photo Courtesy of Tim Gaperak
Copyright Tim Gasperak



By the last lap I had two riders in my sights that i would later find out represented a top-thirty finish. I got a little too aggressive on an off-camber section and slid out, for like 15 feet and ended up loosing one rider, to finish 33rd. Although not my best finish this was for sure my strongest and most fun race of the season.



All in all a great Portland weekend. Thanks to Maureen, Bobby, Ken, Jake, Max, and Ray for coming out and cheering my on throughout the weekend. Special thanks to Ray and Jeff for setting me up with a place to stay !