Cyclocross Season 2009: Cross Crusade #8, Barton Park, Estacada, Oregon.
Nov. 15, 2009
Women’s Masters A 35+ 21th place ugh! (But at least my team won the team competition, so we're all winners, really! That's us in this photo after the race.)
By Elaine Bothe
The rest of that week got even busier. Wedding dress shopping with my sister. (Her wedding, not mine!) A funeral... RIP Sylvia, warm thoughts to friends and family.
Then the annual OMRRA Banquet (Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association) on Saturday night, in which Mark my husband won 2nd overall in one of his classes and 4th overall in another. (He races motor bikes at PIR when there aren’t any bicycles in the way. Good job!!) Plus we had an pre-function at our house, which of course left plenty of mental space to prepare for the last Cross Crusade Race of the Year.
And, my last cross race of the year as well. Sigh.
I’m doing a bit of remedial base training which will get me in much better shape long term, but is killing my legs for racing short term. I hoped to eke out one more race before that kicked in… excuses excuses, I know!! But I won’t be racing at Nationals or even the USGP at PIR. Bummer.
But come Sunday am, after the party was all cleaned up I got fired up for the race. My warm up went really well, and I stayed toasty before the start. Go!!
Off to a great start, I hung with the lead group for the first half lap! Lots of fun sandy mud, and a spectacular downhill that was quite the crowd-pleaser. Cross spectators love a great performance, whether it’s a fabulous successful ride-through or a big ol’ crash. Hopefully no one was hurt. I managed unscathed through that section five times, once in preview and all four laps.
But then my legs fell off and the sandy dirt took its toll on my rear derailleur. It was ghost-shifting all over the place. Usually in the worst places like in the middle of a big muddy rise, it would shift into a harder gear. Or even two! Heyyy! And I think I got a rock stuck in my shifter. Big blobs of dirt in my eyes didn’t obscure most of my field passing me. Also I think half of the next group and even a few Masters 35+ B. Sage tried to pull me through a long road section (thanks anyway!!) but it just wasn’t happening.
Well I still had fun attacking the technical sections like that downhill, and finding secret hard, fast grassy lines next to the slower muddy singletrack. Not that it did me much good. I thought hard about pulling into the pit to see what was wrong with my bike, but I didn’t.
21st place, my worst finish of the year! And for double points, too… but still not last, even not counting Colleen dealing with her flat tire.
Oh well. It sure was fun at the end, though, collecting all us Sorellas as we rolled in one by one and celebrating our Loo Victory! How cool is that! Our very own port-a-potty. Let’s see how many people we get to join us on account of that! Good job to everyone who braved the rain and mud, racers, friends and family. Kronda and Tim, as always those photos are great, thank you so much.
To a great year, and good luck to everyone doing the last few races, USGP and Nationals. Next year, count me in!! I have some work to do before mountain bike season starts in just a few short months.
Thanks as always to my #1 fan Mark for his love and support, and many thanks to our entire Sorella Forte team for all the encouragement and friendship; Coach Anne at Wenzel Coaching, our team sponsors including River City Bikes, Jeff Tedder and Hammer Nutrition and all our other sponsors; and also my personal sponsors Mountain Feed Bag by Epic Ride Research, Corey Cartwright at Seven Corners Cycles, Dustin Ranck at Icon Tattoo, Acme Moto Wear, Life Flight Network Memberships, Dentist Dan Stambaugh (for supplying protective mouth guards to be tested next year) and announcing Jennifer Adams Design Group and Impact Armor.
Photograph courtesy of pdxcross.com.
