Rainer's Wrath and Sherwood Forest Fun Crusades 2 and 3

So I am just getting caught up on writing race reports over the last few weeks. After my momentum and energy of getting 7th at the first cross crusade.

CROSS CRUSADE #2 RAINER

Rainer was a rough half race for me. I had the nice front row start and rode in the top 10-15 riders for the the first half of the race, through thick peanut butter style mud.

Cross Crusade Race #2 Rainier High School from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

You can see me at 2:53 seconds in the white super hero shades

I was feeling good and finding it much faster to ride on the edge to gain more traction. I wondered why more people weren't doing that. Good ole blackberry thorns. I flatted and ran to the pits. I got in for a wheel change with the Shimano neutral wheel support but the rims where to wide, so my brakes had to be taken apart. As the guy is trying to do this I watch as the whole field rides past me. I got back on finally minutes later and my chain sucked up into the cassette before I even got out of the pits. At this point I decided my race was over.

So this race was not my best but many Tensegrity future racers did well. First off my hat goes off to my good friend Eric Taylor who moved upto Category B racing. He finished 80th in a super tough, muddy hill filled course. Ryan Garner also had a great race and came in 14th improving on his finish from Alpenrose. Luke Demoe came in 9th in the singlespeeds and then raced in the A's to finish 41st. If you think racing a cross race is hard, try doing it twice in one day with lots of climbing. You rock Luke. Andrew Bennett came in 19th looking dog tired after attacking so many times up the big climb. In the women's race Lindsey Jones to 15th without a jersey, something I don't think she will forget next time.

PSYCHO CROSS #2

A much smaller series here in Eugene is the Psycho cross. I missed the first race due to work but came out and put on the afterburners on the local course with Ryan Garner and this fellow from Portland Steve Glass. I rode myself into the ground trying to drop the two and instead I dropped myself, falling a good 45 seconds back into 3rd. Ryan ended up getting second which is fun for the two of us. We have a good friendly rivalry going between the two of us. Eric Taylor finished 10th. Luke got 1st and Andrew 2nd in singlespeed.

CROSS CRUSADE #3 SHERWOOD

You couldn't ask for better fall weather as it was dry and 65 degrees, although this course would have softened up the chatter bumps caused by the horses here with a little rain. Andy Jones raced here last year and was so shook up that he lost fillings in his mouth. The Crusades folks listened to the complaints and tried to smooth it out. Which scares me since I was told how much better it was this year and my grundle starting thinking my seat was a cheese grader.

Cross Crusade Race #3 Sherwood Forest from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

The overhead shots where taken with a remote control helicopter with a camera on it.

In the B's I retained my call up even with the DNF. At the start I was next to Ryan and the guy Steve who had dropped me the day before. I was determined to not let that happen again. I took off like a bat out of hell and by the time I was at the top of the run up a third of the way through the first lap I was sitting in 5th place. I decided that I should try to sit in here, which turned out to be a hard spot, to sit in at. I rode 3 laps in 5th place, but the gut wrenching wall climb right after a barrier at the bottom wasn't nice to me on my last 3 laps as I rode backwards through the pack. Also not helping me was dropping my chain not once, but twice on the final lap. 3 more guys passed me at that point and I only got back around 1 of them. In the end I ended up finishing 16th, Steve got 19th and Ryan got 21st. So I got a little redemption in beating both guys who pounded me the day before.

In the singlespeed race Luke Demoe put down and impressive 3rd place finish moving him upto 3rd overall in the points standings for singlespeeds. Although not a Eugene or Tensegrity racer I must give a shout out to my older brother Spencer Bushnell. He raced to 10th in singlespeed after not riding for two weeks from straining his MCL crashing into the barriers at Alpenrose. Now he has a call up, and is gunning for a podium at PIR this next week. Also Andrew Bennett got 43 in the A's with Ryan Trebon and Chris Sheppard leading that A race.