Thursday, October 21, 2010

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.

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.

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.



Friday, October 8, 2010

The Crusades have begun (Alpenrose)

In the Pacific Northwest when it comes to cyclocross it is all about the Cross Crusades in the Portland Area. The first race at the Alpenrose Dairy was dry and twisty. Overall there were 1506 racers, and in my race the Category B men there was 117 racers.

I started 6 rows deep, which meant I had to work way harder than I wanted to just get around most of the folks in front of me. While moving up it became impossible to tell who was leading the race as we overtook most of the singlespeed field that they had sent out 3 minutes before us. The course suited me well as I am pretty good at turning and making attacks off of turns. Besides a few close calls with some over zealous single speeders that I was passing the race went smoothly for me, although we never got a bell lap to let us know we only had one more lap so all of the sudden people were stopping in front of me and guy was waving a checkered flag. In the end I found out that I got 7th which is great for this next week as I now get a call up and get to start in the front row. Hopefully I can make something of this. Other friends did well in the B's with Ryan Garner finishing 16th and getting a call up and Wes Ciprioti coming in at 51st.

In the singlespeed race Luke Demoe moved up pretty well and finished 10th earning him a call up for the next race. In the Men's A race Andrew Bennett finished 30th. In the Women's A race Lindsey Jones finished 18th. In the Men's C race Eric Taylor finished 34th.