Hornings Hustle complete with a Trail of Tears

Wow,

2011 Mountain bike racing has begun in earnest. A quick recap of Echo Red to Red, which was the first mountain bike race of the season in Oregon. Tensegrity racers Ryan Garner and Lindsay Jones drove the 4 plus hours to race in Eastern Oregon. Ryan had a great opener and finished 5th in Cat 2-19-39. Lindsay pulled in a 12th place finish in the Cat 1 women.

Yesterday was the second mountain bike race in the River City Cup series Hornings Hustle and it was great spring Oregon weather, 40-50 Deg and raining the whole time. The race was super chaotic, first it started a half hour late, then as we started racing over ones number plates fell apart. So we had to yell our race number every lap for them to record us. Which led to a lot of missed lap counts. In the end it led to no good results, as it didn't have the top 3 finishers scored in the top 3 positions. In the confusion I may have finished anywhere between 2nd and 5th place, but who knows if they will get it sorted out.

As for the course 1400 ft of climbing every 5 miles in the rain was rough. There was no such thing as a good mud tire, and a part of the trail was named Trail of Tears cause the single track was too muddy and steep to ride, so it led to 20-30 person pile ups, attempting to walk in the most slippery mud I have seen outside of the Cross Crusades.

The first three laps going up the monster climb that was ride able hurt in ways I had long forgotten. But on the fourth lap climbing up I was trying to remember why I mountain bike race as both my quads, and my right hamstring and calf where all cramping at the same time. In the end I gutted it out and sprinted another Cat 1 at the line to beat him by a wheel length. It felt good to beat someone in a sprint as that is not my strong suit by any means.

Ryan Garner raced in Cat 2 19-39 and had a rough race, it wasn't in his legs as he put it. So when he watched another racer take a really bad fall in front of him he stopped and manged the racers injuries until the medics came up to him. In the end Ryan finished, and just goes to show the type of racers that are on this team. Ryan was determined to finish and helped a person along the way.

Dave Bisers raced in the singlespeeds with his new custom built Huckleberry bike and rode hard, digging deep into his brief case of courage. Yet we do not know how he placed again because of the wacky results with no plates.

So in recap Ryan, Dave and myself rode into painful places that most people would like to avoid, and we all survived. In the end it worked out alright as Hopworks had two kegs at the finish and some good mashed potatoes.