Mudslinger 2011: An reparation for broken legs and shattered souls

rep·a·ra·tion

 

[rep-uh-rey-shuhn]

–noun

1.

the making of amends for wrong or injury done: reparation for an injustice.

The 23d annual Peak Sports Mudslinger was one of great atonement for me. After last year's painful 12th place finish, I was determined to give a better performance this year. Last year I was far too focused on the direct competition between myself and one of my buddies and with that conflagration further fueled by another buddy, the chances of my ultimate success were set ablaze. After an all-out attack up the first first 3-mile ascent, I went deep into the pain cave, far too deep. There was no recovering from that, in fact, I didn't feel back to normal until well into the next week.

With all of that on my mind, the goal for this year was to pace myself. From the gun, I decided to simply race my own race. And this time, having a better understanding of what was to come, I felt it better to taper my efforts slowly over the nearly 4000 feet of climbing in just over 22 miles.

In theory, this was the best option for me, however, I found that it was shockingly hard to slow myself down. Knowing what a too-much-too-soon kind of effort can do to my fragile soul, I endured the agony of watching other riders speed ahead of me up all those god-forsaken hills. However, I remained true to my strategy; and by keeping this slightly truncated pace, I was able to prevent the imminent plunge into the darkest nether regions of the pain cave (scenes of Lord of the Rings come to mind here).

Ever so slowly, I started pulling away from some of the riders closest to me; one by one. Though at this point I just put my head down and raced my own race. I kept myself at an 8 or 9 for nearly all of the race. Only once did I approach 10 or 11. This was about mid race, when there was one guy from my category that just would not let up. He would attack and I had to follow. I attacked and he matched me; this went on for nearly 2 or 3 miles. Finally, on one particularly devilish climb, as my heart rate neared it's critical mass, I capitulated. I decided it wasn't worth feeling how I felt the previous year. Although I was ready to give up the place in the standings, somewhere deep inside I new it wasn't over between him and me. Having experienced the pain of riding up a hill like that at someone else's pace, I had a feeling I would see him again soon. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, while climbing on some single track, I kindly asked him if I could get by when he had a chance. And there it was, boom, he was shattered and I never saw him again.

And now I'll fast forward to the last 2 miles. After roughly 20 miles of grueling climbs and descents, there is a light at the end of my tunnel vision: the gravel road back to the school. It's mostly downhill and relatively straight...and I am all alone. Not the situation you want to be in when you are trying to stave off the impending attack of the other racers. I entomb myself into time trial mode and suffer the fact that the tunnel vision will only become more claustrophobic. With only about a mile to go, I hazard a glance behind me only to see 3 racers quickly approaching (seriously, who pace lines on a mountain bike). As they caught me, I was able to glance at their number plates and see that none of them were in my category. Whew! I jumped onto the back of their pace line and let them pull me home.

Last year I finished in 12th place at a little over 11 minutes behind the winner. This year saw a great improvement at 5th place and only 5 minutes behind the winner. The key for me was to race smarter, not harder. If I can keep this up, I feel I may have my first podium finish under my belt before the year is over!

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.

Cross season is over, time to play and regroup

So I realize I stopped putting up race reports in the middle of cross season. No excuses I just didn't get them up. Cross season was a blast, we had a good showing with the friends of Tensegrity. Ryan, Wes, and Lindsay had strong seasons. Mine was fun, but I peaked in October, which is a little early. Andrew, Luke, and Lindsay all raced at nationals in Bend, and had strong showings.

Now is the off season and most of us have been good spending time off the bikes having fun. I have been running, lifting weights, and back country skiing, and snowshoeing. So many reminders of why the Northwest is amazing besides riding bikes.

So as we start hitting the trainers and suffering into shape in 2011, lets remember why we do this. Cause its fun, with friends, it keeps us healthy and makes food and beer that much better.

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.

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.

September Cylcocross

Well, the team is in the process of being created and most of the members are racing for other teams through the end of cyclocross season as we have no team kits and are looking for more sponsors. I personally am finishing my season still racing for my team from Boston, MA which I just moved from in August. B2C2 you guys took good care of me and I am making sure you get some West coast results through me.

The group of riders that we are finding are first of all great people to hangout with, and secondly awesome riders. Tonight at the Hutches Twilight Cyclocross race Luke won the singlespeed race, Andrew got third in the A's and I won my first cyclocross race ever in the B field. Jason and Eric both put up great rides in the C race as well, and we may have found our first female rider for next year in a mutual friend Lindsay.

Cross is my favorite time of year, as it unites all types of cyclist to ride bikes with crappy brakes and poor handling through mud, dirt, grass, cement and over barriers. Who could ask for a better way to spend the fall, especially when the rain comes.

Welcome to the Tensegrity Cycling blog

Hello fellow cyclists, sponsors and the greater Eugene cycling community. We are just getting things started with this new team and are looking for sponsors to support our efforts. Please contact Taylor Bushnell if you have any interest in supporting our team.

Taylor Bushnell

541-344-7088