'Cross Adventures in Oregon

[Jim Hewett]

This is only my second season racing 'cross, and all of that has been in the Bay Area.  I had to go up to Oregon for work, so I figured I'd take the chance to see what the cyclocross racing scene is like to the North.  .  I've heard really good things about the 'Cross Crusade series and there was a race scheduled on Sunday of the weekend I would be in Portland.  That one was on the schedule, for sure.  Saturday I could either do an Outlaw CX race in Medford or a Psycho 'Cross Pseries race in Eugene.  Since I was driving up to Ashland Friday night, I decided on the Medford race.  Would I see mud?  Would I fit in?  Would I be victorious?  I didn't know, but I figured I would have fun.

Saturday morning it was sprinkling a little and the temperature was below 50 degrees.  I rolled over to the Outlaw CX race in Medford with plenty of time to check things out.  The course worked its way around a baseball field complex.  Mainly grass, with a little pavement.  There was some familiar bumpy terrain in a grassy field, but what they had done with the course there was new to me:  it spiralled in before spiralling back out, miraculously never crossing itself.  It was a lot of turning right and then a lot of turning left, trying the whole time to pedal in the bumpy field.  Other than that, there were some bermed turns in the grass and a couple of barrier sections.  Pretty flat, with the usual speed up to slow down corners built in.  Not much mud.  Just a few wet spots and an overall moist surface.

There were about 25 guys and gals lined up with me at the start.  I think this was Senior Men's A, Women's A, and Singlespeed.  I started a few rows from the front but made my way up into fifth or sixth pretty quickly.  After a few laps, I moved into first and started pushing the pace some.  As things shook out, I was mixing it up with an Owen's Healthcare rider who washed out in a corner and fought his way back up to me only to wash out again.  I put some pretty good distance between me and the rest of the field, but he dug deep to try to catch me.  I led for the second half of the race and finished first with a small lead.

It was a small scene, but everyone was really nice and psyched to be doing the series.  This reminded me a lot of the Summit Shorty, an XC short course race series I put on in San Rafael in the spring (https://www.facebook.com/summitshorty).  After the race, there were no podiums but most people hung out for a raffle that distributed the prizes randomly among ticket holders.

I hopped in the car and drove north to Portland.

It rained a little that night, and the next morning I headed out to Barton Park for the 'Cross Crusade race.  The rain had stopped and it alternated between cloudy and a little sunny.  The temperature was under 50 degrees.  I arrived a couple of hours before the start of my race, but they only allow you to preview the course at specific times.  The next one was 15 minutes before my race start.  I did my best to ride around and check it out from the sidelines.  There was a lot of riding on some sort of raised dikes, all double track.  It was muddy in a few spots, with a few greasy corners.  There was a fun, but short, whoop-de-doo section.  There were two runups, one just before the finish that was pretty long, and no barriers.  I would have run even lower pressure in my tubulars, but there were large cobble stones mixed into the soft terrain that made me fear rim damage.

Lots of people were hanging out, grilling and drinking and cheering.They had kids' races going all day on a different course.  I finally got a chance to go out on the course for a preview, but there was a pacer that kept us from going anywhere near race pace as there were some junior racers still on the course.  By the time I made my way around to the start area, most of the people in my class were already lined up, along with the 35+ A Men, A women, and Singlespeed racers.  I was a little surprised that they let this many classes race together, especially since the field sizes were so large.  I think I lined up about 45th out of 60 in A Men.  No call up for me in Portland.

They went over some rules (no help of any kind on course except at the pit area, no handups of any sort) and then let us go.  I did my best to move up on the gravel road start, maybe passing 15 guys before the opportunity diminished.  Things stretched out pretty quickly and I found myself mixing it up with a few guys for a few laps before I got away from them and caught a few more guys to battle.  I don't think I was permanently passed by anyone after the first lap, but the lead groups were way out of sight by the time traffic had broken up.  And then I got into the womens' field...and then the 35+ mens' field.  I was passing lots of people, but none of them were in my class.  I did get a word of encouragement from NorCal Fresh Air racer Leah Plack as I passed her on a long straight gravel road section (Thanks!).  I got some practice shouldering my bike for the runups.  I did try a few times to climb the biggest runup, getting within a few pedal strokes of the top before I spun out (I think Decker and a few other guys pulled it off).  Things kept going like this until I was told my race was over after 8 laps.  I had missed the cutoff by a minute or so, as the lead group of 13 did 9 laps.  I finished 20th, not where I am used to finishing.  I don't feel the competition was a lot better than our Bay Area races, but the travel in my legs and less-than-ideal start position combined with general unfamiliarity to put me at a bit of a disadvantage.  Excuses aside, it was nice to see how one of the biggest series in the country works and get to check out the Oregon 'cross scene.

Now back to California for the BASP race on Sunday!