Crusading through October

This will be brief as pictures speak louder than words. The Astoria back to back races gave us 0ur first taste of mud for the season with a bit of the peanut butter between the barns. Check out the Halloween crazies on the OBRA photo sites (http://www.obra.org) - made for some fun, jumping over coffins, people and many the empty beer bottle in Sunday's race.

This weekend proved we really have entered cross season with temps in the 40's, driving rain, deep-deep rutted puddles and lots of trashed bike parts. OBRA State Champs moved down to the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem with a wide open course that split the field in the first 10 minutes. Much pain.

After an evening using the blow dryer on my shoes, Sunday's Cross Crusade proved to be more of the same plus the added benefit of elevation gain, off-camber used-to-be grass and raucous crowds. Fun...except for the flat and subsequent rim ride for a lap with 1 to go. Thank goodness for sweet DeSalvo salvation in the pits. Managed to only lose two spots but still dropped out of the top 5.

One more to go! Thanks Matt LaSala for the sweet pix and keeping all us Bendites healthy!

Hillsboro CX Report

Dark skies and light drizzle added little to the already saturated course at the Washington County Fairgrounds at the most recent Cross Crusade. Another record field of over 1250 racers braved the first muddy race of the year featuring a dead flat course, plenty of super slick turns, some wheel-sucking muck and fast gravel drag strips. Getting a call up is key (as can be seen in the photo on Velonews.com - http://www.velonews.com/photo/99601) and Reny I now have the luxury of actually seeing the front for a while. Coming back from H1N1 doesn't make you fast, you don't feel "rested" and accelerations...well...don't happen. Still the racing was a blast and the slightly less competitive Mens A field let the Top 10 shake up a bit for the first time this year. Team DeSalvo was out in force with strong performances by all the guys and the Ti bikes looked great, rode even better and got plenty of envious looks on and off course.

Up next is the first double weekend of racing in Astoria with Halloween costumes mandatory. Get ready for more bumpy fairgrounds racing - good thing we're on the best Titanium and Steel cyclocross bikes around!

Here's a video of me successfully avoiding the human obstacles:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=600930588126&ref=nf

Cross Crusade #2 race report...Rainier High School

The forecast showed the last nice weekend in the foreseeable future so the family packed (over-packed) up the Subaru with kid, dog, bikes and headed to the coast for a couple of days before the second stop of the 2009 Cross Crusade at Rainier High School. Following a few days of sun, surf and sand and an enormous ham dinner at the Cannon Beach Fireman's Ball benefit dinner (get the carrot cake) cyclocross racing sounded like a pretty darn good way to wrap up a nice weekend away from home.

Once again the crowds were overflowing at the Cross Crusade venue with cow bells, pomme frites and fans all in attendance. Bob's Red Mill provided the mandatory pre-race fuel and Chris King was brewing up the high-octane as always. How can it get any better? Fellow DeSalvo rider, Reny Townsend, and I rode a couple of laps before lining up for the A race. Luckily I scored the last call up spot making the sketchy gravel start and paved uphill a little more manageable.

It was nice finally feeling good after battling a sinus infection for the last two weeks with antibiotics finally putting the kibosh on it. The course provided a nice mix of open fast downhill, paved uphills, twisty woods riding and a couple of barriers to mix things up. I was able to keep it steady and ride in the top 5 for the whole race and had a great sprint finish with racer Adam McGrath.

Luckily I managed to squeeze a 4th out of it as the couple we stayed with on the coast came down with H1N1 on Monday and it has since reared its stubby snout in our household laying the 3 of us out with fevers, aches and coughing. Great.

PS - Thanks Matt Lasala (Clydesdale ringer) for the pic!

Cross Crusade #1 race report...DeSalvo Cusom Cycles

Never thought I'd see the day when the weather in Portland was actually better than Bend's but when Don Leet skated the Audi through 5 inches of fresh down Newport Ave., we were all happy to be heading to the 65 deg forecast on the "west side".

It was great to see the team there this weekend joining the other 1396 people for a day of cross raising at the love-to-hate / hate-to-love Alpenrose Dairy venue. A field was stacked as usual with Wicks, Trebon, Tonkin and the gang leading out the field of 70+.

Team DeSalvo stood out nicely in the blue bikes / kits and definitely got some "nice bike" comments at the start line. These custom steel DeSalvo cyclocross bikes ride so nicely its hard to imagine ever putting up with the back-attack of my previous aluminum frame. Unfortunately the front-row call up was the last time I saw the front battling not only tons of fast guys but a nagging head cold and a carbon rim that cracked and died after 3 laps. Neutral pit wheels / support from Shimano is sweet but good thing the new, SWEET Chris King hubs just came in to build up.

Course was in perfect shape with a screaming descent, quick jaunt through the woods and a bumpy long uphill before winding back around the daily velodrome and work buildings. Did what I could to hang on to a top 20 finish.

Unfortunately this seems to be the cold that just won't take a hike but my fingers are CX'd for a better finish in Rainier. That course is really fun with some good climbing (Reny). Look forward to seeing the blue / gray out in force again!