Portland USGP Race Dec 5-6 2009

I did race in Portland last weekend. Jenn was cheering on the sidelines as well (Parker is a lucky guy). I didn't see many of the other races while I was there, I was out looking at motorhomes during the afternoon.

I raced Cat C Master's, which is the first race of the day. It was very cold on Saturday morning. The course was frozen over with great traction for the first couple of laps.It started to get slippery in the corners, on the grass later in the race.
I was staged in the front row for the start. I was amazed to be in the fourth spot when we hit the first turn. The leader opened a gap and just kept going from there. I was able to slip into third place and me the the guy in second started to open a gap. We ended up trading places for most of the race. On the last lap, we both went down a couple of times (oxygen deficit). I was pretty well "blown up" after going down. I ended up sliding back to 13th place by the time I crossed the finish line.
On Sunday morning, Portland was hit with a bit of a wind storm. The course was a mess when I got there in the morning. There were pop-ups and debris laying all over the place. The metal barriers on both sides of the start/finish straight had even blown over. The race crew was able to get everything fixed ready and to go without delaying the first race though. They did a great job.
The course was frozen solid for my entire race on Sunday. It was like racing on concrete all the way around the the circuit. It would not have been fun to fall. I started in the front row again and planned to take it a little easier right off of the start. I was in around the 10th spot when we hit the first corner this time. I rode smoothly and stayed out of trouble the first couple of laps and then planned to get on it harder towards the end. The problem was that the race was over a little sooner than I expected. I crossed the finish line in 18th place. I had been a little too conservative.
It's been a fun cyclocross season and I'm looking forward to getting spanked racing with the Cat 3 masters next year. ~ Bob McGee

Thanks to Joe Martin for the photos.