Apparently racing in National Championships in two different countries in the same year really pisses off the gods of cyclocross.

Everything except the race went fantastically well: 

I found cheapo tickets out to Portland; some awesome people to put me up in Portland; hooked in with Arley and Sally of HUB for lodging and travel; steel cut oats race morning; the right number of pre-race poops; some joker in an orange jumpsuit to hang out in the pits for me; enough recon laps to know the course would be slippery, to look out for sharp rocks and that conditions would probably change during the race.

I did a bit of a warm-up, went to the bathroom one FINAL time and tried to zip up my skinsuit. Kinda stuck. Huh. It’s given me some trouble before… maybe someone else can get a better grip on it. Headed to the Schlamm tent but no-go. Broke out my pliers and yanked on it until there was a ripping noise. Bugger. Calls for staging are being made on the P.A. Started to get a bit panicky. Just-going-to-have-fun-with-this was going out the window. I didn’t have any extra pins on me, so took a couple off my shoulder numbers and safety-pinned my skinsuit closed. So not-pro. I’d already missed my call-up and ended up staged 6^th row instead of 3^rd.

I don’t have much to say about the start except there were a lot of people charging up the start straight (I’m a mtn biker, ok?). I could see Arley’s wheel just ahead and tried to focus on getting her wheel – threw some elbows in corners; swore at myself for taking the inside line and getting boxed in; tried to settle in and race.

Just after the stairs it was starting to stretch out a bit – up the off-camber, around the corner, then another hair-pin heading toward the barriers, beer tent and marching band.

I was just coming out of the hairpin and BAM – hit the deck. Back up on my feet trying to not get hit by other riders and went to remount. Rear wheel wouldn’t turn. Back off the bike – looking at the dropouts to see if the skewer had come loose. Nope. Rolled a tubular. Crapcrapcrap. Picked up the bike and started to run.

For a seven-minute lap it’s a long way to the pits. I went down again while running on a frozen grassy off-camber and by the time I hit pavement the back of the pack was long gone. I was too upset with everything that had transpired to take a bike from Gewilli and get back on course. Now of course, I’m wishing I had. It’s much easier in retrospect.   

Huge thanks to Dave and Colleen, zipper-guy from Schlamm, Arley, Sally and Carol; Gewilli, Curtis and Jerry and everyone else I bummed equipment/favours off of.

I will definitely be back next year – the folks in Bend know how to put on a great event and I’ve got a score to settle.

Elite Women Nat'l Champs Bar Cam from colin reuter on Vimeo.