another weekend

Molly Cameron Grand Prix Saturday - Apple Core Cross

Saturday was I pictured Portland cross to be..... Leg sapping mud. The race was at ab apple orchard and the sections that went through the trees were brutal with all mud. The down hills you would just hold on and let your bike go where it wanted to go in the mud and try to keep it upright..then when hill would rise a little there were times that my back tire just spun and went nowhere.. even with the Dugast Rhinos the mud was like peanut butter. I'm not used to the mud so I was doing the best I could sitting in 6th place and with about 4 laps to go people's bikes were blowing up everywhere. The grass and mud covered your bike and all moving parts. My bike started skipping gears and I only had 2-3 gears left with 2 laps to go but was riding alone with nobody in front or rear so I didn't bother to pit since I didn't want to have to clean 2 bikes. 2 guys in front of me the bud took out their derauillers so I ended up 4th.

Cross Crusade Barton Park - Sunday

With my decent results the last 2 Crusades I thought maybe by bad luck at Crusades was over. I got the call-up to 2nd row and was ready to rip the course since it was a little roadie and hard some hard sections. My kind of course. 30seconds....GO. 10 yards into it someone in the front row goes down right in front of me and takes out the whole right side of the field. I run over him and somehow get my right glove caught on a bike and it's gone..My race is over. One mistake, especially at the start is tough to make up. At this point I'm maybe sitting in 40th place. I think the rage of the moment kicked in and I rode my heart out picking off rider after rider and attacking and making up huge ground on the road sections and power sections... lap after lap I passed and dropped groups. I rolled through and ended up finishing 11th. I would have killed for a 11th at a Crusade at the beginning of the season..who knows where I would have finished if I didn't have the crash to deal with. After the race a photographer shot some photos of me for a piece that Portland Monthly Magazine is highlighting me in about going to Masters Worlds.