Heiser Farms CX Race Report

Sure, the Cross Crusade has the glamour and the "scene" - photographers out the wazoo, krazy kross kowbells, and even mini-movies each week!  Still, the smaller Saturday races have a lot going for them.

At Heiser Farms, the organizer set up equal prize purses for the MenA and WomenA, which meant prize money ten deep!  Jan and I figured (rightly) fewer than 10 WomenA racers would show - guaranteed prize money (or so we thought)!  So, we carpooled down together.

In addition to prize money, I have two words:  Pumpkin Cannon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD_dwQkB5Bs)

The course was slightly different this year.  We parked in a different location and had a "lead in" section before reaching and repeating the "usual" main circuit.

Naturally, before the WomenA race, we did the Master's race. I got the "hole shot", but that didn't really matter because then we hit "the mud".  This was not Barlow Mud.  This was not Rainier Mud.  If this mud was an alien life force, it would be close-encounter-of-the-seventh-or-eighth-kind-mud, because it was probing every corner of our bikes and bodies.  Witness this mud in some photos.  The course was so muddy that we only managed *three* laps in 45 minutes.  Two endos and countless wipeouts later, I finished the MasterA race victorious!  GPS Log of the MasterA race.

Sadly, Jan was unlucky at the start.  Two minutes into the race a small pebble lodged in her derailleur and promptly tore it off.  Game over. Phooey!

No time for celebration - I drank a bottle of water+malto+nuun (are you listening Jen?), then rode back to the start for the WomenA race!  We were like muddy clowns sliding around.  One would get up, fall back down, another would get up and fall back down, and so on.  It was so much "racing" as "repeatedly falling in the right direction".

Then the rain stopped and the mud thickened.  What started as slimy was now chunky.  I have raced in a lot of mud and until that day, I have *never* had to stop and clear mud out of my bike.  The mud kept caking on thicker and thicker and the wheels simply stopped turning!  The bike weighed easily double its normal weight.  It was so heavy I had to shoulder it just to get over the barriers.  I stopped riding sections - not because I couldn't ride them - but because I didn't want the mud to collect on the bike.  On the final lap, I caught and passed a rider and finished second!  GPS Log of the WomenA race.

We hot-footed it to "Scott's Cycles" in Salem to get Jan's bike fixed.  They stayed late and got her repaired and set up to race on Sunday.  Then we hit the "Willamette Burger Company" in Salem at 14th and Broadway for excellent burgers and beers.  Yum! Recommended!  (Thanks to Tessa for the restaurant tip!)