Yreka

I did the first race of the Southern Oregon Outlaw Cyclocross Series Saturday in Yreka, California. Yes, an OBRA race in California. Some of the regular southern Oregon racers live there and have put on a race two years now. It's a nice course. Some grass but mostly single track. There is a hard, rocky section so I left my carbon wheels in the pit. I raced my Racing Ralph tubeless setup again and it worked well. Several people flatted using tires with tubes including a guy in my age group who always beats me. He flatted twice so I came in third out of four in the 50+ age group. I kicked Vern's ass. He is in a different age group but we still race at the same time. The course included quite a bit of climbing and a very difficult run up.

I took a couple of pictures of friends of mine on the grass during the A race.

Richard Hogan












Thom Kneeland
It was a beautiful day. The series continues next weekend in Grants Pass. Guess who gets to design the course. Vern. I probably won't have a chance of beating him.

Bling

I want to build a single speed road bike so I've been looking at pictures on the forum to get ideas. I spotted a bike with a white crankset and thought that it looked really cool. I did some research and discovered that it was Shimano Sante, a groupset that they made in the late 80's. It was between Ultegra and Dura Ace. I've been told that they quit making the line because it was consider too yuppie. I first found the brake set on Craig's List Boulder Colorado and then the crankset on ebay. Brand new twenty year old stuff. This is just the start of my project. I don't even have a frame yet. I'm leaning towards a Soma Delancey. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Cross Crusade

I did the Cross Crusade race yesterday at Ranier Oregon. It was a great course. Mostly on grass and dirt paths. Lots of climbing but with long sections of downhill to recover. Check out the photos on http://pdxcross.com/?p=284 to get a good feel for what it was like.

The race started on an uphill section and I took it kind of easy so I wouldn't blow up right at the start. Once we started downhill the guy in front of me was going too slow so I passed him. I continued to take it easy because I hadn't pre-ridden the course and had only walked part of it. The course was over two miles. I went back and forth a couple of times with the guy I had passed but eventually I got ahead for good. I held on but couldn't pass anybody else. There was a steep uphill section of hard gravel with some loose stuff on it. I must have had too much air in my tires because I couldn't get traction near the top and had to get off and run up. Well, I didn't really run. The Masters 50+ class had 48 starters. I finished 42nd. Maybe I need to push harder at the start. The other age 60+ guys didn't finish very far ahead of me.
Here's my heart rate with elevation. I guess I'm more fit than last year. Some times I wonder about that but I don't ever feel like quiting during a race like I did last year. It was a tough race though.

Next week is the start of the Southern Oregon Outlaw Cyclocross series. That's my favorite series racing with the people from Southern Oregon who have become my good friends.

KFCX #4

I did the final race of the Klamath Falls series yesterday and got my ass handed to me by Vern. It was bitterly cold. At one point during the race I was remarking to myself that it was just a few weeks ago that I was complaining about how hot it was at races.

The race started at this spot on pavement.






The first part of the course was up this dirt road. It was a fairly long climb and steep enough that I was out of the saddle about a third of the time with my single chain ring. There were three barriers at the top of the hill. Then there was a long, fast downhill on the same kind of dirt road. I'm too old and scared for fast downhills. I was on the brakes and Vern just let her fly. He was WAY faster than me. The end of each lap was slightly uphill on the pavement back to the dirt road uphill. I would just about, but not quite, catch Vern at the top of the hill on each lap. At some point I realized that I didn't have a chance to beat him unless he crashed. I would not only have to catch him I would have to get way ahead of him before the downhill section. It didn't happen.






Hail to the Victor, Vern. We each beat the other twice during the series but the last race was double points. Vern got second for the series and I was third. It was fun. A good competition.

KFCX #3

I just got an email from a faithful reader telling me my blog was not up to date. Wow. I must have a huge following.
I raced in Klamath Falls again yesterday. I didn't take any pictures so I've posted my Forerunner chart showing heart rate and elevation. I don't think that my heart rate really went up to 214 at the beginning although that's when I pushed hard to get ahead of Vern. That's my new strategy, get ahead of him right at the start and hope that he can't catch up. It worked yesterday. I beat Vern but the other masters racers in the B race both lapped me. I finished third out of four.
It was muddy so I ran my Challenge Grifo tires at 30 psi. They worked well. I could feel the rear tire bottoming out but it survived. The race was at the same location as last week but laid out slightly different. Fewer barriers. The rock garden was still there but the approach to it was slower and a track had developed through it. It wasn't as rough. The mud wasn't the thick, grabby kind you sometimes find in the northwest. It was thin and slippery. Neither my bike nor my body had much mud at the end. My tires, pedals and shoes were packed though.
The starter/lap counter guy was new and I'm pretty sure he screwed up. It was supposed to be a 45 minute race but we were out there for nearly an hour. I went by the finish line with the lap board reading zero, pulled over, stopped my watch at 54 minutes and was told that I had another lap to go. I don't want to be critical though. We need people willing to be officials so that we can race. He'll get it right next time. Next Sunday is the final race of this series. I'm in second place in the Masters 40+ B Division.
Check out the beautiful photos on the pdxcross site. Not of this race but of the races in Portland. I have a link on my Blogs of Interest.