Pain on the Peak

Today, I made it out to the inaugural Pain on the Peak cyclocross race presented by Portland Velo.  The race was well organized, and everything was run extremely well.

I showed up without a helmet today.  That's a sinking feeling.  Worse only by the feeling of realizing you forgot your shoes.  Luckily, Terry (I hope I remembered his name right) hooked me up with a perfectly fitting helmet.  Thanks Terry!  I hope I didn't stink it up too badly.

As I was running around looking for a helmet, I noticed Ryan Trebon was spinning around.  He's one of the best in the country, and it was certainly cool seeing him out there today.  K-man took a funny photo of us.  I asked Trebon if I could sit over his bike, because I've always wondered how his bike fit was set up as compared to mine.  I didn't try riding it, but the seat felt a little high.  I'm pretty sure his legs are at least a couple inches longer than mine.  That's long!

It was hot and dry today, which made for a LOT of dust.  Riding off the well-beaten path sent me sliding around in dry, loose dusty dirt, at least 8 inched deep.  There were times in the race where I could honestly not see more than a couple feet in front of me.  Probably not the best stuff to be breathing in for an hour, but I guess it builds character.

Speaking of building character, this course was hard.  Ouch, I don't like thinking about it, but it hurt.  It starts off great with some undulating, winding turns.  Then it dives down into a dark canopy of trees where you can go really go fast, once you let go of your fear of not being able to see the loose ground you're riding on.  But then the character building comes in the form of a horrible little run-up, followed by a gradual climb towards the finish line. 

That hill just killed me.  I knew what my body needed to do, but it just didn't have the goods to do it.  It was very humbling, and a bit embarrassing to stagger up past the crowd of people up on top.  But everyone was quite encouraging, saying good job or go Erik.  Too kind.  Kenji and Heidi were up near the finish area, and I could only smile as they gave me a holler every lap, no matter how slow I was going.  Thanks.

The dust did some weird things to my bike. Something starting squeaking horribly during the first lap. I think it was the pedals rubbing on the bottom of my shoes. It was super loud, and super annoying. But what could I do? Nothing was broke, just really squeaky. I'm gonna need to figure that one out.

In the end, it was a fun time out there.  I was a little bummed to have nothing in the tank, but that's how it goes.  I've had enough of riding in the heat and dusty dirt, so I'm probably going to hold off the races until the Cross Crusade opener at Alpenrose.

Big thanks to Portland Velo for putting on the race.  Shane Young at Oregon Velo took the above photos, and Health and Performance Chiropractic sponsored the event, making all photos free for personal use.