Mudslinger 2010, by Greg

The boys got off to a hot start, with Naiqwan jumping out with the holeshot and DeyShaun grabbing his wheel. Naiqwan soon dropped his chain and got passed by his entire field. He fixed the chain, caught back on, attacked again and won by almost 10 minutes.

One of the early sections called for a dismount for most racers.



There was a super slippery downhill section at the end of the Panama trail. You can see from DeyShaun's expression that this MTB stuff is pretty fun!







Here's how the day ended, not too shabby! The young man Naiqwan is on a tear, and ready to take on the Cat 2's. Photos courtesy of Mudslinger Events and Shane Young/oregonvelo.com

Horning's Hustle

A First for Hana!
by
Greg O'Brien




Jake, Jeff, Naiqwan and I headed out Sunday morning to Horning's Hideout for the 2010 edition of the Hustle MTB race. Jake's victory on Saturday at the Kings Valley road race had us all pumped up. We met Catherine "Hana" Cooper at the race for her Cyclisme debut mountain bike race.

There was much getting ready and squeezing of tires to get the pressure dialed in for the somewhat muddy descents.

The start was staged out by category and age. Jake, being the young, fast cat 1 dude started in one of the first groups. Jeff started in the group ahead of me, and Naiqwan and Catherine were both in groups after mine.





After a fast downhill gravel road section, the course turns uphill on a gravel road, with grades close to 20%. We then turned left onto a more primitive dirt path before topping out and a brief gravel descent before hitting the first somewhat slick downhill. Jake ran into some trouble here and went down hard at speed. He said that he straightened out the bars and kept going, but fell once more before calling it a day after the first of 4 laps. He ended up with a gnarly cut-up knee.




Jeff was having a great race, but when I saw him walking down as I was climbing on the 3rd lap I knew it was bad news. His rear derailleur got mangled and broke off the hanger, ending his race. I managed to stay upright and finished the 3 lap cat 2 45-54 field in 8th place (same placing as Echo!). I was regretting forgetting my Camelback as I was starting to cramp up about 20 minutes from the end. 1 water bottle wasn't enough for me...

Naiqwan rode a good, smart race. He crashed but didn't let it rattle his concentration. He finished in 3rd place, and looked great on the bike. The course had some steep slippery downhills with water bars, and a couple of really steep slippery climbs as well.




The story of the day was Hana, who took first in the cat 3 women 35-44 age group race! She also won a killer pair of Oakleys in the raffle. Jeff thought he won a Chris king headset, but only got some coffee and beer instead...

/>

Photos by Hana and Oregon Velo (courtesy of Oregon Bike Shop in Portland).

Greg

Yoga in the Woods

Yep, you got it. Here's DeyShaun working the kinks out while on a little break from the trail.

University Falls, in the Tillamook Burn area.

Hana, Naiqwan, Jeff, DeyShaun and I rode the "Historic Hiking Trail" loop in the Tillamook State Forest last weekend. It's a fun, challenging loop, especially when it's a bit wet.


Greg

Sunday Slip & Slide

Naiqwan blurs down the slippery singletrack at the Scappoose trail network. Jeff was just ahead of him. Photo by Greg.

Bear Springs Trap MTB Race

Csaba, Naiqwan, Greg and I pre-road the parts of the course on Saturday after stopping by John's for burritos. There were huge sections of old hard snowdrifts across the trail. I could see that many people would be furious at not being able to ride sections of the course. I even thought about not doing the race on Sunday. But I'm glad I stayed the course.

It was freezing cold and snowing a little bit. We piled on everything we had and broke out Greg's propane heater, while we waited for the short track. Naiqwan, Csaba, and Greg launched





at 3 and I (singlespeed) went at 3:30. Naiqwan had a mechanical a lap before the end. Csaba was feeling that hill. (He hasn't be able to ride as much as he would like.) Greg looked good. I was in last place for the entire race until I finally passed a girl on the last lap. That was tough!

Next day:

Completely different weather. It was sunny and warm. I overdressed but so what.

After a confused start, we went off right behind the Cat 1s. I ended up doing 30 miles which was quite a workout. The course had everything;big downhills, twisty singletrack (up, down, sideways), mud (just a little), roots, rocks, smooth, narrow/steep/straight w/switchbacks, dirt roads, etc... To me the race was about pacing myself and putting out a sustained effort over 3-4 hours. Try to recover on the downhills, and hope the legs hold out for the uphills. And keep my focus on not crashing and not bonking. Will raced as well and we got to hang out before the race a bit.

Fergus

Not content

with yesterday's adventure in Forest Park, today Jeff and I teamed up with former brother in the lore and mountain biking fiend Chris Sautter to hit the park again, but this time on mountain bikes. We met up at Fat Tire Farm and huffed and puffed up Holman Lane. Holman is not only steep, but fairly waterlogged in parts, which when paired with lousy mud tires (like mine) makes it quite an effort just to keep moving forward.

The asphalt of NW 53rd was a welcome change, which we rode until turning right to drop down Firelane 1.
Here are Chris and Jeff all nice and clean before riding down FL 1.

The descent was fast, fun and swoopy. The slog on Leif Erikson to Saltzman was cold, slow, muddy and slushy. Not much of the snow accumulation on Saltzman had melted since yesterday, so there was a bit of hike-a-biking going on. After reaching the top, we decided that we'd all had enough of frozen slushy mud, so we rode Skyline back towards town with the intent of heading down some legal, urban singletrack. However... a cable was down on the Radio Tower at the Barnes/Skyline intersection and Skyline and Barnes were both closed to all traffic. We tried to navigate through via the cemetery but that didn't work either, so we bombed down Burnside and turned into Washington Park to search for a trail down into town. Chris knew of one, but we couldn't find it, and after a short bushwack we gave up and took the pavement down to town.

Chris peeled off by PSU to head back up Terwilliger to home, while Jeff and I high-tailed it to home in SE, tired, cold and hungry. 29 miles, 2 hours and 45 minutes, and a whole lot of fun.

Greg

Test Of Endurance MTB report, by Fergus

Test of Endurance

A 50 mile bike race in Blodgett, Oregon. I drove down on Sat with
Susan who solicited for a carpool through the bike mailing list. It
worked out well. She lives not too far away and she was good company.
We met my friends Sage and Brice at the informal campgrounds and
cooked and ate and slept. Except for me. There was a pomeranian
puppy mill close by and the shrieking and yapping carried on until 11
and started up again at 4:30. I don’t see how people can live
tolerating such noise pollution. And then there was a rooster
greeting the morning at 5 AM and then more neighborhood dogs taking
turns filling the small valley with a domesticated racket.

As we did our rolling start, my sleep issues were gone.
The weather was great. A little cool but I had a shirt which I easily
dropped at the first aid station. The four of us were enjoying the
ride together for the first third, and then Susan and I pulled ahead.
I was feeling good. At aid station #2, a fellow racer noticed that my
rear cog was loose. The lockring had loosened and then become cross
threaded. I tightened it a bit and then broke it completely. I was
now facing not being able to finish the last half of the race. I was
tired and couldn’t think straight. It made me think about pilots and
doctors and others who make many important decisions with little
rest. I’m sure conditioning helps but I’d much rather have a well
rested pilot/doc than a tired one. I made only bad decisions and had
trouble coming up with solutions. Some 20-something guy wrapped
electrical tape on the threads and it held for 14 miles! I couldn’t
get out of my saddle much and I had to be very gentle pedaling, but I
made it to aid station #3. There, there was the perfect spare wheel.
29er, single speed, 20 Tooth, disc brakes. It had a big knobby on it
and plenty of air. Since I was in the back of the pack and most
single speed racers are fast, I made the call that he had already
passed the aid station and was not in need of the wheel. I put my
name and cell # on my broken wheel and took off. His lock ring
loosened up as well but I was able to find a way to tighten it before
it messed up the threads.

I ate and drank at every aid station. Most people had camel-backs but
I just downed a bottle and refilled it at every aid station. I was
hungry once and I downed a big dose of maple syrup which I had
brought. It was great.

There were times which I wondered if my body would cramp up or
otherwise freak out and I would be unable to finish. Some parts were
great riding, but there was this stress of the unchartered territory
of going more than twice my record distance.

Susan and I finished together. I didn’t contest the finish. I was
indebted to her for waiting for me. I probably added at least 30
minutes to our 7 hour ordeal by my mechanical issues. And then it was
done. There was a mix up with me not being on the podium. I did come
in third in my category but there were only three of us. I was
disappointed not to have the picture of me on the podium but I’ll try
to be a big boy and not pout.