Portland Race Report: USGP #6

Here I am at Cyclocross Nationals, still trying to finish my write-up of Portland, yikes!
As I mentioned in my last post, I did some soul searching on Saturday night. Somehow, even though I'd gotten creamed by the field, I felt like Saturday's race only made me stronger. I knew there was more that I could give; That I could look farther ahead through every corner; Dig deeper through every painful breath; Push myself to the point where even pain doesn't exist.

Well, it rained that night, and sporadically through Sunday. The Juniors suffered through pouring rain. For the first time in my cycling career, I warmed up on a trainer under a tent. The combination of cold air and a downpour made warming up on the open road a bad idea. It was mostly the same course as Saturday, with a couple different mud sections and an exhausting sand/mud run-up. But though the course hadn't moved, all that rain transformed it. Formerly solid ruts became beautiful mud, an open canvas for making my own line. REAL MUD, YAY!

Nervous..., but reassured by having survived Saturday's race, I lined myself up along the right side behind Kelli Emmet, knowing that she would be a good wheel to follow out. That proved to be a good call, as I found myself well situated in the starting sprint given my last place call up. We settled into the race after the first couple corners. Working to stay continually aggressive, I focused on chasing the woman in front of me rather than fending of the girls behind. Mud was a massive advantage; Though I have much to improve on, I'm consistently better than the women around me in mud and snow. Didn't hurt that the crowd loved anyone who could ride the up-down-up hairpin in the mud. Which I did every lap :)

But even better than the crowd were the voices of my friends. Tarnow, Rollert, Willie, the Butlers, and the awesome kids from Colorado Springs and the USA Cycling camps that I helped out with shined through the haze of my fatigue. You guys rock!!

Anyways, I ended up with a quality finish 26th, and a real hunger to keep pushing it for 'cross Nats. Even sweeter was my host's killer race: Sue Butler was third AND awarded the Most Aggressive Rider, for which she earned a mega-size check--so cool!

For the excellent Velonews write up, click here.