Submitted by Paul Weiss
3 PVC riders raced today Goerge Bennington, John Meerse and Me. Got in a bit late so I wanted to get a lap in between races and got on the bike with only the street clothes and a helmet (No cleats on). It was a cool course with a long woods section including a hairy 180 bumpy off camber turn. I took this turn a bit fast and rolled my tire in it. Ouch. Well now I was to do 2 races without a spare bike. Not good. The Masters 45+ race was a fast start and I seemed to be up in the top 3rd. Things were good until I hit that 180 degree turn again and this time it was Tom Stevens, who fell right in front of me and I had to choice to run over him or his bike. I chose the bike and really missed most of it luckily. This put me back a few places again. There was a woods single barrier that I ran the first lap because it was bunched up. The laps after that I could bunny hop the barrier but found my front chain ring was coming off and going between the double sided front guards (I run a single up front). This was not good. After the race Mark Wysoki (the race mechanic) told me I needed a new chainring and chain and to space the guards better. Who knew. The bad thing was, I lost the font ring chain about a dozen times, which does not make for fun riding. Getting off my bike so many times really has a slowing effect on forward progress. It was fun to have George Bennington in the race. He was having a great day, and we ended up riding together for about 2 laps. With 1 lap to go I rolled my back tire on a really difficult off camber section after the double field barriers. Lost many places getting it back on. Not the best race I have done….oh well. I saw John Meerse after the race but did not see him during my race since the 35+ started ahead of me.
It was hard to even start to the Elite race knowing I had 1 good bike, and 1 with a rolled tire on the back that was delicately partially glued on. So I started off the back of the elites with 5 McCormack brothers ahead of me. Yes 2 National Champions and now the oldest sons of Frank are racing. Really cool to see and fun to race with. I did my best to race with the previously rolled tire and front part of the chain falling off. It seemed like an eternity but I finished after getting lapped not sure how many times…..
It is good to have race days like this before the season gets into full tilt. I will hopefully get some help from Cyclemania this week and repair my bike and work on the body all week. Next weekend VT Verge Series 2 day race. Looking forward to that one for sure.
Portland Velo Club 