Oregon Trail

Half was through my first trip to Oregon, the jury is still out on how I feel about this supposed bike capitol of Amurica. The trip so far has had pretty unusual weather for this area. For the last 3 or 4 days in Portland, the high temps have been below freezing and I don't know if I've seen a cloud since we got here last Friday. Not really sure what I prefer, sub-freezing and dry or kinda cold and wet. Either way, the course conditions were very un-Portland. Virtually no mud all weekend and as a sign of the apocalypse, a bunch of people were actually running file-treads on Sunday of the USGP. Insanity.



The story for my racing continues to be the same since I came back a couple weeks ago. Just no where near the legs that I had before. Saturday was an extraordinary case of no legs and a poor result, "and that's all I have to say about that." I did still have a pretty good time racing with so many fans out to cheer me on. It was also nice to see some familiar faces all the way out here in Oregon. So thanks to all you guys who helped me get through that long day on the bike.





Sunday was a new day and I tried to go out there with a positive mindset, even though I haven't had much success of late. I just keep telling myself that there is just as good of a chance that I'll have good legs like the "old days" as there is that I'll have bad legs again. Well, Sunday was a definite step forward. I didn't get a result to write home about, losing out on a sprint for 19th, but for the first time in a while I felt like I was racing and not just trying to stop a life raft from sinking. Although I feel like I'm still a long way from what I'm capable of, or where I was pre decimated collar bone, I look down the list of people who finished in front of me and I don't really see too many people who I'm embarrassed to finish behind, those were quality fields.



After the GP's we killed some time in Portland with a few cool rides/ coffee shop tours. We met up with THE cyclocross Portlander, Molly Cameron for a little ride around the eastern hills of "PDX". The riding and scenery is pretty amazing, I think it would be an awesome place to do some training in the summer, but as far as winter riding goes... give me Bloomington. We made the trek down here to Bend yesterday with a cool drive through the Cascade range and a trip to Mt. Hood. Bend has a handful of inches of snow and it looks like it's going to lead to come crazy conditions for my race on Sunday. Think KC Nats 07, with more snow and a little colder temps. Can't wait.

The course is open for some pre-riding today at noon, so I'm out of here.

You can find some good course condition previews here:

Podium Insight