Rockin it at Hornings Hideout

Cross Crusade #3
October 22 2006
Hornings Hideout

After a pretty hard early part of the week training since the last race (Hillsboro Stadium) as well as trying as my hardest to overcome a cold, I took a couple of easy days (Thursday off and Friday as purely a recovery ride). After a good night sleep on Friday I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty good. Unfortunately I spent the majority of Saturday afternoon fighting some sort of nasty lower intestinal bug as I am sure my poor family can attest (Thanks Leo…). Anyway, I went to bed Saturday evening hoping that I would feel a few degrees better on Sunday which I fortunately did. I woke up, ate some breakfast, drank some coffee popped some tums, loaded up the Eurovan with the bike and family and headed out to Hornings Hideout.

Pre race

Talk about a cool place. About 35 minutes outside of Portland on some private land (Horning Maybe?) a secret little oasis down in a canyon with cabins, two playgrounds, a stocked trout lake, and of course some sweet trails whipping around the facility and in and out of the woods. I got a half-assed pre-ride on the course but at least was able to check out the major tricky parts of the course - the massive runup, the twisty ribbon of downhill single track and the off camber slippery corner that seemed to create a victim every few minutes. This course was tailor made for someone comfortable on the dirt as there wasn't a stitch of pavement on the entire course!

Knowing my weakness of poor starts and taking a page from the Patrick Wilder playbook, I lined up early and started at the front line. The starting gun went off and I took off at full throttle making it out of the mass of riders early on (75 starters). I was with the front group going over the 6 pack of barriers and I managed to push/elbow my way up to the top 5 guys going into the first double track climb and subsequent downhill. At the massive runup I pushed my way to the front of the pack. At the top of runup the trail turned into a small sliver of single track that whipped down the hill. I was out at the front of the pack and thus was able to avoid what I am sure was a bottleneck. Down the hill, around the corner (and through the cheering crowd, who like a bunch of NASCAR fans were drunk and hoping for a crash (Thankfully, I didn't oblige). The course continued to wind around the facility with the lap completing at the start area. I came in first and won the first lap prime (a bottle of wine)

Leading coming out of the barriers, note guy crashing on my right

Am I taking this seriously?

My 'cross fans

I managed to increase my lead over the rest of the top guys by about 30 seconds going into the second lap. Actually, I was able to stay in front of the pack for the next 5 laps and finished a total of 6 winning my first B race of the season.

At the finish line

Congrats Dad!

Next up is the Halloween Cross festival which is also going to be mountain bike skill friendly. I'm looking forward to it!

As for "the system", the system (Stans Notubes rims and tubeless tires) worked flawlessly - I was able to run the tires at 38 psi and had plenty of traction and stability.

A few members of Team Cyclepath