BAM! Twenty-fifth out of 128 riders.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how to finish a season. Best finish of the year, feeling 110% amazing the entire race, on a bog-slog of a mudder course on a bluebird day. Other than the fact that I forgot a clean post-race shirt, there was literally NOTHING wrong with my final race of the season at Kruger’s Farm (and a 100% turnaround from the Kermesse held at the beginning of the season — WTF was THAT?)

And I did it on my singlespeed with clinchers. Because apparently, all those gear choices and high-end tubular tires were really slowing me down.

OK, so let’s just rewind the whole thing. I slept in a bit, and got there about an hour before my race. I had to register, which meant I would not be one of the 70+ riders who received a call-up. Paul and I, per our tradition, staged together at the very back. I staged on the far right of the crowd and just sort of cruised the flat straightaway that opened the race. Then we got into the ultra-slick muddy section where everyone slowed down. I darted for the cones and blasted up the right side. About 300 yards later at the stairs, I’d passed maybe 50 people.

I sprinted up the stairs and passed another bunch of people, then settled into the downhill section, which became the only part of the race I didn’t pass people. As we rolled into the blueberry bushes, I started passing again. Around an off-camber corner and barrier, and onto the flats. I punched it. Effortless.

Effortless is the best way to describe the race. Everyone I saw in front of me? I knew I could catch and pass them. Any part of the course. The slick corners? No problem. The drag through the mud? No worries. Over the barrier? I got it. I mean, it was unworldly. I was passing people on the run up the stairs. Do you have any idea how un-Thom-like that is?

And so it continued. I mean, I just kept going and kept passing people. I don’t think my heart-rate got over 180 (in fact, it did not). I knew the lines, I trusted my bike, and I flew around. They’d littered the course with rotting pumpkins earlier in an attempt to make a barrier, but people just rode over and through them.

I had one wipeout, where my back tire slid out in a rut. It threw me down hard, and my shoulder hurt, but I was back up quickly and no one passed me — I doubt I lost more than 15 seconds.

We talked afterward, and here’s my thought: my single speed must be set up differently. I must be using different muscles. Because both races I did on my SS this year were ultra-fast, and I felt great. So sometime soon, I plan to take my bikes in and have them adjusted to fit me more like the SS fits me.

Anyway, it was a great way to go out. It was a hard course, and I owned it (well, it was great for *me.* Clearly I didn’t win or anything). The 2012 season is several months away, and while I am looking forward to free weekends with Amanda and Lo, I know it won’t take long for me to start dreaming of possibilities for next year.

I talk about “staging” in these recaps a lot, and here’s what that means: If you’re placing well in the ‘Cross Crusade series, you get called up to the front of the race at the beginning. You’re at the front of the line. If not, then they’ve devised a randomized method that calls up groups of racers by the last digit in their race numbers. It matters because the race tends to get bunched up, and the people at the front aren’t as impacted by the accordion, while the rest of us end up going very slow or stopping altogether. At Washington County, it penalized the people at the back a minute or two IN THE FIRST LAP.

As the zeroes, we were called up dead-last. And in a field of 190 dudes clinging to some level of fitness, I had to fight through a lot of bodies in the first mile. And I fought through them REALLY well.

I went from about 190th to probably mid-pack in the first lap. I made up a TON of ground passing people everywhere I could. I hugged the cones at the bottom of the off-camber stretch. I bumped and bumbled my way through the crowd in the mud. I took inside lines then sprinted out of the corners. And then I was totally gassed going into the second lap, but hey, whatever, I’d done all the hard work.

The second and third laps were good. Not super fast, but I was riding well. And then on the fourth lap, I had just an epic crash. Like over-the-handle bars, into the blackberries at the bottom of a hill kind of kablooey.

I stood up and felt confused for a sec. What am I doing? Oh, cowbell, bike, hammering heart: IT’S A RACE! I have no idea how I got on the ground or what happened. Go figure. Anyway, my chain was off and it took me two remounts to get it back on properly. Based on my other lap times, I probably lost a minute there. A LOT of people passed me. And when I got going again, I wasn’t hurt, but the crash really made me tired. Like it was hard to chase again.

But chase I did, and re-caught some folks. I really put the hammer down in the last half-lap of the last lap, passing a bunch of folks in this back woodsy technical area. I was like, “SWEET! Just hop these barriers, do a safe turn onto the pavement and…”

Except when I unclipped at the barrier, my foot didn’t come out and I crashed. HARD. I got up, tried to remount, but my chain was off. I hopped off and started to run (it wasn’t THAT far), and then I saw it was probably 200 yards. Oh, I guess that IS kinda far. I was too tired to run it, so I put the chain on and soft-pedaled to the finish.

I think 10-15 people passed me in the second crash, and judging by the timing and speed, I lost about 1:20 in that crash. Given how good I was going until that point, I probably lost more time than that.

But you know, whatever. I staged at the back. My heroic first lap(s) make me feel really proud of that race. The fact that I played all my crash cards in one race is just the way it goes. I did a little math with the OBRA results, and if you subtract 2:20 from my time, I would’ve placed 85th, which is pretty much mid-pack. So seriously, BFD. I’ll take the positives and crash less next time!

Well, here’s most of the good photos from Bend’s Halloween ‘cross races.

I talked in the last post about all the stuff surrounding the race, so I thought I’d recap the actual races here.

On Saturday, we staged at the front. I ended up 59th out of 110. A lot of things went right in that race — I caught and passed Paul, which seems to NEVER happen any more. He passed me back again because I augured my wheel into some deep sand and crashed, but I finished right behind him. Typically, he’s many minutes in front of me. So I consider that a big personal win.

The course was hard and technically challenging. Super deep dust and dirt, hidden rocks, and a wicked fun flyover ramp. The stairs were a fun run-up, and one that I liked better than running up dirt hills. Probably because the footing was better. Like everyone, I miss the mud. But this was a challenging course, too; probably just as difficult as a muddy course because it was so slippery. The weather could not have been more perfect; 60 degrees and sunny.
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