Mudfest

It rained most of the day and poured most of the night Saturday night while we were in Portland. The race course was a mudfest. The thick, slippery, steep mud chutes were comical. You would start down on a "line" and slip and slide around pretty much out of control the entire time. I think everyone crashed at least once. I figured I'd give it a go and ride in the race since it was so short. I started out great and settled comfortably into a pace. At the creek crossing my first lap I noticed when I hopped down from the bridge that my newly pushed fork was completely out of air and broken. So basically, my front end was 3 inches lower than it should be. NOT ideal for racing on. I continued on but after 2 laps my entire drivetrain was so gunked with mud that as I shifted going up a short hill, my front derailleur got jammed and my chain got stuck. Stuck is actually an understatement. I hopped off to have a look and realized how damming it was. A spectator actually tried to help me, but I ended up having to carry my bike out of the woods it was so crapped up. Nevertheless, I had a great time out there. Derek did great finishing 9th out of 17 so I'm very proud of him.