SCX #1 Race Report
The course SCX set up yesterday for their first race of 2013 was one of the funnest I have ever been on, and when the rain rolled in it only got to be more fun. They’ve never had a race at McCallom park that I know of and I really don’t know why as it proved to be a great spot. It was a bike handler’s course for sure.There were LOTS of muddy off camber straights and turns, a little bit of root hopping on dry dusty trail, long sloggy grass sections and even a little pumping through a BMX track.
I rode the course a couple of times earlier in the day to scope it out and pick the gear I wanted to run. In the morning it was fairly tacky and fast. Then the rain rolled in. The hour before my race felt like an absolute downpour, I think Brian, Matt and Bernard were all racing in the middle of it. I lined up with Bill on the front row and tried to get a good start but flat grass starts are not my thing and I dropped back to 6th or 7th at the first corner. All the usuals were up at the front of the race and it was just difficult for me to hang on. Not long into the first lap Glenn and some other faster guys caught and passed my and I just tried to hang in there. Bill and I swapped places a couple times until I washed out and went outside the tape. I lost a few spots as I tried to get back on the course and tried to chase down those guys to no avail. I was sitting in no-mans-land when Pete Hall caught me. We traded places a couple of times until Courtenay McFadden (the women’s 1/2 leader caught us). Once she passed I got on her wheel and dug deep to stay on it, damn she’s fast. Pete fell off the back and Courtenay pulled me back up to Jim Wood. He and I traded places a few time, I’d get him in the corners and he’d pull away on the grass slogs. He had dropped me for a bit but I got back on his wheel just before the last time through the barriers. I got next to him on the run through and had a cleaner remount and got in front of him. My there weren’t too many places to pass after those barriers so I tried to play it safe, that was a mistake. Jim executed an excellent pass uphill in the mud and got back around me. After that corner there was really no place to get him back. There was a forced runup just before the finish but it was short and slippery enough that I couldn’t make any gains. I rolled across the line just behind Jim in 12th.
All race my tires just wouldn’t hook up. It sounds like everyone running PDXs had no issues so I guess I will have to throw those on earlier than I thought. Normally I can ride the Grifos in all conditions, just not yesterday.
-Zack Phillips