Last Friday was about as out of control Renaissance man ninja as I get. Hit the ground running with a mad scramble through marketing processes for three ecomm sites, still have development quotes for another project running through my head, and then straight into a meeting about customer service and some new management duties. Somewhere in there, I curated the shit out of some social media or something. Then it’s a manufacturing meeting about Danzig (hell yeah!) and then off to meet with the ownership of a new gym (sort of an understatement, if you could see the place) here in Portland regarding possible partnerships. From typing to talking top-swing versus bottom-swing derailleur placement to watching somebody work out on a giant spring-loaded contraption while talking merchandising: made for a long day.
Pulling in a million directions doesn’t begin to describe the current situation, but it sure felt good to go watch a ‘cross race on Sunday. Turns out it wasn’t just any old race, either.
The first race of the Cross Crusade series here in Portland is nothing short of mammoth–like “1,500 people participating” mammoth–not counting about 250,000 riders in the kids’ race. Biggest ‘cross race in the country kind of big.
It was also dusty as hell.
Even as a recent transplant and thus outside observer, studying the difference between ‘cross racing in the Pacific Northwest and the same thing back in the Mid-Atlantic states, I could tell something was amiss. This is not what ‘cross tends to look like in Portland in October.
The sudden influx of Southern California didn’t do the riders any favors, though. If anything, the sketchier sections were just a whole different kind of slippery.
Here an official patiently explains proper course direction, cracking up a rider who was already having a tough enough time keeping her bike upright. Get too far to the outside of this off camber descent and you were surfing.
This was the climb of the course. Few made it. Those who were able to stay on their bikes earned a hell of a lot of noise from the crowd.
Cross Crusade definitely lives up to the hype. What an incredible event.
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