Mud fest in Portland, rookies in Seattle

Harshman Wealth/Primus Mootry spent the weekend up in the Northwest competing in USGP’s five and six. Saturday was in Seattle on a fast dry course with the longest run up of the series. I lined up in 29th position and had a good start. As usual, the gaps started to form and I was in a group of six rounding out the top thirty. The course had plenty of clean passing area but these two guys in my group kept trying to pass in the corners. Not only were they wasting tons of energy but also disrupting the flow for everyone else and decreasing our chances of catching the next group. My plan was to jump to the next group and get away from them before one of them took me out. I must have realized this a second too late because just before the straight where I was going to make my move one of them T-boned me trying to make a stupid pass in the corner. He hit my rear derailleur and bent it into my spokes. I was able to shift it into the hardest gear to keep it from staying in the spokes and breaking off. I made it to the pit and received a new bike very quickly but I had lost quite a few spots. I chased back to the group I was with and slowly worked my way past most of them finishing in 47th position. Not really what I was hoping for but I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience.

Portland was a whole different ball game. Or should I say bike race. As you probably saw on the news, it has been raining a ton up there. They have already broken their rainfall record for November. With the exception of the pavement sections everything was mud. Right after the start there was a huge pile-up at the front but I was able to get around it putting myself in the top 20. I didn’t stay there long with my poor choice of tires, though. My rear was slipping with every pedal stroke wasting tons of energy. I just couldn’t maintain my speed in the mud and kept getting passed. Once again I have learned a lot and will make sure I have better tires for next year. I didn’t even look to see where I finished but I’m sure it was about the same as the day before.