Although there’s been bike racing the last two weeks, Banana Belt One always feels like the real Oregon season opener. For some, it seems to be the race they love to hate: we’ve all heard variations of the same nit-picking about Christmas stars, when the “real” season starts, and so on. Still, the trip out to Hagg Lake the first Sunday in March has become reflexive for many of us, whatever kinds of bike riding we focus on and whenever we’d like to race bikes well. It’s a standing date for the annual class reunion, but one that most actually want to attend.
With that in mind, a few of our riders joined the other early birds for some more warming up last weekend. My goal was simply to get to a race and get that painful, it’s-been-a-while discomfort out of the way sooner rather than later. Sublimity did the trick, and was awesome both for the course and for the good-natured vibe in the small-ish 1/2 field. There was a lot of love and respect out there when we weren’t getting slapped around by a parcours that was tougher than people anticipated. Aaron and Ryan rode well, netting 6th and 7th place finishes. I ran out of juice near the end and dragged myself in a bit behind the real action but otherwise felt fine for the first race of 2009.
Aaron, Dan Porter and Bryan Jorgensen did that weird thing the next day where you get all scrunched up and try to ride fast on a flat windy road; Aaron stopped the clock in 8th, although I think the winner was on a recumbent or a scooter or something.
Further east, Nelson Snyder completed what I think was his first race since knee surgery at the Echo Red to Red. Unfortunately for me, the last time I saw Nelson was on New Year’s Day, when he spent several hours on his mountain bike following a bunch of us on fendered road bikes through what was one of the most grim, sustained downpours in a long time. I recall him saying it was more or less his first time back on the bike since surgery, so I’d say last Sunday showed he’s been coming along nicely.
See everyone Sunday.
