VRV heads to Astoria
A warning to all Crossers, the VRV contingent is headed out to Astoria for the next installment of the Crusades…..Halloween style!
Good luck Vista Ridge, take the fight to them!
Sherwood Cross
We had a pretty good crew – Varner, Laird, Jason, and Earl raced the C’s, and Jeff tackled the B’s. Varner killed it from the back of the pack to move up to 85th or so (out of the 160 starters). Earl wasn’t feeling it (or was feeling the wicked bumpy grass, oy) and bowed out after a few laps. Jason flatted, got a neutral wheel, lost his crank, got that fixed by neutral support, got his flat wheel back and ran it home. (I think it’s important to note two things here, first, Jason used to be a bike mechanic and two, this isn’t the first time he’s lost a crank on a ride…..) Laird rocked his single speed, tough bike choice for that course since it was all uphill. Jeff says that he felt like crap but found a rhythm and rolled in 42nd. Tough course, but another tremendous turn out.
Great job again VRV!
Cross Rainier
Good luck to all racers heading to Rainier for round #2 of the Crusades, but especially to the boys of Vista Ridge!
Men’s C:
Jason Freed – 61st
Varner Seaman – 92nd
Phil Kruger – 111st
Good race guys!
Crusade #1 – Alpenrose (updated)
Unarguably the biggest cyclocross series in the world kicked off today at the Alpenrose Dairy under beautiful clearing skies and moderate temps and hundreds upon hundreds of racers. (1,393 total number of racers at today’s Cross Crusade)
This is just the C's
Lined up for his first cross race of the season Vista Ridge had Varner riding his new Redline and looking strong and confident
Varner
Unfortunately the number call up didn’t do him any favors and he ended up starting waaaay in the back. Not to be deterred, V hit out from the start pacing his way up through the field; picking riders off in a very determined and steady fashion.
the run-up
Several more laps went by and I noticed that I hadn’t seen Varner in awhile, just then he came walking up behind Jeff and I with his bike slung over his shoulder and a very, very nasty look on his face; Varner had once again been visited by the mechanical gremlins….his day was done.
snapped chain
Next up was Jeff racing the B’s and another huge class; Jeff’s call up wasn’t much better than Varner’s, but he had a really strong start that had him nabbing spots right from the gun.
Start of the B's
Once the race started to string out, Jeff got into his typical “I’m killing it, but you’d never know it” zone and in his usual strong style was making strong progress through the field.
All this looked pretty good for a guy who’s recently gone back to school for his Masters!
Unfortunately, like Varner, this was the last I saw of Jeff: 
as a hard hit with his rear wheel into one of the barriers saw his tire go flat with only a couple of laps to go.
So mechanical frustrations aside, it was still a strong early cross showing for the boys and a great effort put out by both Jeff and Varner; next up Rainier!