USGP Portland Day 2

Well after my last post I changed my mind and decided to race. The good news is that I still really wanted to race so I know I am not burned out!! The bad news is I broke my chain with 1.5 laps to go and had to abandon the race. I don't normally quite races but I would have had to run a hlaf lap back to the pits and decided that it was better for me to not do that so close to Nationals.

The course was just a little bit different. They added more of the motocross track, and that kept everyone together a bit more by slowing down the start section. I got a great start, was on Alison Dunlaps wheel on the start grid so my goal was to stay on her wheel no matter what and that paid off. I got a much better start then Sat and moved up into the top 15 right away. There was just a little congestion in the first corner and I fell back into around 20th. But I was with a group of 5 girls and stayed with them to catch my breath. After a couple laps I decided to try to get away from that group and punched it a bit and managed to get a gap. I was pulling away and had moved into 14th.

Then on one of the back stretches there was this little dip that I was riding, and after I got up out of the saddle to punch it again I snapped my chain. I was pretty frustrated but what do you do. So I started running and then decided to bail to save the legs. I think I would have held onto 14th or 15th if my chain would not have broke. But I got that out of the way so now I should be good to go for Nats.

We are driving over Hood right now on our way to Bend. It is beautiful and sunny but very very cool. And right now there is no snow but Todd Anderson is a couple hours ahead of us and he said that there is snow on the ground and roads about 30min out of Bend. So snow is for sure in mix for racing this weekend!!

Can't wait to see everyone that is coming down this weekend. Thank you again to True North for hooking us up with a great location in Portland in the Expo and again at Nats. And thank you also to Redline, Tim and Joe for helping me so much and making it possible to have such great bikes!!

Kristi