2011 Horning’s Hustle Report

The last two versions of Horning’s Hustle have been raced under warm sunny sky’s and a fairly dry and fun course. This year’s version was back to typical Oregon spring weather in early April. Cold, wet, rainy with very slick muddy trails is how I would describe the course. I wasn’t even planning on racing due to the conditions but teammate Dave Hill talked me into racing the night before so we loaded up the car Sunday morning and headed off for some mud racing.

Knowing the course would be super muddy I decided to race the single speed and try to minimize some damage to my geared bike. This would also mark my first attempt at racing the single speed at a xc race. I was caught off guard at the start and spent the first half mile just trying to get my garmin turned on and hit the first climb at the very back of the pack. After moving up to mid pack on the climb I was able to hold that position on the first lap negotiating the very slick course. Hitting the climb on the second lap I was able to move up a couple more spots and hold that position until the finish after four laps without any major crashes in the mud. It was a good thing I had a low gearing on the bike as I was able to climb up most all of the muddy trails with the exception of one short steep spot that even the geared bikes couldn’t find enough traction in the deep mud to make it up.

The team was represented on the podium with Dave Hill finishing 3rd in the Cat 1 45+ class in his first race of the season. Trevor Pratt finished 6th in the Cat 1 19-34 class and although the officals scored me in 22nd place and one lap down I really finished in 10th place on the lead lap. My number plate had become so muddy and wet that it fell off on the second lap of the race. Since I am not racing for series points this year it looks like I may have to get the single speed out again and do some xc racing on one gear!

Thanks for reading, Ryan E.