Northwest (rite of) Passage

Long on the list and the lore of cyclocross culture and racing is Portland, Oregon's Cross Crusade race series. For over 20 years, the series has produced some of the most iconic and weird images, experiences, and stories in U.S. 'cross history, most notably featuring its two classic characters: rain and mud. Evol racing team rider Josh Whitney made the trek last week for the first time to get a taste of the good stuff.

"The scene here is just unbelievable. Participation and fun are paramount, but the competition across all categories is no joke." Portland has done something special over the years creating a rich and engaging scene when it comes to cyclocross. Fields for the opening weekend at the Alpenrose Dairy were massive, from a field of 60 singlespeeders to nearly a dozen in the unicycle category to the men's master B categories, which exceeded 200 total riders. "It literally felt like a nationals-level production," said Josh.

Racing on Saturday got underway after evening and morning rains provided ample moisture to make the course technical and demanding. While the skies cleared midday, 10 minutes before the elite race, a dark cloud dropped buckets of rain and let up just as the whistle blew. Starting from the back row, Josh worked his way up through the field of 70 riders, avoiding numerous crashes through the first few laps. "The first lap was nuts ... so many people and super challenging conditions. Flying into the Alpenrose Velodrome was nuts as the concrete mixed with grass and mud was like ice. But I was loving every minute of it, the mud and grease was actually really fun, and once we got a few laps in things seemed to dry out just slightly to those perfect, dreamy cross conditions. And with the Clement PDX tubulars, you could really drift and lean into the corners and know that when you needed them to, they would hook up and hold perfectly." At the front, Carl Decker and Chris Jones battled for the pole position, with Josh finishing a respectable 15th on the day.

Maybe it was the numerous local brews consumed that night or just the hard effort on that day, but Sunday was a rough one. Josh failed to take advantage of the call-up and spent the first half of Sunday's race battling for a top-10, only to fade in the second half of the race to 20th. Sunday featured the classic Alpenrose course, with the "choose your own adventure" double staircase, velodrome barriers, off-camber descent/run-up, and another 30-degree hill run-up that was actually rideable. "Initially I felt great and was just off the back of the front group of eight or so, but then with 3 or 4 laps to go, my back had had enough and I was struggling to ignore the pain. My pace slowed and I couldn't maintain position and drifted backwards down the line. Regardless, going one for two on the weekend was a success and just getting to experience the Portland scene, spend some time with friends made the trip totally worth it."

Big thanks to Brett & The Clymb Cyclocross team for the support.