Kris Schamp

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday March 25th (less than a month away!), we are kicking off the 2007 mountain bike race season close to town with the inaugural Horning's Hustle MTB XC race. This all-new race will be held at Horning's Hideout, located in the forested foothills of North Plains, only a 35' drive from downtown Portland.

More a MTB circuit race than a traditional XC MTB race, riders will do multiple 20-30' laps on a 4 mile course featuring a lot of up and downs over fire roads, primitive cat tracks, some single track descents and grassy pastures. The compact course should make for a very spectator-friendly race. To top it off, we'll have music, hot drinks and food and a bonfire to keep everyone warm. In good tradition, we'll close the day with awards and we'll raffle off a bunch of cool prizes. More details are posted on our web site at www.portlandracing.com/mtb/ .

Here are some other updates that we thought you might be interested in:

1) Race course: after our last course recon mission, we made a couple of changes to the distances that were originally posted on our web site. As it stands now, Pro/SemiPro and Expert riders will do 6 laps (approx. 24 miles), Sport/Singlespeed riders will do 4 laps (approx. 16 miles), and Beginners/Juniors will do 2 laps (approx. 8 miles). Each lap has about 800 feet of climbing. Further, like in cyclocross, all riders will finish on the same lap as the race leader in their category, so if you get lapped, you'll end up doing one less lap than the leader. (But you still will get more time in on the course.)

2) Categories & Prizes: we will track 16 different categories and have some cool awards for the top-3 in each category. We will also have a $250 cash purse for the top-3 in the Pro/Semipro Men and Pro/Expert Women.

3) There will be a FREE kiddie race for kids age 12 and under. The kiddie race will take place around 1pm, after all regular racers are done.

4) Pre-riding and camping: the course will be only open for pre-riding on Sat 3/24 from 10am to 6pm. If you live further away from Portland, there is the option to camp overnight at the venue. Please contact Horning's Hideout directly for more details on their camping facilities and the fee.

5) Sponsors: Trek, Bike Gallery, Chris King and Clif Bar have stepped up to support this new event with some great raffle prizes and goodies! Stay tuned for more details on the cool prizes that we'll give away.

6) Volunteers: we are still looking for some hands to help out before, during and after the race, including course set-up on Saturday morning. If you or your friends, partners, or kids are interested, please contact Tom Hoffman at 503-475-3417. Already a big thanks to anyone who has offered to volunteer so far. We wouldn't be able to do it without your help!

That's it for now. We are looking forward to seeing you all at the race. This is the very first MTB race of the season and it's going to be a fun one! Bring your friends. Bring your family. Bring your dogs. Let's kick off the season in style!

Kris & Tom
Portland Racing