wheelin n' d-lin: wsi x part i

the ride up to portland laid the foundation for how the weekend would end up. shag carpet. seven bikes and six people surrounded in the most authentic orange shag carpet. the smell of shit and wet cigarettes. uncontrollable giggling, a dq dilly bar and rap music. plus i found myself sleeping face down in shag carpet every night. just like the good old days.

i completely overpacked because it said it would be raining hard the whole weekend, which was not entirely untrue, but i definitely did not need six pairs of socks. and whenever it got too bad we just found the nearest strip club to camp out in. there are plenty in portland and i must say that they do not lack in variety. it was pretty hilarious to be surrounded by such a sausagefest and get totally broed out. right up there with the rest of those dollar collar fools.

portland is so fucking flat! SO flat. man, it was such a breeze. even in the rain it was still very mild and more tolerable then seattle. but i would not want to live there because i would just eat and drink (cheap as shit) and go to strip clubs and ride around ballard x 100 and never actually get anything done. oh and everyone is super nice but even the people that live there don't know where anything is if you ask them for directions and perfect strangers will let you borrow their u-lock because they have to work all weekend and just make sure to give it to this one dude at polo on monday.

i was not particularly thrilled the morning of the main race because i was hoping to have ridden around portland more to get a better grip on things. everywhere i had been so far was either a bar or a food cart. this quickly changed as i realized exactly how many people were in the same boat. along the way we ended up riding with multiple groups just trying to get from one place to the next. veronica and i ended up completing all five manifests and only missed a few spots. our timing was nothing to brag about but the fact that we did that well blows my mind. and of course they made us climb the two major hills that portland has to offer.

the first of which was mount taber which is similar to interlocken and was a climb that was rewarding at the top. a nice ride equipped with a nice view and all. the second hill was just completely annoying and pointless and reminded me of the counterbalance but instead of an architecturally stimulating yuppy neighborhood it was just a dumb condo yuppy neighborhood. after the main race and some polo watching we rode from 62nd ne down sandy ave and over the burnside bridge into downtown for the awards ceremony. this is about 5 miles of unnoticeably downhill pavement that is slightly comparable to aurora. it was definitely the most enjoyable ride of the weekend because it felt like that summer ride that seattle has yet to provide me.