Mixed weekend caps off a mixed season

 

Astoria.  For those outside of the racing community, this small coastal town in Northwest corner of Oregon may only be known as the filming location of the 80’s movie “The Goonies”, but for the last few years its hosted a 2 day sufferfest/party of Cyclecross racing at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds.  Last year we had a great time and we were looking forward to this years event since the start of the CX season.

Unfortunately building something up in your mind often leads to letdown.

I took the day off on Friday to allow for plenty of time to clean the house and pack our stuff.  Traci’s workday just got more and more hectic as it progressed, but we still managed to leave the house exactly at the time I wanted to.  Her small-car Tetris packing ability never ceases to amaze me.  In the end, the Mini was stuffed to the gills with 2 days worth of racing gear for both of us, our mud bin, beer, food, 1 spare wheel, and 15 costumes for the team.  We both agreed that we were going to try and enjoy the weekend rather than race hardcore so the trainer / trainer wheel, and spare front wheel all stayed home.

A few of us booked reservations this year at a condo in downtown Astoria.  Traci and I were the first to arrive at 4pm.  The accommodations were beautiful albeit a bit cramped as 15 of us bunked down in a condo with beds for 8.  (There were a few very sore housemates in the morning.)

Over the next few hours the rest of the folks staying started to show up, and the weather progressively got worse.  Weather reports were continuously being updated on iPhones until at about 11pm a full blown storm was battering Astoria.  Sustained 20-30mph winds with gusts of 50mph we recorded, and our small condo perched on one of Astoria’s many piers was taking the full brunt of it.  The wind howled and whipped rain against the building.  Gusts slammed nearby doors and rattled the windows.  Every time I started to doze off another noise woke me up.  Eventually around 1:30am, the storm blew through and I fell asleep.

The next morning our weary crew departed to the fairgrounds for Day 1 of racing.  We hauled the first trip of our gear up from the parking lot to find someone had decided to pitch a quarter of their camping tent under one of the team shelters next to the course.   No amount of polite asking, dirty looks, or obviously directed “who the fuck put their campsite in the middle of our tent?” like comments prompted them move their stuff.  Srsly?

Since we arrived later that normal, race time crept up on me.  Before I knew it, I was on a borrowed trainer, doing a half hearted warm up.  Ok, I’ll admit really all I was doing was getting the embrocation on my back activated.  The course was super muddy, similar to how WashCo was last week.  Since the Fango’s had issues the previous week I decided to use Traci’s Bulldog front wheel and swap the rear cassette off my tubular to my Bulldog clincher so I would have better traction and not crash.. in theory.

The 8’s drew last position on Saturday which was good on a few levels.  First I didn’t have to put any “I’m in the front so I should at least try and race hard” pressure on myself.  Second, I got free beer for my effort.  Third, I wouldn’t get in anybodies way as we went through the course.  The whistle blew, and the race started.  For the next 42 minutes I played “lets see how muddy I can get without actually crashing.”  Answer, pretty muddy. 

At the end of the race I was bummed about how I was feeling because Astoria was a course I probably could have done well at if I was at 100%.  The climbs were hard, but not grinding like Rainer or Sherwood.  The sloppy mud sections I could probably power through, if I would have been able to put power into the drive train consistently.  At least I got some really good course recon that I was able to pass on to my friends and teammates who were racing later. 

A couple hours sitting around in the cold / damp made my legs and back hurt and by the time we made our way back to the condo, I wasn’t a happy camper.  A good hot shower, my SKINS and a nice beer did go a long way to improving my spirits though.

The group stayed in on Saturday night, choosing to have a big sit down dinner rather than going out on Halloween.  Traci and I cooked dinner for the team, and by 9pm the number of folks nodding off in the family room equaled those awake.  By 10 we were all in bed.

Sunday we awoke to a thin fog hanging over the shoreline.  We ate and packed the cars and cleaned the condo for our departure.  Sunday was a new day with a new race.  Costumes where the theme and many of us decided to ride as “Guy Fawkes” aka “The V for Vendetta Guy”.  It was a clever costume and had a great impact when there were a number of us all together.  Next year however, no masks. :P

Today was about fun for me.  I carried with me to the start line a bag of treats (candy) and tricks (plastic mice and skull rings and severed fingers).  Also included in the bag was a hand-down of epic proportions. I had tipped Cap’n Dave off earlier to be ready for it.   The whistle blew and I stayed with the front of the race until the first set of barriers.. where I promptly found Dave, pulled over and unzipped the bag.  Inside was a 4 foot Skull and Spine Halloween beer funnel and a 22 of Rogue “Dead Guy” ale.  The crowd erupted in cheers but sadly at this point no photos have surfaced of the hand-down.

I remounted my bike and sprinted off, quickly catching Javad and Mike who were waiting for me.  The three of us rode easy together in identical costume’s getting a great deal of cheers from spectators.  In the orchard I bit it on the off camber section and ran my bike to the next set of people, tossing out candy and prizes to those cheering.  We rode on, over the barriers and up the road, next stop was going to be the OBRA tent.

My chain didn’t make it that far.  With an audible snap and rattle of metal on pavement, my chain exploded into 3 pieces.  I passed the bag off to Javad and Mike with the instructions to “carry on the mission”.  I’m happy to report they did to the joy of the crowd.

I shoulder my crippled bike for the fourth time this season and set off at a run.  Terry Camp saw me from the bridge and yelled down that she’d radio ahead to the Shimano pits to be ready for me.  Through the Start / Finish I ran, barely able to see through my skewed mask.  You know you’ve had a lot of mechanicals this season when Splinter actually singles you out.

Eventually I make it to the pits where the tech is waiting.  Three minutes later I’m back in business rolling to the barriers for the second time.  There are coffins now, and a pumpkin.  I run through the barriers and b-line for the pumpkin where I jump on it and smash it to bits.  More crowd cheering and I’m laughing along with them.  The course is slick and slow through the stables and orchard, and I practice corning with a foot out of the pedals in these areas.  It’s something I had never done and will be adding to my skill set next year hopefully.

The crowd continues to go nuts by the barriers, and I try to entertain them.  Iron cross bike carries, dances on top of the coffins, its all in the name of fun.

My race ends early since I’m a lap down and in dead last. I roll directly to the bike wash.  There isn’t a line, one of the few benefits of having a really bad race from a placing perspective.

I have a lot of time the remainder of the day and on the long drive home to reflect upon the weekend and the CX season as a whole.  I had a lot of anticipation leading up to both, and in the end there was some moments of brilliance and delight in a series of unfortunate events, disappointments, and mishaps.   It could be the reality of it all or it could be my tired attitude and sore body after a very long racing season. Time will tell.

Recovery and reflection this week.  Plans are being made, goals being set, announcements are starting to leak out.  Next season is right around the corner.

Where did this week go?

 

It's Thursday night, a mere 16 hours before we head to Astoria and I'm just now getting to my write up of this last weekend.  It's been a busy hectic week at work and when I get home I'm content to stretch and work the soreness out of my legs and lower back.  My cross season will be over in a few days due to work, but this weekend should be a great way to put a wrap on things.  But first, back to this past weekend.

Saturday we get up bright and early to head south down to Salem.  The second event in the Willamette Valley Cross Series was held at the old Battle Creek golf course which was as cool as it sounds.  The day was cool, but bright and sunny at the same time.  The early morning damp fog and sog made for a chilly and messy pre-ride with the thick grass course creating mini moss monsters on people's bikes.

I had an 11am start time so after a few pre-ride laps it was time to get ready for my race.  I got a good warm-up in, but my body was still feeling the effects of the Sherwood race the previous weekend.  Mainly my lower back.  Jeff B arrived right as I was finishing my warm-up and with him came my newly mounted rear tire.  The Fango that flatted at Rainer had another, different flat at Sherwood which Stan's wonder-goo couldn't plug.  Ah well.

I got to the line early enough to scout the first straightaway and corner.  The previous races had carved some lines in the course and things were soggy, but not horrifically slick.  The field is a good size, about 30 riders, so start position wasn't as crucial.  I tucked into the back row on the left side and we were off a few moments later.

My start was good, much like its been all season.  Going into the first turn I was sitting in 6th or 7th place, and maintained that position all the way to the first barriers.  Unfortunately I tried to remount in the sand pit, failed and ended up duck walking my bike through traffic back to the next flat area.  Lost contact with the front group and another few positions.  Noob. :)

A small chase group formed behind, only a second or so off the first group.  We stayed that way for the first lap and a half when my back started to tighten up on me.  My pace dropped and soon I lost contact with the second chasing group. Ah well.

The course itself was deceptively hard.  The wet grass smooth, but thick and soft.  Riding on a wet sponge was the best way I can describe it.  There was no place to recover on course.  No small downhill to coast down, no flat section you could just spin through.  I found myself flipping between front rings for the first time all season on a flat course.  My back hurt too much to power the 46, but I was spinning out the 36.  After two laps of toying with the gears, I mentally flipped off the "this hurts" and just rode the 46.

With a lap to go I really wanted to be done.  I wanted to pull off the course and jump on the HPChiro table and have Seth and Laura beat my back until submission instead of it doing it to me.  I took solace in the fact that I was maintaining distance to the riders behind me and steadily reeling in a trio of riders in front of me.  I made it my goal to catch them before the lap was up and dug deep.

With half a lap to go I came to the first of the two bridge crossings each lap.  These golf cart wide bridges spanned a small creek that ran through the middle of the course, and were slick with mud.  I made sure to cross them cautiously, but in my desire to make the catch I put effort into the drivetrain too soon, spinning my rear tire and washing the bike out from under me.

I hit the deck of the bridge.  Hard.  Body and bike literally bouncing with the impact.  I was fortunate enough to stay compact during the fall, landing on my shoulder, forearm, and hip all at the same time.  (Yay for years of Karate and Hapkido!)  I was more fortunate to land ON the bridge and not fall over the side.  I was dazed by the impact and it took a moment for me to collect myself and get my bike and body out of the way of the riders bearing down on me.  A dropped chain and bent brifter were all I could see as far as damage.  Two riders pass me as I remount my bike and slowly get back to speed.  The first few corners are hesitant as the body and mind replay what went wrong and anticipate the worst.

My chase begins a new, but now to try and regain lost spots.  I make an aggressive pass on the inside of a 270 degree turn to pick one spot back up, but I'm unable to catch the other rider.  I finish 19th.

While the race might not have gone the best, Seth was able to work on my back shortly after.  The S-I joint is not happy.  I'm thrilled to get the Hand Down (even if it was Budweiser) from Dave as he speeds through the first lap of his race, and Jose Sandoval  is in the right place at the right time to capture it.  Jeff B, Alex, and B-Rat crush the B race with Jeff and Alex taking first and third. 

Unfortunately the day ends with a bit more trouble as Traci is forced to pull out of her race.  Seth and Laura along with B squad show their true colors and help me take care of Traci while I get the car packed.  We get home late and get the bikes cleaned off.  8pm and I'm exhausted.  Fortunately the next race is 2 miles for our house.

Sunday is CC4 at Hillsboro Fairgrounds.  We wake up later than normal and take our time getting ready.  No hour drive to this venue!  We load up the car and leave the house at 7:30, and roll into the parking lot at 7:38.  My kind of commute!

Sal and Heidi get us a primo spot and we unload the car.  The pre-ride is fun and I get to see the course for the first time as I was injured for this race last year.  The sun is out, but a front is moving in.  The temp drops by 10 degrees in the first hour we are there and it starts to drizzle on and off.  Spirits are high.

PV turns out in force today, with the tent overflowing with racers and teammates here to watch the final Crusade race of Matt Couzens.  Cuz is moving back to Denver soon and we picked this day to be his going away party.  The wall of sound is deafening every time he rolls by the tent during his race, and he smiles through the pain reflects the joy of the sport and those that bear witness to it.

The time draws near for me to start my warm up and suddenly the PV tent is a flurry of activity.   The 11:40 race has Mstr B's and 50+ racers, and with 7 racers in the Mstr B and 5 racers in the 50+ field we attract some attention.  Jonathon Maus from  BikePortland comes by and shoots a bunch of photo's for a great article about the event.  He really has the pulse of the scene in PDX.  I warm up easy, sore and tired from the previous day.

Eventually its time to race.  We roll to the starting line and this race I was fortunate enough to get the third starting grid.  I hope for a fast start and to hold on.  The rain starts to fall lightly as the whistle blows.  The front of the race accelerates away as the remaining riders file out of the chute.  Such a difference from the previous days race.

Javad catches up to me quickly and tells me to latch on.  The two of us ride together, the familiar comfort of riding on the road for the past 3 years transitioning quickly to the race.  He picks out fast lines as I direct traffic and call out obstacles in the course.  We steadily move up the field together, passing the team tent in tandem.  The team cheers loudly urging us on.  All through out the course members of PV are there, shooting photos and cheering like maniacs.  I hear the booming voice of KRhea behind his massive camera lens, Dean and Barb Lee by the huge mud puddle, Tom with his dual cowbells and crazy grin pops up everywhere, Brad Sigler in the barn.  We ride with wings.

Sasha catches us during the first half of lap 2 and the tandem becomes a trio.  The aches and pains of yesterday are gone, filled with need to stay on Javad and Sasha's wheel.  We fly towards the backside pit entrace for the second time when disaster strikes. 

A racer from the Filth and Fury team moving up through the field suddenly crashes into me from behind on the right side, his front wheel doing its best to intimate the chariot race from Ben Hur on my right leg (see 6:30 in the clip).  The rider managed to pull out of the collision, but in the process hooked my right arm and handlebars with his left arm and yanked the bike out from under me.  I crashed hard on my left side again while he managed to stay upright and rode away. 

The race as it was for me ended at that point.  My teammates made it through the melee and continued on.  My left brifter once again had been bent inward making braking difficult, not to mention the toll the spill had on my mental attitude.  I was mad about being wrecked, and managed to crash once again in that same lap in some very slick mud.  Battered and mentally beaten, I work on staying upright in the rapidly deteriorating course.  I crash once more right in front of team tent at the "killer corner".  At least there was a smile on my face then.

Four laps later, the race mercifully ends and I immediately head towards the bike wash.  

My body and bike are filthy and my leg is bleeding freely.  I'm angry.  I'm also angry I wasn't able to ride angry.  Traci offers to take my rig so I can get to the medical tent to have them look me over.  Under the caked mud and congealed blood hides a 6" by 15" pattern of curved gouges and tireburn.  My leg becomes photography fodder for a number of folks standing nearby.  The scene is almost comical and quickly lifts my spirits.  Beer awaits at the tents.

The day caps off beer, burgers, beer, a great race by Traci, and more beer.  We scream our voices hoarse for Molly and Tina, and cheer wildly for all those putting it out there for the beauty of it all.  A slice of heaven right in our back yard.

Bring on Astoria.

“Blind Dates are more fun when they end up having slick spots.”

 

Credit goes to Joel “Burger! Burger! Burger!” Morrissette for that awesome quote.

Trio of race reports here.  Cross season has kicked into full gear with the Blind Date series having its 3rd and 4th run at the Dairy the previous two Wednesday’s in addition to Cross Crusade #2 at Rainer High in Rainer Oregon this last Sunday.

The Blind Date events I’m treating as a super hard training exercise, and this week wasn’t an excuse.  Blind Date #3 I started closer to the front than last weeks event, wanting to work on the hole shot and then run one lap on, one lap off intervals.  Cow, Strader, and Jordan were again in the field with me and we all sorta half-joked to do the same sort of exercise.

The whistle blew and the race started, while I didn’t get around the 2 guys directly in front of me for the hole shot, I was up near the front and had a good few lines into those first few crucial corners.  I’ve been doing a lot of my over/under intervals on loose gravel roads and this opening section of Blind Date felt like practice.  As the lap progressed I picked off the few riders who got out of the gate in front of me, and finished the first lap in the top spot.

The race after that was supposed to be a set of intervals, but that competitive spirit took over for all of us.  I battled hard with a few guys, trading 5th through 10th places as the race progressed.  My main goal at this point was to keep Cow behind me, (specifically because he kept telling me to go faster.  Ass!)  He got in front of me at a couple places but had some bad luck with people crashing next to him or directly in front of him which allowed me to sneak by.  The last lap I attacked hard out of a group of 4, making them chase me through the slower lapped traffic.  Cow and I were neck and neck coming through the last set of barriers, but I got a better entrance line into the last corner allowing me to not-so-subtlety cut  off his line.  We finished right behind each other for 7th and 8th in the field and had a good laugh when it was all over.  Jordan somehow managed to teleport in front of me in the last quarter meter to take 6th place, then turn invisible until I rolled passed him.  Have to watch out for that guy! ;)

Cross Crusade #2 was the following Sunday (10/11).  I was a bit worried about this event due to my sucktackular performance on this course last year.  I consider this course a climbers course, and I sir, am not a climber!  I was fortunate to get a call up due to my placement at Alpenrose and was in the front row for the very first time in my CX career.  The power / speed work I did this year paid off and I was able to take the hole shot when the race started.  I wanted to be the first person into the woods and down through the super nasty gravel corner where we had seen a ton of people go down in the earlier races.

My race progressed pretty much as expected.  I flew past people in the flat, downhill, and technical sections, but lost ground on the pavement section of the climb.  The course took a toll on a lot of bikes and I saw at least 3 of the guys who were ahead of me end up with a mechanical of some sort.  I was managing to hold on to a top 10 finish until the last half of the last lap when my rear tub flatted just before the run up.  Doh.

I managed to nurse the bike in the downhill section, then tossed it on the shoulder and ran the remainder of the course, including right passed the pit.  “It’s the last lap, I’ll just run it in.” I said when I ran by.  It’s only 400m I told myself. 

Oh yeah, its all up hill.  About half way up the hill I realized the folly of my decision.  A 20 second wheel change would have saved me probably 3-4 minutes of race time and most likely preserve a top 20 finish.  Rookie move.  Lesson learned.

All in all, I was happy with how the race went.  Rainer last year owned me, and this year I felt competitive.  I plan on rolling with the Master B’s next week at Sherwood.

The last Blind Date was probably the most fun of all.  Some hard bursts of rain through out the day had the potential to change the course conditions from the previous runs, and the cloud layer plus it being later in the year made the lighting conditions deteriorate fairly early.

Since I’m on a rest week, I started in the last row of racers and passed on the call up I was given.  The whistle blew and I, along with the other hundred plus racers that didn’t have a clear line slowly moved into the first set of turns.  As always I moo’d as we progressed along.  By the time I got down to the parking lot switch backs, the leaders of the race were already heading the other way with open course in front of them.  I spent the remainder of the opening lap riding through traffic at about 80% speed, and running over more than my fair share of cones in the process.  I kid you not, I think I hit a cone in every corner that first lap. 

By the time the first lap ended I was probably in the top half of the field.  I worked on my handling in traffic and in the slick spots on course.  Ran short intervals to pass people and used the course and people in it to slowly make my way through the field.  I eventually got to the head of the huge midfield pack and had some open road ahead of me on the last few laps.  The light faded quickly the last two laps and it was a struggle to avoid the ruts at high speed.  I used the “aim and pray” strategy fairly effectively and made it through to the finish in one piece in a respectable  27th place.  I was muddy, the bike was muddy, and my legs were on fire because I tossed embrocation on them thinking it was going to be colder, but it was smiles all around.

If you didn’t get a chance to race the Blind Date series this year, you missed out on a seriously fun time.  The mid-week event fits in perfectly with recovery from your weekend races, and gives you the opportunity to work on skills or try new gear out in a “low stress” environment.  With all the race focus on Crusades, I really hope people don’t overlook the fact that some great racing is happening elsewhere.

That wraps it up for this week.  This Sunday is Sherwood, followed by two week ends of Saturday / Sunday racing!

One and done...

 

For those in the cycling community, the TTT stands for "Team Time Trial", an event where a group of riders work as a team to through a set course as fast as possible.

For those in the cycling community who have actually done a TTT, I put forth that the definition should be known as "Team Torture Testing", where you push yourself as hard as you can without shelling your teammates, knowing that they will be doing the same to you in a matter of moments.

My team for this endeavor were Bigwood, King, and BRat.  Basically PV Fast Twitch.  Our goals were to finish together, ride smoothly as possible, and have the fastest final K of all teams (a joke).. and if possible have fun.

We had practiced a number of times as a group and got a good feel for each others riding style, and cornering abilities and are roughly the same strength so we felt we had a good chance of accomplishing what we set out for.

The day started at Longbottom's to load up the caravan, and relive stories of my attempt to kill the entire team on Saturday by spooking a cat that was sitting on the side of the road.  We hit the road with a single stop in Albany for traditional pre-race cheeseburgers from McDonalds (seriously, we got cheeseburgers.  It's sprinter food.)

We arrived at the Allergy Factory staging area got setup and started our warm ups a bit late.  Our start time was 1 minute behind the real PV TT team, so with 8 people watching the clock we managed to get to the start line in time.  My start was a humorous showing of "how not to clip into your pedal" which was unfortunately captured on film by Mary-Kay Babcock.

aaugh n00b!

After we got settled in, we started our motoring.  I was slotted in behind BRat, which really started to hurt by Lap 3 when he was making monsterish pulls.  Bob trailed behind me.  I felt good on Lap 1.. 2 things started to hurt.  3 I questioned my sanity. Lap 4 we were all getting tired and our bike handling started to suffer.

I was probably the weakest rider of the group, but I can ride corners very well, so tried to time my pulls so I could pilot the team through one of the many corners that broke up the course then peel off.  By the 4th lap, patterns started emerging in our riding styles.  I found myself at the front in specific locations on almost every lap.  Unfortunately that meant I got dumped off in the head wind coming back all the time!

We came in as a group, just a bit spaced a part.  My hamstrings pretty much seized up about 200m after the finish line and I was barely able to get back to the finish line let alone ride a cool down with the team.  My skin suit was crusted with salt.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon laughing with the other PV folks who were down there and trying not to cramp up in the increasing heat.  The journey home had us swing through Carl Jr's, which Bob swears is the official sprinter recovery food, and was punctuated with sneezes, groans of soreness and lots of laughter.

It was a sadistic sort of fun, and a good way to finish my career in the world of Time Trialing. (Yes.. I'm done with TT's.  Anyone want a bike?)

Comeback Complete!

 

So last night, my journey back from my knee injury and subsequent surgery came to a close.  Tuesday was the first day of racing at PIR, and PV came out in force for the Cat 3 / 4 race.  Ty, Jeff, Flemming, Feig, Mitch Lee, B-Rat, Mitch Gold, Johnny, Kromonster and myself all lined up with 67 other racers to kick off the PIR season.

There were a few well represented groups out in the field tonight along with PV.  Ironclad, Team O, and Three Rivers all had some significant numbers.  Made for a painful night if you were flying solo as the average speed of the race was 26.5mph.

The race was a short one, being early season and still fighting for daylight.  10 Laps with a pair of hotspots.  My legs felt poor during warm up, so I let Ty know I'd wait for the finish if necessary.  The plan was to have Mitch attack early, and he did right from the gun drawing a mix of jeers and cheers from the field.   Once it was brought back it was pretty steady racing for most of the night.

Few attacks got away free, and PV made sure to be represented in all of them.  As with most early season races there were some tactical snafu's and learning experiences to be had. 

When it came down to the last lap, the pack was still together and teams were starting to get organized for the field sprint.  Ironclad and PV were controlling the front keeping the tempo high.  I pack surfed a bit and latched on my lead out man Brian with 2k to go.  The two of us hung to the left side of the field coming through the last corner and shot up the middle of the road on the final straight away.  The field went right and were bunched up against the infield wall making it hard to move around.

Brian showed some impressive power as he launched the two of us away from the field to the 200m mark, dropping me off to take the win by a good gap.  His lead out was so stellar that he hung on for second place after sounding like he was going to blow a lung in the final 200m.

I picked up my first win of the season, my first ever win in a 3/4 field, and my first win post surgery. It made for a good night at the Burrito Shack afterwards with the crew.  I may not have had the best legs last night, but I had the best teammates.

A big thank you to Dr. Rask of Hillsboro Orthopedic, Dave McHenry of TAI, and Russell Cree of Upper Echelon for getting me back on the road.

-Side note and a bit of a soapbox.  A pair of crashes during the sprints made for some dicey moments last night.  One early on when some wheels got overlapped during a prime, which unfortunately happens. But another in the final sprint which sounded like it was mid pack?  Sprinting for 20th is reckless.  Attacking from mid pack probably won't do you any good.  Take the opportunity to ride in safely with your fellow racers at the end of a nice evening.  I do hope those involved in the wrecks heal up quickly!

Exploding Cake!

 

I think Ironclad's blog said it best, "The men’s 4 accidentally tripped the 4 tons of TNT someone had placed in the field.." Kaboom is right.  What started out as a controlled jaunt in the wind ended up in a all out echelon-or-die painfest.

The Cat4 PV crew had a whopping 3 guys in the field, which is sad considering its the largest group of racers we currently have.  However, I can't complain too much since much of the team is resting up for the big stage race this coming weekend.  Representing PV was myself, B-Rat, and Jeff B who was making his 2009 road race debut.  Our plan was pretty simple, stay with the pack, and if possible control the end of the last lap with Brian hopefully giving me a lead out at the end.  With only 3 people in a field of 40+ we had our work cut out for us.  That was compounded by Brian taking a "leg stretcher" during the south leg of Lap 1, and rolling off the front.  He sat out there for the next hour and 10 minutes all alone.

The fireworks really started in Lap2, with some of the Ironclad guys launching a attacks.  The gloves came off for good at that point and for the next 10 miles Jeff and I were covering attack after attack, trying to let Brian stay away.  Things worked well until a big attack came and a group of 7 guys got away.  Unfortunately, neither Jeff nor I had the legs to get into that break and the chasers couldn't / wouldn't get organized to bring them in.  The break eventually caught Brian and dropped him about 2 miles before the final lap.

The start of Lap 3 I was still in recovery mode and very grumpy about missing the break.  That compounded with people complaining about not pulling through while gesturing wildly with their hands off the bars in a 20mph cross-wind resulted in a few choice words exchanged between myself and another rider.  Heat of the moment exchanges in the middle of rides are never good, but the message was delivered and received and the group worked well together for the remainder of the lap even managing to pull back a few of the shelled riders from the break.

With a couple riders in Chase 1 obviously sitting in, I let Jeff know with a few miles left to do no more work.  I sat in the back marking the biggest wheel sucker and jumped on him as soon as he made a move about 3k from the finish.  He let up as soon as he realized I wasn't going anywhere and the group came together with 2k to go.  A bit of cat and mouse later and I attacked at 1.5k and gapped the field with the hope to hold off until the finish.  Unfortunately I came into the last corner poorly and lost a ton of speed right into the headwind on the final stretch.  I popped with about 300m to go and the charging group swallowed me up.  Jeff continued to race smart and was able to out kick most of the group for a top 10 finish.  I soft peddled in a few seconds behind for 15th. 

I know I missed out on a few opportunities (missing the winning break), and I didn't make the most of the ones that presented themselves (attacking too early at the finish).  But considering the destruction of the remainder of the Cat4 field, I feel fortunate for where I placed. 

A Tale of Two Weekends

 

I'm glad this is a rest week coming up, not because training is kicking my ass like it was just before my last rest week, but because I think I need about a week to recover from this weekend.  This weekend can be broken into two different time frames.  The daytime, and ironically enough, the night.

The weekend kicked off a bit early on Friday, as I was able to leave a bit early from work.  Ron was kind enough to come by with his dremel-o-matic and assist me with the cutting of the steer tube on fork for the new Velo Vie.  After a few quick minutes of math and conversions, we got the tube cut and the headset installed.  Ron then said the magic words "Well, I've got a bit of time if you want to start hanging stuff on the bike?"  Music to my ears.  About an hour and a half later the bike was mostly done.  Big thanks to Ron for the extra sets of hands and some nice tips on cable running.

I ate a late dinner and Traci and I got on our bikes for a evening recovery ride.  Was the first spin on the VV, albeit on the trainer, but it gave me the opportunity to get the brifters setup where I wanted them, and check saddle position.  A few minor tweaks and a couple double-check measurements vs. my Felt and it was time to get the bars wrapped.  Traci has some awesome skills when it comes to wrapping bars.  I think people who wrap bars well can also wrap presents well, and since I can't do either very well I leave this to the household expert and assist by holding the tape while the master works away.  After the bars were wrapped, I spent a few very cold hours in the garage putting the final touches on the new bike, mainly inhaling GooGone fumes while working the sticker glue off my rear wheel.  By the time I was done it was after midnight, 39 degree's in the garage and I had a very sore throat and hands from working with the stuff.  But it was worth it!  The bike was done and ready for its maiden road voyage the next day

Saturday I woke up with a low blood sugar.  This is getting a bit more common as my training load has increased and my body gets used to having amilyn back in its system.  I fuel up and fight off the sluggish feeling in time to head to team ride.  The ride ended up being the hardest of the year so far and I was able to put in some very solid efforts.  Was the first major climbing I've done this year, and I held my own on the climbs.  The wind however was horrid.  At one point the team was climbing Thompson Road and a gust blew down hill and literally sat everyone upright in their saddles.

I will also point out that Amit sent us up Logie Trail from the RT30 side, but decided not to climb due to a "lack of time."  We hate you.

Saturday night we hit the PACE open house and it was a great time.  Big thanks to Dave, Jeff, and Russell for hosting a great evening.  By about 9:30 I was ready for bed, exhausted from the days ride.   I actually had a few folks tell me the next day I looked exhausted. 

Unfortunately sleep decided not to visit for very long.  3am both Traci and I got up and decided we needed to go downstairs to get water / snack.  I woke up again at 6am with a cratering bloodsugar and had to get another snack.  I finally got out of bed at 8am and I felt like, well basically I got no sleep.  Our Sunday endurance ride was quiet and sluggish, and it wasn't until 75% of the way through the ride that I actually felt a bit away.  We spent Sunday afternoon with our good friends and by 6:00 I was on the verge of falling asleep at their house.  Once again, sleep didn't come to me last night either.  I was up at 11:30, 2am, and 5.  What the crap?

I think a lot of the sleep issues will be resolved with a bit of tinkering to my basal insulin levels, which I did this morning.  Hopefully it will result in less late night lows which have been the norm for me on days were I have big workout efforts.

For now, I'll enjoy the rest week. :)

Ooops.

 

The year is 13 days old, and I've apparently neglected my blog.  Good reason though, I've been riding!  My knee has been healing nicely, stitches were removed and flexibility is almost back to normal.  Strength is another story entirely.  I have to gain back about a 25% muscle loss on my left leg and shred a bunch of scar tissue. 

Last Friday I had my first PT appointment with Dave McHenry of TAI over on NE MLK.  I've had my share of PT the last 11 years, having to rehab back from two ACL surgeries.  The thing that struck me about Dave was he didn't sugar coat things.  I've worked with people who say things like "you may feel a bit of pressure" and then spike your pain-o-meter to 11.  Dave, after doing the initial assessment of my knee and seeing the scar tissue buildup I have, said something to the extent of "Well, this is going to have to go and its going to hurt."   No bullshit.  I loved it.

I feel I rehab very well.  I get angry.  I vent the frustration into my sessions and push myself get to beyond where I was as quickly as possible.  I like to hit things straight on, and having a physical therapist that thinks like I do works well for me.

My endurance on the bike is coming back pretty quickly.  Last Saturday I took advantage of the decent weather (read: no rain) and rode with the race team.  Put about 3 hours in the saddle that day and was able to mix it up a bit which felt nice.  I inadvertently bypassed the two small climbing session that were on route after playing catchup due to a flat tire, which was probably a blessing in disguise.  Coming out of the saddle is about the only thing that hurts now.

(Note to those who feel their worn summer racers can hold out for "one more outdoor ride".  Don't speak of it out loud.  If you do, you've cursed yourself.)  The weather looks decent for the remainder of the week and into the weekend, so I expect to get out again this coming Saturday and Sunday.  Until then, it will be on the trainer.

Astoria 2 Day Spectacular

 

What a weekend!  The races for me this week took a backseat to the all out team comradery PV was showing during the weekend.  Highlights of the weekend included:

• Friday evening get together at the Cannery Cafe for some really good food, and a purple monkey.
• Stopping by Molly's pad, walking upstairs saying "I think the door is up here" only to walk directly into their living room.
• Having a horrific race on Saturday, then drinking a lot of beer.
• Having a great race on Sunday, despite being in full costume.
• Super long wait for food / drink at Rogue due to how slammed they were. 
• Britt Millard sacrificing her race to help a fallen racer from Team O, and Team O giving her serious shout-outs for the help.  Class acts all around.
• Watching the 22oz fridge at Rogue turn into a self service bar.
• Sal's bread run.
• Traci's Hash run.. complete with shots of Ouzo.
• Heidi's bottomless bag of Stone Russian Imperials.
• Bigwheel ride's with Sal.
• Couzens getting TOTALLY SCREWED.
• Two words: "Fishstick Grenade".
• Kenji's pink foaming giggle juice.
• Brad Ross actually turning down a free beer I tried to give him at the end of the A race on Sunday.

As Traci and I drove home via route 30, we both had big grins on our faces.  We might not have raced the best races of the season, but I don't think we could have planned a more entertaining weekend.

Barton should be interesting.  :)

Reality on the grounds of Insanity, Pain in HD

 

I'll let you decide which one is more real!

Yesterday was Crusade #2 and a brand new course down in WIllsonville.  The event was held in a subdivision that is being built up on the grounds of the old state mental hospital.

The course seemed more like a short track mountain bike course than a cross course.  A single run up, a trio of barriers, but beyond that the course was 100% rideable once you got out of traffic.  Course was super technical as well.  I'm happy that it didn't rain as the dirt section would have been almost impossible to navigate if wet.

The course was brutal to tires.  I think I saw more people with flats in this race than I saw at Krugers, PotP, and Alpenrose combined. The one-two combination of bumpy terrain and very very hard surfaces complete with broken chunks of concrete and bits of metal everywhere (yes, there were pieces of flashing on the course during warm) beat the tar out of people and equipment alike.

The event was huge just like last week.  My field had 145 people who finished in it this week opposed to 121 last week.  Results for me were not as good this week, although I felt great the first lap and a half.  I need to not go out and do 50miles on my fixie the day before.

Mounts and dismounts felt good, so good I ripped my jeans during warmup.  Bike handling was a bit sketchy with all the loose gravel sections.  I don't like loose gravel.  Loose gravel and I have a bad history.    This race was a serious gut check for a lot of people it seemed.  Anyone who made it to the finish should be complemented on their insanity, and anyone who had to go to the medical tent to pick gravel out of their hip is a stronger person than I.

At the end of the day, a lot of us got a hard as hell workout and a few cuts and bruises to show for it.   Afterwards we ate some great food and drank a lot of beer. 

Speaking of beer, the homebrews were a big hit.  Sal said the Purple Haze was like "drinking cake".  Kenji was the recipient of the other bottle of Purple Haze and went giggling off into the women's field with his bottle spewing pink foam everywhere.  When next I saw him he was channeling his inner Mr. Roboto in a killer Super Relax kit.   Heidi went from the running machine to chilling in the tub after taking on pretty much an entire bottle of my Russian Imperial.

 

 

 

 

 

Last update on PotP until next year most likely. 

Burk Webb from Portland Velo came out to Pain on the Peak last month and filmed this masterpiece.  The video below just doesn't do justice to Burk's creation and filming ability.  I get goose bumps every time I watch this in HD.

Pain On The Peak from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

Huge thanks to Burk for the surprise.  Beer for you!

A kick in the cross

 

Unless you were locked away someplace, you probably know that Sunday was the first event of the Cross Crusade series taking place up at the Alpenrose Dairy here in Portland.  The turnout was nothing short of epic, with close to 1300 riders doing battle on course condition that changed a huge amount over 24hrs.  I've spent so much time reading the accounts of others that I neglected to post my own!

My weekend started Saturday morning with the maiden voyage of my new Redline 9-2-5 fixie winter bike.  There are a few things I need to tweak on it, like getting a shorter stem with a bit of a drop, and a smaller rear cog, but overall I'm pleased with the new investment.  It should provide good training and reduced wear and tear on my Felt.

After a quick bite to eat, Traci and I loaded up the car with the cross rigs and went to the Dairy to get our numbers and do some pre-course scouting.  We met a few of our teammates there, got our numbers and jumped on the bikes.  The first few laps were a bit chaotic as the course wasn't 100% setup, but after a short bit the course became more and more clear to us.  We did a bit more scouting and felt very comfortable with how things were going to play out the next morning.

We drive home, pack the Mini with most of what we'll need and layout the things that don't get packed for a quick departure the next morning.  I crawl into bed and fall asleep listening to the rain falling on our glass patio table-top outside.

The morning comes earlier than I'd like, and it takes me a while to get moving.  By the time I get food into me, Traci is already dressed and packing the day's needed snacks.  The weather report has completely changed over the last 12 hours and the partly sunny skies that were forecasted turn into periodic rain.  Perfect Cross weather.

Eventually I get geared up, we get the car packed quickly and leave for Alpenrose.  Our timing is divine as 10 PV folks arrive in the space of 5 minutes.  The second 20x10 is erected next to the first giving us the PV Palace.  Trainers drop down under the front tent on the course while chairs, coolers, and gear end up in the back.  Kender and Sal dub this the "Mullet Configuration". Business up front, party in the back.

Once we get settled, I gear up for one last course checkout, mainly to see the section on the north side of the velodrome.  I'm happy for the additional barrier placed before the run-up to the velodrome ring.  It will force everyone off their bike and I won't have to deal with people attempting to ride it in front of me and crashing.  After a quick stop at the Ironclad tent to say hello and get some air for rear tire I make my way back to the tent and start my warm-up.

About 15 minutes into my warm-up I see a familiar face up on the road.  My buddy from HS and college, Josh Hanselman from Team 343 spots me after I yell to him and come to find out we are both riding in the same division today.  Good times!

With about 20mins to go, I test the blood sugar (woo dialed in), eat a ShotBlok, and make my way up to the start gate with Josh, Jeff and B-Rat.  We run into Joel from Team O and the 5 of us park ourselves about 5 rows deep on the left edge of the start chute.  After announcements I take a last swing of water from Traci, hand her my coat and clip in.  

The whistle blows and almost immediately there is a wreck in the first row directly in front of me.  Two Yakima riders tangle up and one goes down, I navigate through the carnage and manage to see a broken steertube in the mix.  I feel for the guy.  After flatting during the 25mph "neutral roll out" in my first race of the season, and flatting during the hole shot of the first Krugers, I know how frustrating it is to pay $25 to race for under a minute.

My start is pretty decent considering the wreck.  I'm in the top 30 going into the first two corners, and have a great line entering the gravel.  I make up a huge chunk of ground on the first decent riding the right line instead of following the herd on the left side.  I see Jeff out in front about 30m from me.  My plan was to work for him as much as possible since he was in contention for an up-cat.  His hole shot put him in a great position so the amount of work I can do is limited right off the get go.  I stick on the tail end of the chasing pack for a good portion of the race, losing ground in the meadow out-and-back, but gaining it in all the technical sections.

I keep track of Jeff ahead of me and yell for him every time our paths cross on the switch backs, making the mental note that he's putting distance in me every lap.  The only person I let past me without a fight is Ron.

My sole wreck of the day comes on lap 4 in the hairpin before the velodrome run up and it was fairly unspectacular.  I entered the corner too early and fall on my left side, even thought I had my left foot out of the pedal. The impact knocked my left brake hood askew making rear breaking fairly difficult for the remainder of the race. 

My race becomes one of survival at this point.  There are some stronger riders behind me and I see Josh moving up in the pack, joyfully taunting me every time we switchback on each other.  He gets within 5m of me a few times on the last lap before he bites it going into a corner and looses ground.  My fight becomes solely to keep those behind me at bay as the traffic in front of me is out of reach. 

A guy in a full Nike kit on a mountain bike and I battle it out the last half lap with the two of us swapping position half a dozen times between the our teams tent and the finish.  I pass him before the rock barrier and dismount and hear him bunny-bash-hop over the rocks.  He passes me as I remount and I chase him into the winding turns before the run-up.  He's more controlled into the corners but I'm faster out of them.  The final pass happens on the run up when I channel my inner mountain goat and sprint past him on the inside.  I ride the corner entering the velodrome cautiously as the wood is slick with mud now.  I get some breathing room on the final set of barriers and ride hard through the finish.  The post race euphoria quickly sets in.

I make it back to the tent, get cleaned off and swap roles with Traci, playing domestique for teammates who earlier helped me out.  Traci puts her game face on, ear buds in, and gets lost in her pre-race thoughts.  The role reversal takes over the tent at one point.  The ladies lined up 5 across on the trainers in their kits, with the men hovering around grabbing water bottles and fixing numbers.

Nervous excitement fills me as I get to watch Traci race her first full blow Cross race.  She starts well and rides strong through the course, finishing mid field and scoring some beer in the process.  I'm hoarse by the time she's finished.  The remainder of the afternoon is a haze of packing, cleaning, and attempting to stay awake past 9pm.  I'm beat, and its just week #1...

Pain on the Peak Wrap

 

Wow, it's over.   The biggest single point of focus of my life for the past 39 days is over and done with.  I'm still working on a few small odd's and ends, but for all intents and purposes I'm finding that I have a lot more free time in my day right now.

If 40 days ago you had told me "you will be organizing the first cross event of the season", I probably would have laughed at you.  Scratch that... I know I would have laughed at you.  But for some strange reason that is exactly what ended up happening after speaking with Roger over at Sunset Cycles after his criterium.

But mark my words, the event only happened due to a lot of folks, especially my teammates, stepping up and saying "what do you need me to do" then executing on it. 

To my Volunteers (and if I missed any of you, I'm sorry!):

Alex Gonzalez - I'm sorry you got stuck down in no-man's land most of the morning.  Thanks for being a trooper and helping set the tone for those coming into the venue.

Sasha “Give me something I can throw at my mom” Lacey – I’m glad you were able to make it out despite the family being in town!

Site admins Carlo Delumpa and Martin Obando - Thank you for dealing with my "I need it done NOW" attitude late at night.  I owe you big time.

Greg "Dr Tooth" Hartman - One of the first to jump onboard the sponsorship wagon.  Thank you so so much for your support and work with the neighbors of Whitmore.  You are the total team player!

Heidipants - You said it best.. I'm f'ing nuts.  I'll get you next time my pretty, and your little bike too! I’m so glad your schedule worked so you could attend the event and race!

Javad "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay" Simenson -  Course engineer extraordinaire! The sound of the chainsaw struck fear into the hearts and minds of the competitors, and a few OBRA staff. ;)

Matt “The Human Bean” James – You were with us in spirit. Thank you so much for your sponsorship.

B-Rat - Crashing doesn't hurt as much in CX!  You were there for all the work details, and on board from day one.  Thank you for taking the time to learn how to score at Krugers so we had more manpower at the start / finish.  Please let Sokhemry know the snacks she provided for us were TO DIE FOR. :)

Dave "I'm a ninja" Leahy - AMAZING photography down in the woods.  I seriously didn't know you were around until Ty told me.  Big thanks for offering your services!

Jason and Jody - Dawn to dusk you guys where on top of things!  Jody, thank you so much for working the reg both all day long.  Jason, you had the brutal job of being out at the corner in the afternoon after being out in the field all morning… ouch.  Thanks for being a trooper!

Jeff “Only You Can Prevent Venue Fires” Henderson - thank you for owning probably the most worrisome job we had listed and taking it to heart.  Fire was truly a huge danger up there and I'm glad we didn't any issues.

David Elder - I had no clue you were going to be here until you showed up.  Thank you for coming when Traci called.  Your sign run made a huge difference in the morning when we found people were heading the wrong way.

Todd “Stiffarm” Rosier – I appreciate all of your advice and feedback about the course in the days leading up to it.. even if you did shove me into the bushes (we have it on film!)

Sherry “I AM NOT A STALKER” Schwenderlauf - The ray of sunshine in the bowl of dust. My morning venue greeter with the cheerful attitude setting the tone for the day. Thank you so much for all of your help. Next year you race foo-sho!

Dan "Straight-Bar" Dittmer -  Dominating performance in the first cross race this year!  Big thanks for spelling the folks at the venue entrance in the afternoon and pitching in where ever we needed help!

Brion Barnett- I'm glad you were able to make it out!  Hope you didn't get too much sun over the course of the day as we had you out in the field. Turns out you were parked on top of a yellow jackets nest originally ;)

Chris "WTF did I get myself into" Johnston - How's that for an introduction as to how PV does things?  You haven't even worn the PV colors in anger yet, but jumped right in and helped out with learning how to score at Krugers, and ran with the clipboard most of the day at PotP.  Welcome to the team!

John "Mr. Diplomat" Ohnstad - Thank you so much for talking with the neighbors on the road and being great ambassador for PV and Cycling.   I could have used two of you!

Steve “Doombringer” Brown - I’m only going to call you that now because you are going to wreck the competition this year. As always, you bring the support in ways I couldn’t even consider asking for. Thank you for being such a supporter of Portland Velo.

Jeff “Please shoot me” Ballantine - We had you running everywhere over the course of the day, and you decided to race.  How's that for cross training? :p

Ron “Mr Coffee” Babcock – Ron, I bet the folks at Krugers were wishing you had raced on Saturday rather than busting Fire Duty all day. Thank you for working with Matt J to pick up the coffee in the morning. I seriously needed it!

Linda "Queen of the Clipboard" Jellison - My Slave Driver.. er I mean Volunteer Coordinator.  Another who has yet to turn the pedals in anger for PV, but willing to dedicate so much time and effort into the event making it the success that it was.  The press release got us a lot of hits and publicity, and was a brilliant idea.

Mike “Anyone have some sunscreen” Snelson - How long did you spend out in that parking field? Another person with fairly unglamorous jobs that did them without complaint. Thank you!

Russ Sperin – I’m surprised you came back for more after doing the pre-ride on Wednesday, but I’m so glad you did. Thank you for all your help with course setup and your willingness to come out whenever we had a work day.

Amit "The Zohan" Kobrowski - I hate you for talking to Roger about this.... okay I don't hate you.  I appreciate you coming to me through out the day asking "anything need done?"  I don't think there was a single time that I had nothing for you.

Sean Thielen – More people with boring jobs! I hope you didn’t regret making the decision to race last minute. Thank you for coming out!

Matt "Give me that, it belongs to OBRA" Couzens - My equipment monkey!  Very rarely does a first time race happen w/o something being lost.  Everything we signed out was brought back and checked in.  Thank you for your diligence and help with course setup / teardown.

Course Guru Greg Magnus.. I could *not* have done this without you.  Thank you for all your help on the Friday prior to the event.  Would have been a lonely and unproductive morning.  I hope you finally got Mason clean. ;)

Bob Bigwood – Quietly helping behind the scenes. Thanks again for the help with the PVC piping and an ear that I could vent to.

Paul “King of all things Registration” Formiller - You planned and smooth lined something that could have been a total clusterf*ck. Thank you for running the show with that and getting all of the registration type stuff owned and printed out.

Jeremy Schultz - I don't know how many times I came by saying "10 more minutes till we can get you a sub".  Thanks for holding down the registration / money duties for almost the entire day.

Mitch Lee -  Quick changes from Mr. "I feel bad I can't make it" to "Dude, I'm here for you what do you need?" to "I'm going to go pwn the Master B's field."  You seemed to be everywhere at once filling in where we needed people.  I'm starting to think the key to your success is that you are actually identical quadruplets.

Ty “DS” Lambert – Ty, you put this group of amazing, dynamic, and helpful people together, and let them become complete lunatics. Thank you for putting faith in me and the team to get this done, and running with your photography idea.

Mike “Breaker Breaker” Kender – Your humorous nature knows no bounds.  Don't.  Ever. Change. 

Doc Johnson - I'm sorry your race didn't go well.. You probably wore yourself out on Friday making that sweet course change.  "BIG JOHNSON'S BEND" will forever be part of PotP lore, as will the fact that your equipment and work tools are spread out over 10 PV members houses. :p

Marc Altman -  Out of the box thinking leads to an out of this world trophy.  Thank you for owning this and running with it!

Alex Kroman - Hopefully you weren't on the receiving end of the fury generated by my non-stop requests to Kristin.  I appreciate your willingness to help out with the web stuff when we were struggling to get traction on it!

Rob “Dude I’m Here” King – Like an ace closer from the bullpen, the fresh body near the end of day were super helpful to have.

Print and Graphic Mastah Sal Bondi – Layout and design of our publicity, investigating and scheduling printing, course design, course setup, course teardown, promotions, and raced… you had your fingers in everything. Thank you for your very valuable time!

Graphic Goddess and Webmistress Kristin Wille - You had sketches and strawmen and mockups done in a blink of an eye. Your logo design captured the heart and soul of the event and we received so many comments about how professional our web site looked.  You were the person who was the unfortunate recipient of the most "hey, I thought of one more thing" emails.  Holy crap I can't believe you are still talking to me.

Traci-  my partner in crime for life and queen of all things I wasn't working on. You made this race the success it was.

To all the racers, and spectators.  Thank you so much for coming and making the event a truly epic way to kick of the 2008 CX season.

Time for me to actually get on the bike and ride....

Labors of Love

 

September already... the time where the air has just a bit of a chill to it in the mornings and evenings and occasionally you catch that whiff of the Fall season on a light breeze.  September is a month of changes.  Back to school for some, baseball shifts to college football for others.  For cyclists we start making choices between the long fingered gloves, embrocation, and arm/knee warmers...   We debate if we are over or underdressed, to hit the road, or bust out the CX bike.

This Labor Day weekend, I actually rode 3 days in a row for the first time in almost a month.  I've been so stupidly busy with Pain on the Peak that most of the other things I love doing have fallen by the wayside.   At least according to my TrainingPeaks Performance Mgmt Chart I had a good taper!

Saturday was a club ride, and the first time I had been on my bike since the wreck the previous week.  The team decided to head a different direction from the club and make a final jaunt out to Timber for the season.  This is one of our favorite routes and always has a good deal of fireworks going off during the course of the ride.  I felt just okay, and did my best to hang with the team.  Unfortunately during the climb up Route 6 after Cedar Canyon, someone mentioned my rear tire looked a bit squishy.  Sure enough, I was starting to get a flat.  Ultra thin piece of wire had worked its way into the tire and had nicked the tube.  To add insult to injury, I tube I grabbed that morning to restock my saddle bag was of the short stem variety and couldn't made it through the rim.

Fortunately, one of the other guys who had dropped off the pace earlier rolled up and had a patch kit.  While I was able to get the tire inflated, I'm always hesitant about riding on a patched tube so I decided to turn back and try and meet up with Traci's group.  I lucked out once again and caught them at the start of Dairy Creek, and rolled back into town with them.

That afternoon we ran to Performance and bought a ton of tubes for both road and CX, along with some Hutchinson Bulldog CX tires that I've been lusting for and unable to find anywhere.  They had 6, and I ended up buying 4 of them.  I also replaced my saddle bag after getting made fun of for having duct tape holding together my old one.

Sunday, I went up to Leif Erikson with Ron to do a bit of a recovery / CX ride.  It was a good opportunity to break in  new tires, in addition to checking the seat position / fit of the new saddle I put on.  I also wanted some hours on the CX bike to build more confidence in how it handled after my wreck.  This was my first time on the trail and I can understand why its a big hit with CX riders. Ron took it easy on me and even made sure to flat at the very end of the ride when I stopped to say hi to a few Ironclad/PSU guys at the trailhead.  To make it that much more of an authentic CX ride, it rained on us.

This morning was my introduction to the Monday Morning Vertical Reality ride, which has been a PV staple ride for years.  The ride leaves out of the Grand Central baking in Multnomah Village at 9am and does about 35 miles with ~3500 feet of climbing in it.  I've always wanted to do this ride, but my schedule just never allows for it.  I was a bit concerned on how the legs would do on the third day of riding, but I felt surprisingly good and hung with the lead group for the duration of the ride, which had Springer and a couple of strong dudes from Tireless Velo in it.  Considering I'm not much of a climber, I'll take this as a moral victory.  Traci was also out on this morning with us and had a wonderful ride with Doug and Mitch Gold.  Big kudos to those two for hanging out with her and giving her a ton of encouragement as she comes back from the knee issues she dealt with this season.

>>--CX UPDATE-->

The CX chariot is doing well.  The new tires work like a champ and my set of KORE brakes should be arriving at Veloce this week.  I'll get those setup and my bar's re-wrapped and I should be good to go for the next Farm Crit at Krugers.  I'm debating switching over to an Ultegra setup rather than the SRAM Rival one I'm on, but I'm not sold either way yet. 

I swapped out the saddle I had for a Fizik Arion TT saddle I had laying around on a whim.  Sometimes whim's end up being strokes of genius!  The TT saddle has a lot more padding at the nose which made for a much more comfortable ride. 

Picked up a  pair of Ironclad's IMPACT gloves from Dave of Team Ironclad.  If you are looking for a new set of CX gloves, go get these now.  They eat up vibration like a fat kid eats cake.  BikeTiresDirect is running a special on them right now.  (Glad to see those guys up and running again after the fire.)

The CX body (me) is doing okay.  The road rash and bruises have mostly healed up and the stitches come out tomorrow, but I have some definite issues with the right shoulder.  I can't lift things with an overhand grip, which engages the muscles of front and top of the shoulder, very effectively.  After speaking with a few of the doctors in the club, I might have a minor shoulder separation or potentially damage to my rotator cuff.  Suck.  Since I have an appointment tomorrow to get the stitches removed, I'll see what they have to say.

The CX race, is progressing along well.   The team has been absolutely busting their asses on top of the work they already do for a living to get this done for the CX community.  Promotional material is going out to all the local shops and being posted where lots of cycling eyeballs will see it.  We've been beating down doors and picked up a few new prize sponsors which will be announced later this week, and will be adding a Women's Masters 40+ category into the mix as well.  We did our second venue walk through last week and started with the "macro adjustments" to the course.  This adjustments were made courtesy of a bulldozer.  Yes a bulldozer.  No I'm not lying, I have proof.  We took a number of video's of the venue so if you'd like to see what's in store for you, check em out!  There is also a really cheezy MS paint hacked venue map here.

Lastly, to cap off this labor day weekend, we'll talk about beer.  I have two homebrews in the works.  One is called "Purple Haze" which is a Marion Berry ale, not to be confused with McMenamins beer of the same name which uses boysenberry, or a raspberry wheat ale done by Abita.  It's been bottled and should be ready to drink by end of September.  (I should mention that McMenamins Purple Haze is available right now for a short period of time.)  My Russian Imperial was given two thumbs up by the guys over at Main Street Brewing and will be bottled soon.  Depending on the bottle tactic my friend Todd wants to use, it may be ready to go very soon or need some bottle aging time.  I can hardly wait!

owie...

 

I raced a few cross events last season and had my share of spills.  I've managed to topple on my road bike a few times as well, almost always a slow speeds and in really embarrassing ways.  Like on the very first ride I did with clip pedals.  I started in too low of a gear, got no forward momentum going up hill while managing to hook the back of my chamois on the nose of my seat almost pulling my bike shorts off while falling over next to a school bus filled with kids coming home from school.

Yeah that was a good one.

Anyway, nothing really to write home about crash wise until this weekend.  A number of us PV folks decided to go out and race at Krugers to get prepped for cross season with a bit of Kermesse action.  The course was fast and hard.  Hard as in pee blood and liquefy your organs hard.  I managed to survive a bunch of warm up laps only to flat my rear tire during the hole shot.  Joy.  A "quick change" (fail) of rear tire only put me a good 2 minutes off the back of the pack and far out of contention, so I decided after some convincing from my teammates to get back out and do the work and get the practice in.

So for 4 laps I rode by myself, trying to remember the lines I took that were good and avoid the ones that made me question why got back on the bike after my mechanical.  I managed to catch a few folks after a bit and I felt like I was turning decent lap times.  I used the laps as more of a mental check list of things I needed to do to my Veloforma CX1 before the season kicked into high gear... shorter stem, re-wrap handle bars, tighten down left shifter assembly, lower seat.. *BAM* .. remove seat from colon... check out some new brakes..

I eventually was passed by the trio of leaders from the B's who started about a minute ahead of us, just before I finished lap 4.  I traveled through the S/F to begin lap 5 and lined myself up cut the apex of the first right turn.

Some accidents happen in slow motion, others happen so quick you don't know what hit you.  One moment you are riding along, and the next the bike is out from under you and you are trying to carve a trench in the ground with your chin. 

I laid face ground in the dirt and did a system reboot.  Legs.. check.. hands.. check.. teeth.. check.. didn't hear any cracks on impact.. face hurts a lot but I can move.  Off in the distance I hear "dude, you need to get out of the way, there are racers coming."  I'm dimly aware of the comment, and some part of my brain wants to tell him that the racers should be able to see a prone guy on the ground in pain and go around him, but I do my best to push myself up on my hands and knees.

Blood is running down on the rocks and dirt below me.  The guy who called out the warning is now off going to get the medic.  Another nice gal who saw me wipe out has come to the corner and picked up my bike.  She grimaces when she sees me.  I take off my helmet and my glasses, neither of which end up being damaged.  The nice gal and I walk back up course towards the medic who's on her way towards us.

I get to know Bonnie pretty well over the next few minutes, even if I forget her name the first time she tells me.  (I'm horrible with names to start with.)  She goes over the standard questions to check for concussions and I'm able to answer them all.  I see Traci heading towards me with a "what did you do to yourself" look on her face.  Bonnie informs me I'm going to need some stitches on my chin, and probably should get a tetanus shot as well.  The other PV boys come by and check in on me before they head over to the start of their race. They make fun of my face.  Bonnie finishes cleaning me up, puts some steri-strips on the wound, and finally wraps some cling bandage around my head to hold it in place. 

It's the next hot thing in headwear don't you think? 

The remainder of the day was spent waiting at the ER to get the stitches and tetanus shot rather than drinking beer with the team.  Oh well.  The team did very well taking home a trio of category wins.  Grats to Paul (Mstr C), Ron (Mstr A), and Kristin (Women's B).

Pain on the Peak is coming along well.  Everyone is pulling some serious hours to get this thing rolling for the OBRA CX community, so come out and enjoy what's going to be an amazing event.  Luciano Bailey will be the VOICE OF PAIN for the event. :)

Pre-registration is open for those who want to save a few bucks.  The updated web site will be online shortly once the code has been pushed.  We've also got a number of announcements coming over the next few days.   Starting off with a bang, KEEN Footware has ponied up a free pair of shoes for all category winners, plus five additional pairs to raffle off at the end of the day.  That's twenty pairs of shoes in all!  How cool is that?

Pain is coming.....

 

Been a bit quiet here the past few weeks, but it's for a good reason.  (No, the blog troll didn't eat me.)

http://portlandvelo.net/painonthepeak/default.aspx - Warning its a strawman website

Pre registration is up at:

https://www.signmeup.com/site/reg/register.aspx?fid=3G2V9K7

Right now we are in the very accelerated process of getting Pain on the Peak going.  There is a huge amount of behind the scenes work being done and by the time the event rolls around I'm sure many of us are going to be completely fried, but it will be so worth it.

Venue negotiations, planning, sponsorship negotiations, permits, vendors, prizes, logistics, promotion, omg crazy.

I'm eternally thankful for the crew that's jumped headfirst into it.  There is no way this could be pulled off with out you guys.

So far, the only pain being inflicted is the masochistic variety.  We are beating ourselves up to get this pulled off for the CX community.  We want to make the logistics around this race as amazing as the venue will be.

Look for some video's to be linked here in the upcoming weeks showing the final preps on the course!

Questions or interesting in vendor space?  Contact paincx@portlandvelo.net

On the racing side, my road race season was capped off with my first Criterium race over at Sunset Criterium.  I stayed upright, and took a very tactical 13th after blowing myself up to win a $250 Wobble Naught fitting prime prize.  I'm looking forward to CX.. Krugers followed by the CCX Clinics and then the start of the weekend CX season at PAIN AT THE PEAK!

Isn't there an old saying...

 

... something about returning to what you are familiar with to re-center yourself or revisit past success?  Last night was definitely one of those moments for me.  After spending the weekend indulging in far too much boozy goodness, I stepped on the scale in the Monday morning having gained close to 5 lbs over the weekend.  Now I know weight shifts a lot over the course of days, but this wasn't one of those trends in my mind.  This was a sign to not let myself fall back into the weight bracket that I had worked so hard to get out of earlier this season.

I knew some of my teammates were planning to head out to PIR for the Masters 4/5 race in the evening and I was a bit torn on heading out there myself.  In this day and age of high gas prices, I do what I can to minimize the amount of driving I do, especially for things that I don't consider totally necessary.  PIR is one of those things that I don't consider necessary. It's on the other side of Portland through rush hour traffic to participate.  But I really wanted to get some hard efforts in under my belt to start the week out on the right foot.  I ran home at lunch and got everything together to leave as soon as work was done.

I get home a bit late due to a last minute Doctors appointment, and I see our car already loaded with my bike sitting on top.  Traci rules.  I eat a snack, get dressed and we are on the road in twenty minutes.  Traffic reports some slowing on I-5, but nothing major.  Go go iPhone GPS.  I do my best to stay relaxed as we settle in for the drive.  I've raced out here almost 10 times this season, but I still get pre-race jitters.

We arrive fairly quickly and park in the shade.  Paul, Couzens and Alex are already here and Marc pulls in not 5 minutes later.  I see a lot of familiar faces during warm-up as well.  Larry and Drew from 343, Ken from Skyline, big Mike from Three Rivers, Dave from Ironclad, and Steve from Team Oregon are all in the field tonight.  There are also a lot of unattached riders as well.  Those are the folks you really have to watch.  Last thing I want is to hit the tarmac due to sketchy riding.

The big topic of the warm-up is the wind.  We are running counter-clockwise tonight, so the backstretch is into the headwind the majority of the time.  We notice quickly that riding up against the wall provides some shelter.  My legs feel tight during the warm-up, and the hot lap we do as a team puts me in a bit of stress.  Too much beer I tell you.

The start of the race plays out much like most other PIR races.  A few who are feeling their oats shoot off the front and are quickly reeled back in.  I spend the first few laps dodging the sketchy wheels that will hopefully fade into the back of the pack as the ride progresses.  We hope to get Alex or Couzens off on a break at some point but with the wind being as strong as it is, it will be a big effort for whoever is out front.  The first hotspot comes and 343 leads a train up the right side, I stay calm and watch things unfold, hoping to launch Alex on a break if a few others go once we bunch back up.  No luck this time around.  The pack closes up fairly quick as we head into the wind.

The second hotspot bell goes off and things are a bit less organized this time around.  Two distinct groups form heading down to the line.  I grab Ken Lee's wheel on the left side as he accelerates towards the front of the pack.  As if almost in slow motion, a gap opens in the center of the field and I break for daylight.  I get about 5 bike lengths on the peloton and coast through the line (hands on the bars, fuck you very much) to win some swag.   First time in a long while that I feel some of my prior acceleration available when I called upon it.

Somewhere along the next few laps a 2 man break gets off the front and gets a good gap.  It wasn't until someone mentioned we'd be racing for 3rd did I realize it had happened.  (I blame the beer for my lack of attention.  You can't prove otherwise!)  The PV crew did a lot of work for the next few laps to try and bring them in, but no one wanted to help out.  I did my best to marshal others to the cause, barking out orders and evening trying to goad the other well represented teams into participating in the chase.  I ended up dragging the eventual winner to within 50m of the break, allowing him to bridge up.  Unfortunately the two of us were off the front of the peloton, dooming me no mans land with no legs.  I sit up and wait for the pack to return. 

The remaining laps are filled with half hearted pursuit.  No one wants to help out and the break continues to sit 200m off the front of us, and now there are three of them.  I get away again with 2 others to find ourselves out in no mans land once again.  I sit up and get the rest of the team organized so we could get Alex free for the pack sprint.  The backstretch gets all clustered up again and we are moving really slow. 343 finally moves to the front and we integrate in with them.  Couzens and Alex are behind me, with a 343 guy in front of me and the two big sprinters from 343 behind them.  We kick the speed up to stretch out the peloton.  I'm yelling at the guy in front to keep it moving as we come through the last corner but he starts to fade and pulls to the right.  I hit the apex of the corner and drop the hammer for the last time, hoping to spring our group free and get Alex a clean set of wheels. 

After 5 seconds I don't see any shadows below my wheels.  The sun's low in the sky and at our back... there should be long shadows... I look over my shoulder and see a huge gap.  Crap.  I had ridden off the front of the field and no one was coming around Couzens and Alex.  I pressed on hoping to open my advantage from this stupidly far distance.  The cells in my body burning the leftover Stumptown Tart that I had so glutinously consumed the day before.  My lungs and legs seared. I looked down at my HRM and was running close to 105% of my season's max. 

And then it happened.. a clear moment in the anaerobic pain induced haze when I looked up and saw the finish line 200m ahead.  I wanted to sit up and pack it in.  I reached for the gear shift to ease the pain in my legs and actually went to a bigger gear.  In that instant, the frustration of chasing and failing time and time again turned into  "if the rest of you are content to race for 4th, I'll make sure you finish at least 5th."  Ten more seconds of effort, ten more seconds of pain will guarantee that I finish ahead of the pack and give me a small nugget of satisfaction for the night.

The race ends and we all roll back to the registration area.  Mike thanks me for the bridge to the break then apologizes to his break mates for piping them in the final sprint.  Alex, Couzens, and Larry from 343 comes over and congratulates me on my finish.  Friendly recounts of the night are flowing all around.  Due to hotspots I end up tied for 4th with a guy who was in the break, so I take 5th anyway. ;)  Such is the life of masters racing. 

Traci helps me pack up as I chat with some of my competitors.  In fact she packs up almost all my gear.  I feel bad,  but I'm so thankful of how incredibly supportive she is when I'm racing. 

The drove home is fun and we are both in a good mood considering its after 8pm and we haven't had dinner yet.  We stop at Freddies for some chocolate milk.  Sometimes its good to go visit an old stomping ground to let the familiarity of it all allow you to let it all hang out and see what you can do.

Tim-beer.

Today's ride actually started last night. Our club has a "tradition" of celebrating first Friday at one of the multitude of brew pubs downtime. While the event is open to all, typically it’s a gathering of many of the members of the race team plus a few light hearted souls who come down to have a good time. Last night, the place of gathering with the Lucky Lab on Quimby. The Lucky Lab is a chain of pubs in downtown that have a fondness both for dogs and cyclists. It's not uncommon to see both bikes and four legged friends in the confines of the pub.

The beer of choice last night came in a pair of varieties. Lucky Lab had an Organic Red on tap, in addition to an amazing Wheat Porter that the happened to have on tap the last time we were there in March. Wheat beers are evil. One of my favorite beers happens to be Hefeweizen, which is an unfiltered wheat beer typically served with a wedge of lemon. It's amazing refreshing on a hot day. It also has the caloric weight of half a loaf of bread. As someone who is very conscious of his weight for training purposes, the thought of drinking a loaf of bread makes me cringe. As a beer lover... lets just say the beer lover won last night.

The gathering itself was great. I got the opportunity to catch up with a few of my teammates I haven't seen in a month due to life's hectic schedules. As the evening wore on, a few of us ganged up on our teammate Dan and convinced him to do the longer team ride that took place the next morning. We swore up and down that we'd ride with him and not hammer the climbs and make sure he didn't get shelled OTB of the group. The constant badgering and pints of beer finally wore down his resolve and he agreed to ride with the team the next morning.

This morning arrived about an hour and a half before I wanted to. I've told myself numerous times over the past year and a half to not drink the night before a big ride, but it is definitely a major weakness that I have. Fortunately I took it easy last night and woke up only mildly dehydrated. Traci and I looked out the window as we made our breakfast and muttered about the un-summer like weather. We can only hope that now that the Rose Festive parade has happened the weather will get better.

We made our way over Longbottom's to meet up with the rest of the club. Today was the memorial ride in honor of a fallen club mate, Tim O'Donnell. It was roughly a year ago that Tim was struck by an out of state driver who's license to drive had been revoked and killed. While his death was a tragedy for both our club and the cyclist community in and around Portland, I'd like to think it helped spark a long needed revolution of traffic reform in this state. Once at Longbottom's we met up with other members of our club to ride in Tim's memory and present his widow Mary O'Donnell with a framed club jersey. After some solemn words and somber reminders of the hazards we as cyclists face ever time we ride, we split into our groups and hit the road.

Since this weekend had no road races on schedule, the team had put together an impromptu long ride for this date. On short notice the ride organizers changed our route so that we could participate in the memorial send off. It's times like this that solidify my love for this club and the team. On the docket for today was a ~70mile out and back to Timber, Oregon. The route is a favorite the group, and holds a special pace in the hearts and memories of a number of us. Dan had made it out to the ride, with tales of Irish Car Bombs after the Lucky Lab. A number of us made an on-road pact to take it easy once things heated up.

About 10 miles out of the start we hear the unforgiving sound of a tire going flat. Mitch, one of the members of "the pact" rolls over to the side of the road as the group rolls on. A number of us stop to wait for him, knowing that we'll eventually meet up with the rest of our group. After a few minutes we have the tire inflated, but the damage is too severe. Mitch has to pull out of today's ride and limp back to Longbottom's. The six of us remaining get back on course, noting the low hanging clouds and spotty rain in the hills ahead. The group I'm with are great people, and all folks I've ridden with many times before. We set a hard, but sustainable pace, knowing there was little chance we'd catch the group ahead, but riding hard for the sake of doing so. One of us comments that most of the riders Dan was planning to be with were in this group. We ride through rain and back out of it. The changes in temperature and humidity causing us to don and remove vests and rain jackets on road. We pass by the Timber store with out slowing, knowing that the return trip will stop there for a re-supply of water and snacks for those who need it. While the miles leading up to Timber road were relatively dry, our turn onto the road was met with a heavier rainfall. Our small pod of riders press on quietly, hoping that the next bend or rise in the road takes us out of the rain cell.

Javad breaks the silence and points out tire tracks in the wet pavement. We figure the pack is less than 10 minutes ahead of us. The road makes the right hairpin and kicks uphill. Now the fun starts. We tick out a quick pace, each of us trying to find our legs and monitoring our bodies response to the effort. Greg and Jason recover first and open a gap on the rest of us. Sustained climbs aren't my thing and I watch them slowly gain ground on me. I resolve to ride within myself and press on. Kender and I trade blows over the next mile, testing each others legs in a battle of the Bostonians. We can see Greg and Jason just up the road but don't gain any ground on them. As we near the top I dig once more trying to get separation from Kender and maybe open up a bike length on him before he responds. He's riding strong this year. The summit comes into view and I see Jason and Greg sit up as a pair of riders are approaching from the other direction. Dan and Robert had turned back due to a run in with some loose dogs. A short bit later Javad and our lone hardwoman Kristin roll up the hill and summit. We pull off to the side of the road and enjoy a freak break in the clouds. The sun warms our bodied and blinds us at the same time. Steam rises from the road.

Five to ten minutes later the rest of the team comes into view from the other side of the hill, a snake of black and blue digging for the summit. We cheer them on as we'd cheer on pro riders, urging them to the top. I move out to the center of the road and extend my arm in a mock finishing line. Steve and Todd dig deep running neck and neck for the prize, smiling through the pain of the labor. Steve pips Todd to my outstretched hand and give's me a high-five as he goes past. Mitch Lee, ever the work horse rolls past me with a huge grin on his face. The rest of the team rolls up and over the top, some not waiting for a regroup. The chase in on. The ride down Timber road to its start is a blur. Small pods of five to six riders stretched out over a half mile. One of the reasons we ride this road is the utter lack of traffic. The entire time we were there we had a single car pass us.

As expected we stop at the store to refuel. The group changes its route back to avoid climbing the backside of Clapshaw. We had already gone over it once today, but the backside is brutal with some 16% grade sections. Oddly enough its a hill I like climbing.

The trip back was punctuated by flat tires. Small groups breaking off from the main so no one rides alone. I drop back to help out Kristin, who had not only ridden with us, but had rode a good 15 additional miles out to the start. We ride together through the fields of Roy and are soon joined by Kender and Couzens. We are all cooked, but know the ride is almost over. The pack finally regroups a few miles down the road when yet another flat tire happens. Such is riding in the wet weather.

A bit under 4 hours after we left, we arrive back at Longbottom's. We order our food and take a much needed rest. In a blink of an eye an hour goes by and we groan as we get out of our seats. The coffee shop has always been good to us. We thank the staff and head out in ones and two's.

As I roll home, I think about the days ride and what it meant for the club and the team. I decide to crack open a beer at dinner for Tim, and Timber.