2009 Cross Crusade #1

Alpenrose Dairy: Portland Oregon

Sunday October 04, 2009

1,438 intrepid riders participated in yesterday’s season opener for the Cross Crusade yesterday at Alpenrose Dairy, nearly 200 more than competed last year, making it likely the largest ‘cross race (by participation) in the world. Unfortunately, I guess I didn’t pay the gods of luck enough, as I was placed in the DFL row of the “random” call up.

I lined up in the 35+ A race, which ran 2 minutes behind the A field for an hour. (Note: Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks raced in the A group today). I had hoped for a better starting position but alas it wasn’t in the cards. I was in the back of a 60 man train. The starting gun went off and I finally was able to get clicked in and get rolling as the lead group of riders were already rounding the first asphalt corner of the course. I put the hammer down (probably a bit to early in hindsight) and tried to pass as many guys as possible before the course skinnied down to a single track downhill behind the famous Alpenrose velodrome. There were of course still plenty of guys up ahead of me going into the single track through the trees on the backside of the 2.3 mile course. When I finally made it to the straightaway alongside the parking lot I see teammate of mine coming back at me (there is a u turn further down the course)… “Damn it, am I really that far back still” I thought to myself? I managed to fight my way up a few more places and ended up settling in to a groove with a HUP united rider. The two of us battled it out and sucked on each others wheel for then next 4 laps. On my 6th lap coming out of the parking lot again I see Trebon and Wicks powering through looking like they would overtake me in a matter of moments… Oh crap – I better pick it up so as not to cut my race short… Alas, I put the hammer down only to be passed by the Kona twins going into the velodrome on their final (7th lap).

In all seriousness, it was a bumpy fast difficult race for me and I can’t be to hard on myself for moving up 40 spots from the start. Plus my 21st place finish was better than my 30th place finish from last year at the same venue. Alpenrose has never been particularly kind to me. Ironically I’ll be there for the 3rd time in a week this Wednesday night for the next edition of Alpenrose blind date mid week cross series. (Single Speed this time though).
DP

My almost top 10

Cross Crusade #3
Rainier Oregon
Sunday, October 19, 2008

Well I thought I did it... As of last night, the results from the race showed me in 10th place (my best ever in an A race (cross crusade or otherwise). As of one day later, the results have been revised and it looks like I've been bumped down to 12th. Oh well, still my best placing in a cross crusade race. Just not as impressive as a top 10.

Enough of that, on to the race. It was out in Rainer Oregon, a small town about 45-60 miles west of Portland. For yet another weekend, we enjoyed freakishly sunny weather for race #3 of the Cross Crusade series. It was another big day - over 1100 competitors for the event.

It started out cold and then got rapidly warmer as the 2:50 race approached. I couldn't figure out what to wear - long sleeve skin suit or short sleeve jersey. I finally went with the jersey and was glad that I did as it was warm and there was a huge climb.

More about the course (and the climb). It was a really fast course and long by 'cross standards 2.3 miles per lap. I did 8 laps which equaled abit over 18 miles in 1:07. Most cross races are in the neighborhood of 12-14.

I had a pretty good start (no call up but still relatively close to the front). Race start and we are off. All 70 or so of us struggling to get pole position as we take a sharp left turn up the hill and onto the 'real' course. Up the hill to the top, a sharp left into the single track: bunny hop, skip, jump, barely holding on over the bumps and jumps. Then down the hill fast past the tent and into the meadow. Over the first barrier, through the woods and back on to the school grounds where we hit the 6 pack. After that it is a quick downhill which leads to the bottom of the the hill.

The hill is the game changer. The race is won or lost based on this hill. It starts at the lowest point of the course and goes all the way to the top. Fans on both sides, screaming, clanging cowbells. A wall of sound and encouragement. I pick the less traveled line and pass a couple of riders and power up to the top past the OBRA tent. This trend continues on each lap (my hill training apparently has been paying off) and I gain position as the race continues.

I feel my pace pick up on each lap, but on lap 7 I start feeling the tell tale signs of my legs cramping up. I start using all my mental & physical tricks to keep my mind (and quads) from cramping into a massive charlie horse. I go past he OBRA tent and hear 1 more lap. I can do one more lap...

I throw down the hammer and push through the last lap blowing through a couple more guys and getting passed by a couple. I finish in what apparently is 12th place, my best crusade A+ race so far.

Rapha Roller Race

Can this picture be any more ridiculous? "New Kids On the Bike"... Embarrassing to say the least.

Last weekend, Cyclepath Racing was invited to participate in the Rapha Roller Race as part of the Oregon Manifest festivities.

More info on the race over at bikeportland

I was one of the guys on the team that opted to do the race. Gant, one of the other guys did a great write up that I am going to paraphrase below.

5:34 p.m. We get a late scratch. So we're down to Folske, Porter and Endo, but a quick call to the shop and Hutchins is on board. The guys a gamer. Love it. But all he's got to race in are jeans and a Cyclepath Racing wind vest. Turns out he is the best dressed in our group. Damn, where's Herr when you need him? We will appoint Herr creative director next year in charge of getting our team some proper costumes.

5:52 p.m. The organizers give us an orientation, which some teams, like the ones who have been drinking since noon, need more than others. We are sized for bikes and given
the general format from the organizer. It's also our only chance to spin the little gear on the bike and get an idea of what we've gotten ourselves into.

6:18 p.m. We get the last beer at the beer tent across the street at the Manifest show. The four of us share it and head up Broadway to 7-11 for a six pack.

7:01 Back in the riders holding pen, know also as the "Green Room" and it's all nervous energy now. Teams are huddled together, sizing each other up, trying to look deep in
each others eyes to see if one among us knows the secret to flailing their legs the fastest over 500 meters. Actually, it's more like a Portland cycling frat party, which is to say a really weird frat house.

Team Zoobomb is clearly (acting) the drunkest and exposing more skin than some of us might like to see. The de facto leader sports a badge, police hat, fanny pack, sparkly, blue short shorts and a matching sports bra. "Hottie Patrol" is scrawled on his bare shoulder.

A Veloshop rider sports white underwear over her cycling bibs, a white wig and a riding crop which she is not afraid to use on anyone passing by.

There's also Team Sabotage in full Beastie's period outfits, The River City chicks... hair everywhere. Team Beer is there of course. They seem to be communicating mostly in mono syllables and hand gestures. They cheer loudly at the slightest provocation. Many other good costumes but this is a good representative sample.

7:16 I can't handle the anticipation so I hit the massage table for a quick rub down. Seriously, they had two massage therapists there for the riders.

7:42 A rider from one of the teams seems to be taking a "nap".

8:12 It's go time and Porter is up in the first round. He gives it the gas on the blue bike, but it's not enough to fend off sudden death.

8:35 I'm up and just get my ass handed to me. I'm also on the blue bike, so Porter and I are pretty sure the blue bike is shite.

9:07 Xterra National Champ Folske rocks the helmet cam and fights the good fight. The best Cyclepath showing so far, but alas, second place isn't enough to advance.

9:29 Hutchins, a self-proclaimed expert at races under a minute, shows he isn't bluffing and takes round 16 with ease. A great ride and restores Cyclepath racing street cred.

Joshua moves on to the Semi's and is knocked out. Bummer...

Megan and I leave to get some beers and dinner at 5th Quadrant and call it a night.

One of the team Sabotage riders from Seattle won the Signal Cycles frames. Nice work... Those frames are sweet.

For anyone reading this, this is satirical... No offense intended.

Peace.

Kruger's Kermesse Farm Crit Series: Race #3

I did my first 'cross' race of the season this past weekend. In actuality, it wasn't a cross race it was a Farm Criterium or "Kermesse". Basically a dirt crit on gravel and dirt roads in and around Kruger's farm on Sauvie's Island. It was the 3rd and final race in the series (I missed the first 2). The only thing that really made it 'cross' like was that I was on my cross bike, it gave me 'cross BAR points and it was on dirt. There were no barriers, run ups or even changes in tempo. It was basically full on 100% for 60 minutes.

There's me in the middle (3rd from the left)

I raced in the Master A category and ended up doing fairly well. I led for some of the race and then was pushed back to 3rd then 4th place as my energy levels started dipping. I rode alone for a couple of laps just trying to stay ahead of the main pack of riders. My saving grace came when Sue Butler (local female racer extrodenaire) came up (the women As ride at the same time as the men in this particular series). I jumped on her wheel and basically rode with her (trading pulling duties) until the end of the race. This helped put me back in 3rd place (final result) however I was not able to catch up with #1 & #2. I'm pretty happy with the 3rd place finish, though, it's not really as impressive as it seems as the field was way smaller than a normal race. It was a good practice race though and gave me the confidence that I can push a high output for the full A race.

After the race was over, there was a ultra team relay. Cyclepath fielded a team so I did lap. We ended up in 2nd to River City. We had them at the beginning, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Close, but no cigar.

Simon (in the blue & white stripes) jamming to the band

The family came out and watched, but left after my race so I got to do a warm down riding home. All in all a great day.

Falls City Firecracker Presented by Cyclepath

Sunday June 1 2008
Falls City Oregon
Single Speed

The promoters were serving pain by the cup and I was drinking it by the pitcher. This is a great mountain bike race and one of my favorite of the year. Half Fast Velo (another local team) puts on the race and Cyclepath is the primary sponsor. It takes place in Falls City at the Black Rock Freeride area.

I awoke in the AM to pouring rain and the sinking feeling that it was going to be an utter slopfest. As I loaded the car and headed to the pick up point for the carpool down I was really feeling a sense of dread about the weather. Thankfully, as we drove south, it dried out and by the time we were in Falls City it was perfect.

The race was billed as 80% single track which in my opinion was pretty accurate. The course itself was a multi-lap format where each lap was about 4.5 miles with 1400 feet of elevation gain per lap. Basically, each lap consisted of a prolonged uphill grind up single track and fireroad and then a bombing single track & fire road descent. The promoter of the race did incorporate some routes that had ladders and drops into the course which did add to the excitement. It also pushed my rigid single speed to it's limit.

The race start & finish was midway up the fire road climb which resulted in both the start and the finish being on a hill (nice...). At the starting gun, I took off from the very back of the pack. I spent the first part of the climb working through a mass of bodies and was towards the front by the time we hit the first single track section.

By the time I made it to the top and the beginning of the downhill there were about 4-6 guys ahead of me. I picked a couple of them off on the descent and all but one on the next climb/descent combo.

Ended up finishing the race in 2nd place. The 'other' guy was Nelson Snyder. A Cyclepath Teamie and my copilot on the drive down to the race. I can't say I am disappointed.

Cyclepath Racing Press Release

Cyclepath, the premier custom bike shop in Portland, is proud to announce the launch of Cyclepath Racing. Proprietors Bill Larson and Joshua Hutchens are excited to have a group of dedicated local riders racing together under the Cyclepath Racing banner. While the shop will continue its tradition of support for other OBRA teams and riders, the new squad will represent the shop directly at OBRA events and beyond. With a range of talents and focuses, the team will be competitive across a range of different races.

Cyclepath Racing is:

John Acevedo
John Bravard
John Browning
David Diviney
Gant Enderle
Grant Folske
Ian Leitheiser
Dan Porter
Aaron Sander
Nelson Snyder
Christian Tresser
Patrick Wilder

cyclepathracing.wordpress.com

cyclepathnw.com

CPR

It's been a while between posts. I guess it is that time of year in the middle/end of winter where not much is going on. I haven't yet started racing (won't happen for another month) and have basically just been struggling to get as many miles in as possible during these dark days.

On a related note, I was invited to join a new Cyclepath Racing Team ("CPR"). This is a bit different than the existing team as it will apparently be a bit more focused on results and will be a smaller group of guys/girls. We will also apparently be getting a new kit. Members are currently being recruited from other Cyclepath supported teams (only a few of us from the old team are joining the new one) and there is not really a specific focus on one discipline or another.

I'm pretty excited, as this was actually one of my goals for 2008 (still to be published). I was hoping to take a core group of guys from the team and make it more "team/results oriented". Basically something that I need to take it to the next level.

Enough chit chat- the rain has stopped, time for a ride.

Falls City Firecracker presented by Cyclepath

'Mountain Biking'
Sung to the tune of 'Kung Fu Fighting'

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

There was lots of single track in this built up ewok town
They were riding it up and they were riding it down
It's an ancient Marin art and everybody knew their part
From a hucking a gap, and sprinting from the start

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

There was spandex clad dudes and baggy shorts too
The downhill singletrack came round, smoking fast, cool
We took a jump and made a stand, started sliding down the trail
The sudden motion made me skip now we're on a downhill rail

Everybody was mountain biking
Those dudes were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they rode with expert timing

(repeat)..make sure you have expert styling
Mountain Biking, had to be fast as lightning

Falls City Firecracker Presented by Cyclepath

The stats:

• May 20th, 2007
• Falls City, Oregon - Black Rock Freeride area
• First Race of the year
• My First Mountain bike race in over 5 years(excluding Short track)
• 2nd place finish (Sport class)

This past weekends race took place at the Black Rock Freeride 'park' - Basically an area outside of Salem, OR (Falls City) owned by the Oregon Department of Forestry that has been designated as a recreation area. The Black Rock Mountain Biking Association has been busy building up a really nice freeride area there (lots of ladders, jumps, skinnies, gaps, drops, as well as lots of trails) for the past couple of years. The course itself was a multi-lap format where each lap was about 4.5 miles with 1000 feet of elevation gain per lap. Basically, each lap consisted of a prolonged uphill grind up a combo fire road & single track and then a bombing single track & fire road descent. The promoter of the race did incorporate some routes that had ladders and drops into the course which did add to the excitement and made me glad I was riding my 5 inch travel full suspension Titus Motolite. (The Motolite was probably the least cross country oriented bike to make a showing though).

Cyclepath has been the title sponsor of the race for the past couple of years. I missed it last year, so I made a point to race it this year even though I had really low expectations. My main goal was to be there to support the shop as they have been so great for me. The race itself was good fun and the Cyclepath team was out in force (A Cyclepath rider took 1st in the SS), though it was quite wet and muddy which did make some of the ladders slippery. I did admittedly race pretty conservatively though.

The race start & finish was midway up the fire road climb which resulted in both the start and the finish being on a hill (nice...). At the starting gun, I took off with the pack and proceeded to pick off a few riders here and there, about .5 miles into the climb I was at the front with 2 other guys (on Single Speeds!). 2 other guys - another SSer and another geared rider were close on my tail.

By the top of the climb, I was still hanging in with the top 5 guys (3 single speeders and the one guy in my class). I managed to stick with them for the descent and much of the start of the 2nd lap, however at that point they began to pull away (a bit) and we basically stayed in this position until the end of the race. I pretty much raced solo for the remainder of the race, lapping the occasional slow rider here and there. I finished about 1 minute behind the leader and at least 3-4 minutes ahead of #3.

Sorry, no pictures this time as my photog had prior commitments with the family.

Titus Demo Days!

Titus Demo Days

Sunday April 29th was Titus Demo Days - presented by Cyclepath - out in Scappoose. There was a road ride on Saturday that I had to miss, so I'm not going to write about that.

Anyway, the Titus rep was out with tons of bikes - MotoLite, RacerX, RacerX 29er, El Guappo... I really wanted to ride the El Guappo or the 29er, but my primary reason for going out there was to get Megan out on a sweet ride. Once she was setup to go on a small Moto, we were off (I actually just rode my own bike)

I have written about Scappoose in the past, so I'm not going to delve into that, except to note that the trails were in awesome shape, there is new signage (Thanks John Joy!), and some new trails.

A group of us went out - Megan, John, Jonathan, Bill and I - and instantly hit the trails starting with Dead Dog. I was excited to see Meg nail the teeter totter on her first attempt! After that, we hit North Shore where Bill, Jonathan and I tried out the gap ju mp. This was personal first for me, and something I have been wanting to try for quite some time. After Bill did it, I had to try it. It was so fun I did it 3 more times. Props to Jonathan for doing it multiple times - even though he was super nervous.

checking out the jump

Bill hiking up the hill to do the jump (again)

landing the gap

Anyway, it was all in all a great day riding with good people. I wish the pictures did it justice.