"Starts" with Beardsley and Fisk!

Standing Starts
are fundamental to great track racing according to Portland Track Superstars Andrea Fisk and Steven Beardsley. They took the time to hang out with the Kids of b.i.k.e. on a recent Saturday night to teach us about standing starts.

Word!

Five new OBRA Champs!


Word-RCB!

Five winners
in three Disciplines
will wear
the Blue and Gold
of The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association
Championship Jersey,
Isabelle Ford,
Mielle Blomberg,
Maya Bergmann,
Jenn Leonard, and
Naiqwan Pellman are all now
"State Champions" until this time next year.

Mielle won in the fast dirt of Short Track.
Jenn climbed from Goverment Camp to Timberline
to win her division of the Hillclimb Champs.
Maya, Isabelle, and Naiqwan all won Junior Track Champs at the
Alpenrose Velodrome.

Teams abound around their success as
Mielle and Jenn have a new
fast squadra of PIR veterans learning to race on the track
and Naiqwan continues to run around
with his cousin Sonny and his old pal DeyShaun Lee.

Unseen on this date, Isabell Ford has a brother named
Aman, who is fast as the wind.

And just the same size and age as her,
Maya has a teammate named Devin Morago.

All of these racers are taking to the velodrome walls to hone their cyclocross,
road, and trail skills.

OBRA STXC Championships, by Greg

Sherwood Equestrian Center was the place to be yesterday if you raced mountain bikes in the Short Track discipline. To the uninitiated, here's the wiki on STXC:
"Short track Cross-country - Short Track Cross Country (XCC). A very short XC style event of about 800m in length but generally about 1 minute 30 seconds in winning time. A short, sharp exciting event to watch and participate in."

The course was dry and bumpy, starting in mowed stubble and some sweeping off camber turns before descending into some dirt single and doubletrack. A few bumpy straights and short rollers then led to a short but steep little dirt kicker uphill then a short gravel road climb before turning left and a slight downhill run to the start/finish.

Exciting was the key word today. The Cat 3 races started at 11:00 am. Mielle led out in strong Cyclisme/Word-RCB style; that is started at the front and pinned it. She led from wire-to-wire and is the newly crowned Cat 3 Womens OBRA STXC Champion! Mielle led a dominant race, and it was exciting to watch her clean riding, and put a huge gap on her chasers.


Our MTB junior crew was also present. DeyShaun Lee rode a very solid and clean race, finishing just off of the podium. Naiqwan went down on a tricky turn in the first lap, snapping off his rear brake lever and having to pull out of the race.

Dave Wingard and I represented Word-RCB in the 11:30 Cat 2 Masters 45+ field. I lined up front and got a good start, almost nailing the holeshot, and getting to the dirt second wheel. I caught the leader, then ended up staying off the front, with Joe Field right on my wheel every climb, but I would get a 50 yard gap or so on every descent (at least that's what he told me after the race). Joe and I established a large gap on the field, but he had more in the tank at the end than I did, and pulled away from me on the finishing climb to solo in for the win while I took 2nd.

Csaba raced in the Cat 2 Masters 35-44 field, but regretfully I had to get home and didn't see his race.

All in all an good day in the dirt, and a promising look at what is hopefully to come this cyclocross season!

Greg

Portland's Fastest Crit!

PDX! TWIGLIGHT CRIT!

Big rollers came to Portland for the $1000 win. Jake and Bedford made the break with ORBEA's New Zealand National Team.

After that it became important to remember how valuable this kind of big time racing is.

Good Job Bedford and Hansen.
Qualify at the "Qualifiers" magnana!





PDX!

Lead Out at PIR!

Photo by Stephen Bedford
A fast Cyclisme team is developing amongst the women in the Novice ranks at PIR. Now Mielle Blomberg and Jenn Leonard are racing well in the "Open Women" Monday Night Masters Racing which is a fast adventure indeed.

Meanwhile, well placed for the Monthly series in the Novice Category
is Catherine Cooper, who with the help of her trusty friend and team-mate Sarah Hunter has won her first PIR Race.

Nationals or Bust!

Jake Hansen
is
qualified.
by
John Benenate

With a head full of flem,
and a headache screaming in one ear,
tension was palpable in the car flying north on I-5, as the unspoken conversation enunciated volumes about the rain beating down on the windshield at five in the morning Saturday August 7th, 2010.

Leaving Portland at four in the morning,
we set out to get Jake qualified for Nationals in the Points Race at the National Qualifier event at Marymoor Velodrome in Seattle.
Qualifying for the "Endurance events can be done with The Pursuit,
The Points race, or the Scratch Race."

We wanted to get him qualified with the early morning Points race so we could hurry and get home, and rest before the Pursuit Class at Alpenrose that night.

As the race unfolded, an opening Bazzooka took most folks out of the race in the first lap.
But after waiting much longer than his impatient coach liked, Jake finally attacked again and made a selection including last year's Pursuit Silver Medalist Dan Harm.

After towing that group of three to a veriety of scoring sprints, Dan HArm said "hey man, I am already third in this series, I am not into working too hard today," Jake finally attacked for real.

After five laps off the front Jake finished the race with a win.

Now, we have the Portland Qualifier next week and job one is to get Bedford qualified.

Short Track Queen!

Mielle Blomberg

won Gold

dominating her division of the
2010 Short Track Series staged
out on the motorcycle track in the back side of PIR.

Throughout the series
huge fields of people
racing in many forms
on all sorts of equipment
raced before officials who made wild calls
relegating whole packs,
and on a dry summer's dusty hard course all factors
conspired together
to slow this woman down,
They had little effect.

Always riding at the front,
Mielle won most of her races.
Races she didn't win she would still finish well,
always riding clean.
And she ALWAYS had a glib humorous banter going afterwards
about all the nuances.

She's obviously having a great time.
Invited to la Squadra Cyclisme by her fast friend Catherine Cooper, Mielle came over After winning the Green Leader's jersey in the novice division on the Road side of PIR. Sarah Hunter joined in with the same momentous wave of Cyclisme magic.

Mielle's victory, presents a new glorius chapter in Cyclisme's Short Track Lore as this Word-RCB incarnation, follows the b.i.k.e./Yakima 1-2-3 in the Masters Men in 2008.