Paceline School!

El Ninja Winter Sunday
Everyone was out,
from Fairmont Loop to Sauvies Island,
Oregon Cycling was booming.
Photos by
Dey Shaun "Daddy" Lee

Teams were everywhere. Rapha, Team O, Ironclad, Gentle Lovers and Crank were just some of the Saturday shoppers we saw attempting to add ammunition to their arsenal.

Piecing together a lot of pacelines, sprints and hills, the Cyclisme made Rocky 60 miles!

Up on Fairmont and Talbot Meghan and Peter Smith joined Mr. First to Arrive, himself - Kent "Tupac" Ross, soon to be joined by Keegan "The Badger" O'Neil, and Dey Shaun "Daddy" Lee. Tim Bergmann, Noah, and Noah's pal Greg Miranda descended into our ranks and we were away.


Around Fairmont Loop Meghan nailed her first big time breakaway paceline like a euro pro, then fashionably retired to photography. Her shot of Mt. Hood is featured on Facebook and right after this I am going to go SHARE.

Young and old shared in their co misery to hold each other up, while strong men did their damage. Noah Beggs was brave as he faced this new brand of suffering for the first time in his young life. Dying on the big rolling sections, he danced right to the front when the road turned up hill.

Bergmann was tired from tandem towing the day before, but was resolved to his familiar fate. Renewing his bicycle racing career is something he has done time and time again for Cyclisme. Whether it was to lead out and train Paul Laak - the great sprinter of PSU, to glue together team pursuit teams for the original Bazzooka - Jeferson Vowell, Chris Deardorf, and Micheal "Frost" Risner - or to round out the Family Sprint Team Bergmann on the Track - Tim knows what it is to start again.

After more than a few sprint laps of Fairmont, Humphery Hewett was a welcome descent to Sylvan. Climbing the steep hills in Arizona gears, Greg Miranda must of thought The Cemetery a telling site. But you wouldn't have known it looking at him as he pedals with the class of a real Elite cyclist.

Keegan Kent and Peter all came to the table ready to play. Wow. Their strength is going to make us all fast. Turning down Newberry and being game for a loop around Sauvies was a Godsend.
Bravo Cyclisme!

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it." - Lena Horne, Singer

Height of the Off-Season

Wired for Sound
by
Keegan O'Neill


It just kept getting better.
Today I was the Ride Leader of the "Saturday Kids' Practice"
leaving from East Moreland Grocery at Noon and Featuring two Rendezvous -River City and Old Town Pizza. John had me on one of our new two-way radios.

Practice started out okay and then got pretty rough, but then it got great. Rolling out this morning Noah, Kent and I sprinted with joyous expectation. It was scheduled to be a long day of riding with the team.


East Moreland Grocery has a great fruit selection, so we got 3,3,&3, (apples, oranges, and bananas) At EMG we also met Danni, Lori ,the Campbells.
We rolled out on Reed College Parkway to RCB where we found Santo, Luca, and Michelle.
We took the waterfront "Esplanade bike path north.
I kept the group rolling as a unit on the popular path until I came back into radio contact with John when we passed through Rose Quarter, and called for "two Columns" as we hit the Williams bike path.

Under radio Direction from the Directeur Sportif, I sent my two trusty Domestiques Luca Mallon, and Noah Noah Beggs down the road, off the front, up Williams. I was amazed to see their blistering pace light up the lane ahead. Noah set the big roll and Luca tucked in his draft.
Both of them low in their drops, elbows bent, knees in-they were flying.



I guess John needed them to come up and get cash from him to pay for the garlic, onions, olive and mushrooms pizza made by Old Town Pizza where Earl Cooper was waiting in his Cadilac to put his kids on bikes. Olivia and Edward were game for a bike ride.

We put them on tandems powered by Kent Ross, and Tim Bergmann. Olivia with Tim, and Edward with Kent.

In the beginning we had the wrong kid on the wrong bike.

We switched them and it made all the difference. Still, things seemed to go wrong every few minutes.
Kent rode a tandem with Olivia and Tim Bergman Captained her brother Edward.

They seemed to be having the time of their lives. They seemed so happy and that feeling is contagious. We delivered the kids back safely in the care of their father at the Interstate Bowling Alley.



Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulse dance and my heart sing. ~ Helen Keller deaf and blind political activist

After a veritable tour of the Overlook Bluff, we rode with the Bergmans back to their car out front of Old Town.

From Old Town on Sumner Street we rode super fast down N. Vancouver to the Mallons' car parked at RCB. We took a left on Tillamook and a right on KLK!

"Where are we going?!" Michelle Mallon yelled out.

Going down MLK boulevard we rode in the right order to go fast enough to stay safe but not too fast and drop anyone. Cindy and Michelle led the way.

I was so impressed with how fast Willie, Cindy, Michelle and Santo could ride.
I did not think they could go that fast, especially for that long, and I don't think they did either.

After they made it back they were thrilled by that last high speed adventure.
We said our good byes and I rode the Cambells back to Eastmoreland Grocers. We worked a three up paceline back south fast.
At the end of the day it was a great ride. We showed how resilient we were and many of us rode faster than we ever had before. Rides like this are the reason we were the number one team in the state last season for most of the year.

We are making people fast.

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live.
-Mark Twain Taming the Bicycle. 1884

New b.i.k.e. team coming!

Happening in many sectors of Cyclisme as the new year opens,
our TEAM DEVELOPMENT is lively!



Professor Gerwing and his lovely wife Lilliane called from INDIA today !



MASTERS members make all sorts of plans, while the Fairmont Loop feels their renaissance.

Rocky Rabbit is on the tip of everyone's tounge.

But nowhere is there a more heated development happening than the flammable nexus of junior peer mentors teaching the subject of cycling to kids in the common room of an after school community center. All while the savvy adult Boys and Girls Club mentors keep a watchful eye on the perimeter.

Safe and exciting is it's phenomena.





Everyone is getting into the groove. Kids wanna race. Class veterans track stand and bunny hop in the group circle while they wait to race on the stationary bikes. Youth mentors announce races, direct kids, and keep it fun.




Our teen b.i.k.e. mentors are sought after to make celebrity appearances on the racing bikes to satisfy their fans.

Children are laughing and cheering and talking about who put their foot down. (you have to give your BMX bike up if you put your foot down.) Others just stand in the way, becoming obstacles to make the course interesting.



It's grand!

All the Boys and Girls Club kids get excited to see the bikes and the people who come with them. Elder b.i.k.e. mentors honored to be so idolized by their young friends who after so many months, they know by first name.
Writing in journals their appraisals of the situation, the kids of b.i.k.e are on a mission.
They are trying to build a whole program.
Building a cycling team means paying for it too. Understanding why they are doing some good, and being able to communicate the reason to others is part of their goal.

People in the community see what is happening too, like Russel Cree of Upper Echelon who just donated stationary bike stands to our Boys and Girls Club racing project.

Now veterans of the 5 Minute Club sprint their hearts out!



Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~ H.G. Wells

Lurkin on The Loop!

LOOP LURKIN
is an activity best left to the summer sun,
unless you are one of those rare breed,
RACER.


Riding at 1000 feet in the Winter months can lead to cold fingers,
and tingling toes.



Sunday saw scenarios similar certainly, but some saw old friends and new competition.



Sprinting
for the "Stop Sign Ahead" sign from under the bridge, Bergmann looked like he knew what he was doing and Peter seemed to be finding 0ut what he could really do.

Kent and Noah were always lurking.



Everyone was steaming by the time we came back to Fairmont and Talbot.









Master of hospitality of course once again had a winning idea with tacos from the taquiera on HWY 10.





Kent and Noah blazed the descent off the west slope. Bergmann and Petey hearded the youngins to the feed zone.

Sunny Saturday

Surprise!

Winter Cold Warmed Up for an Elite Junior opener in December.

Investment in the young ones is paying off now that they are not so young.
Strong and skilled they got down the road pretty good.

Climbing Cornell to Skyline and descending McNamee, Noah and Luca led us out while Pete Smith mentored. Tupac, The Badger and Daddy pushed with one hand , then switched.

Regulating tempo with easy gears, the team made good time out. And when they turned in on HWY 30, they caught everyone on the road.

Along the way we met friends who had preceded in The Lore. One was Kyle McTeague, a premiere climber who raced for PSU with Norrene Valente, Tim Bergmann, and myself.





He was tickled to meet the Junior boys and asked them questions about their cycling.




Our next rendevous was a pit stop to flip a stem, and at Westend we laughed with three guys who had raced with Cyclisme when it was "River City Montage," "GB Cyclisme" and recently with "RCB Cyclisme."


Mark Ontiverous, Justin Serna, and Chris Corno had all raced for Cyclisme at one time or another.
Just Serna even returned and coached on Cyclisme and helped discover Alex Lightman and Trevor Spahr.


Mark let our guys do abs in his store, then bought everyone hot coffees or cocoas.
Getting out of the envelope was the order of the day, and whether our guys were racing scary or socializing sweet, it all came full circle to Cyclisme.