Mentorship and Championship!

A recipe for success,
In a bowl!
photos by
Dave Roth

Word-RCB thrilled all in attendance at the Thursday Night track races at Alpenrose. Jake Hansen and the Juniors he coaches are an understood reason for the attention.

The whole story of course, is in the family of racing mentors who surround Jake and the Juniors, and the underlying Ken Nowakowski school of Pursuit.

While our juniors still stand lower on the podium than the kids from the venerable Beaverton Bicycle Club, they are pursuing them with a hungry zeal. And people see it.

Certainly Charlie Warner, the race promoter sees whats going on. Charlie is Mike Murray's right hand man at the velodrome and he appreciates the new class on the infield of the concrete maintenance nightmare they work so hard on.

Charlie holds up new young starters like Kent Ross and sends them into a career of success - and he remembers why he works so hard!

Kent and Keegan are so fired up, and Dey Shaun and Naiqwan are just good at it. Naiqwan is the Cat 5 2010 Bronze medalist in the Match Sprint.

With food and familiar faces, their spot on the infield is a welcoming place to play and talk. Big props to the Ross Bernardinis for their fresh baked ways.
Other team's racers
gather around to dig the cool part.

Mom supports the kids. Dietician supports mom. Coach supports the dietician. Domestiques support the Coach. Everyone supports the Star. The Star informs and leads everyone.

It's a good system.


By the end of the evening's schedule
Jake Hansen steps up and gives a demonstration that puts all on the edge of their seats.

Anything but idle...

Pursuits!

To the trained eye searching, a barren empty concrete bowl fills with meaning. People surround and enter the bowl in a sacred display of all life in miniature. Social nature finds symbolic reflection in the simplicity of banked walls, an easy rolling flat "apron," and a soft grassy yard called "the infield." Simply riding hard alone in one direction becomes a Pursuit.

One may pursue another racer on the other side of the track who pursues them equally. One may pursue glory in the perfection of their form, or the swiftness of their catch. One may pursue enlightenment in their dance with the temporary. It's Hilarious, and it's exciting.

Cyclisme racers gather at a bar where only we hang out. Jake placed the bars location near the back straightaway, and it was suddenly everybody's bag around the plywood roller foundations folks warmed up on.

Our beloved Tillstrom Family presented a member of the original Mojo Squad of GB Cyclisme that came up to build the Kids of b.i.k.e back in '95, Nils Tillstrom and his father Keith. Nils back home after years of working on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, he finally has a moment in Life to race his bike again. Thursday Night Pursuits was a smart place to start.

We can judge by the company we keep there. One luminary face that thrills me is Oliver "Butch" Martin. A young Black Italian in 1967 knew cycling and red sauce, and he knew racism. When he brought that soul of Harlem (see here), to the USCF as National Team Coach in the 1970s, he brought a style to the top unparalleled in in American Cycling history.

Tonight he stands on the infield speaking Italian to me. Interrupted by Colby Wait Moleneux (fasted TT new kid in Oregon)he suddenly pours all of his attention to the possibility of adjusting a bolt, then turns to me and resumes, "allora, questo giorno e'..." as if he had just cut the line to a fish too small to keep. Smiling, he told me about what time it really was in the Seventies. Working with Muhamed Ali in the Cycling Tennis Camp of late Seventies Harlem, Butch Martin is SOLID.


He brings all power to his people and they beat all people in tonight's 3K Pursuit, but Jake. At Cherry Blossom in the biggest wind yet, Colby destroyed the Northwest's whole peloton with shock and awe.

Those Ali sponsored camps in the 1970's are where Ronnie Vails introduced his little brother Nelson Vails. Ronnie's son Emerson raced with Cyclisme in the 90s. Ronnie hosted a brunch put on by Cyclisme in 1999. Nelson came to camp by Cyclisme in 2002.

Butch's older (now pro) protege, Jacob Rathe mentors Jake Hansen.

Life! And the interconnectedness the Lore provides. Our team's Lore connects to other team's lore and we have history.


Suddenly Dey Shaun Lee is getting a huge advantage on Kent Ross. Kent the new phenom, had only ridden a track bike maybe forty five minutes ago. Dey Shaun's new found sprint ability is founded on years of experience. Looking back concerned, Kent squeezes a little more speed out of his legs. Kent's months of training this winter slowly pulled back the advantage. Boys becoming young men tried as hard as they could, then flopped down on the infield in complete exhaustion.

Captain Hansen awarded all the Juniors "Road I.D." socks for their hard work. Jake earned them earlier in the day acting in Bob Mionskie's new film short coming out soon.

Fresh from teaching kids how easy gardening is out in Parkrose, Sandra Clark used an easy gear to pluck Victory like a rose. She was seemingly caught by the BBC Pursuer, then her easy gear spinning like a sewing machine reeled in the win.

Alpenrose Velodrome is amazing. There, after a long day of life, people come to perform a Play where life is condensed into the bottom of a bowl.

Velodrome Clean Up!

Scrape, scrape, scraping everything, was the order of the day.

Chris King was flipping pancakes!

Our Juniors were commandos of clean as they rappelled from ropes down the face of the 43 degree cambered turn walls.

Whole families represented Cyclisme as the nicest "clean up crew" on the track during the 2011 Velodrome Clean Up Day.

Mike Murray was like...

"Your crew did pretty good out there today John."

Thanks Mike!

It's about the bike!

Shopping Jenn
Leonard was, for a new bicycle.
To do it she lived at River City for a day.

She rode on the road, all the brands,
for at least 20 minutes each.
She contemplated measurement and feel.
She contemplated gruppos, pedals, cleats, shoes and saddle. She had them change the handlebars, saddle, and pedals.

She signed up for a year of fitting privileges with the River City Women's Fitting Specialists.
Ryan Weaver was at his best.

People came close to watch his procedures, and scurried back out of his way, as he moved near them to adjust the next thing on her bike.

It was magic.

Six hours and $4000 later, Jake wonders what the heck just happened.

She looks very fast. Look for her out on the road.

Estacada Time Trial

It's a Family Affair,
Story by
J.Fritzgerald B.
photos by
Greg O'Brien
when the Bossen family puts on a race.

Race Promoter Geri Bossen is a family woman. She builds cycling teams with a spirit of families first. Speeding by bicycle on the back logger's roads of the very neighborhood she lives in, is her idea of hospitality. Furthermore, her beautiful family provides all the concessions at race side.
She has fostered some of the fastest kids in Oregon Race herstory!

As a promoter,
She likes a family environment, and that is what she got from Cyclisme Racing Programs today.

Featuring some of the fastest cycling Cycisme families in recent memory, Word-RCB Time Trialed to the podium by riding out East ten to twenty miles and that many back West again. It was a good day to bend one's elbows.

For starters, respendent in the blue and white colors of the shop team he is employed by, our brother in the Lore, Estaban Vazequez showed up ready to race in David Guettler's River City Bicycle Shop's kit. Dave participated in a partnership with Bicycles and Ideas for Kids' Empowerment's "Retail Training Course." Esteban was the class's star, and now enjoy's working and racing at the famous River City.
He also rolled out a 58.45!

Debuting their Swan Island legs, father and son Dallas and Clay Ry-Dick donned the black and white jersey of green and black lore, and tore the road up with 1:02 and 1:08 respectively.

Dey Shaun Lee has been showing huge improvement both on the bike, and at the school room desk. He has been paying his dues too, with time at the Gregory Heights library and some scary time on the pavement at the Swan Island Tuesday Night practice.

Always there quick, to pick Dey Shaun up, is Dey Shaun's Father Herman Lee. Herman drove Dey Shaun out this morning, where Dey Shaun threw down a very respectable 1:05.

Herman Lee drove Dey Shaun and Keegan O'Neil to the Icebreaker Criterium just the day before.before.
Keegan O'Neil and Kent Ross have been scaling Portland's Tualitan hills like mountain goats.
Keegan rode half the distance in 30 minutes, but Kent Ross turned in a very fast 58.25 for the whole 20mile course.
Cat 4 Senior Man, Greg O'Brien turned in the fastest Cyclisme Team Word-RCB Time today with a sub hour, 55:36 scoring him a 7th in the Cat 4 TT BAR.

Lone Cherry Blossom

Despite
the
pomp and circumstance
of a
big stage race
by
J. Fritzgerald B.
Photo
by
Pat Malach
of
Oregon Cycling Action

Isaac Potoczny-Jones narrowed and kept his focus to not only ride the best race of his career, but to finish the whole four stage event - representing Word-RCB in the General Compilation.

Eating, cleaning and tending to other teammates is more difficult than it sounds at these events especially when RESTING is all you want to do.
Every single calorie is needed. After the Time Trial -before the Crit, if you can sleep even an hour, you recover so much you can feel it. But when you wake up, you need to turn all the systems back on, all the way on! Because you are about to race faster than you ever have in your life.
So you drink and stretch. Eat and do push - ups. Use the restroom and ride rollers. Hurry! it's time to head over there!
Held at night under the lights, the Cherry City Criterium in Old Town The Dalles was a dangerously fast tight criterium. Knowing the shape of things to come, Isaac shot from the start right up into 3rd position. From there he fought for his life. Speeds in the 30s mph, Isaac dove through bumpy tight corners, elbow to elbow with other racers. Slowly slipping as he fought, Isaac finished mid-pack and was elated to be alive.
And you ask about the Road Races? The Road Races. The road races were harder than anything on the standard OBRA schedule. Typically featuring over six thousand feet of climbing, hairy descents overlooking no guard rail and vast valleys below, even dirt roads on the climbs. The only thing tougher was the short Individual Time Trial held outside of Dufur in a wind field favored by alternative power vendors.
It changes a new racer.
We raised Isaac's saddle and flipped his stem. Take a look at him next time you see him and see if he doesn't look a little different, perhaps hardened by the Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic.

The Dalles

East of the rain line.


Featuring the Columbia Gorge, the Cherry Blossom Stage Race is a four race event promoted by Chad Sperry and his crew of famous promoters, including Cross Crusade's Brad Ross.




With thousands of feet of climbing and descending, and a peloton filled with teams from San Francisco to Seattle, and Idaho to Mexico, this event is the next step up in caliber from standard Portland area racing.



Our racers, across the board were new to the competitive level they were racing in, including our Cat 4's Sandra Clark, and Isaac Potoczny-Jones, and Jake Hansen in his first Cat 2 race at this event.




Winds blew in a permanent bluster carrying an underlying chill while the sun shined back an innocent warmth.



Travelling to another world of weather and another level of

competition helped Cyclisme Racers practice an intense focus on

everything in their racing. Rest, food, and warm up, all became

more important.

One day included two races - monstrously
windy ITT,
and a
super fast tight Criterium.

To warm up for the big race of the moment,
all the muscles
were activated
with yoga,
abs, and rollers.

While focus brought success, such as Jake's early 3rd place in the first road race, and Isaac's final lone overall finish for Cyclisme in the G.C. We mostly used the event to learn and get tougher.

Sandra and I volunteered and were part of the event's promotion.
Around our job we brought quality.
Sandra was key to making sure an under marked corner kept racers turning the right way safe. I heard radios squawk appreciation for her effort.
I was kind of asleep when key events transpired, but when I awoke, I got to work! - like feeding a bonked Stephen Beardsley or plucking an exhausted Jake Hansen off a climb.