Cross Crusade 2009 #1 Alpenrose, by Greg

Jeff, Liliane, Naiqwan, DeyShaun, Greg and Danny all piled into the O'Brien mass transit rig on Sunday and headed over to Alpenrose. Csaba got us on the radio and via the airwaves guided us deep into the mayhem to primo course-side parking.

In addition to our car load, about 59,000 other people decided to race cyclocross today. Eric and I were bummed to hear there were no call-ups from early season stellar performances (I was really bummed, as I still have lingering proudness over my 3rd place Saturday at Hood River. So far in my middle aged race career the words "O'Brien" and "podium" are not often heard in the same sentence).

We got over our disappointment and yelled encouraging stuff to Csaba, Dave, and a bunch of other random people on the course. We warmed up, then DeyShaun decided to somehow rip a hole in his tire. Jeff and I did a Nascar style quick cassette swap to get my spare super-trick light-weight Tufo-clad-Mavic rear wheel onto the Jamis in time to roll over to the start. Here's what it looked like for the master B's.

I'm the guy way in the back on the left (right next to Dr. Bob), about the size of an ant on your screen. They stage in 10 groups. The numbers 0-9 are randomly drawn, and you assemble according to the last digit of your race number. The "lucky 6's" that I am part of were the 3rd to last number called up, so probably 75 or so lined up in front of me.

The whistle blows, and we sit waiting for 10 seconds or so until we can actually start pedaling. I found some lucky holes and gained a boat load of spots before hitting the first dirt section. I went back and forth with Tireless Velo buddy/nemesis Mike for a bit. Then we all jumped over barriers. here is what DeyShaun, Naiqwan and I look like doing that:
I slowed down to let this other guy get in the picture too. You can also tell that if you contribute to this blog you get to put in a bigger picture of yourself!

Jeff crashed approaching the gnarly staircase runup and ripped a hole in his skin and his $90 tire, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of that. The cool support crew from Shimano had a spare wheel for him after he ran to the pit so he was able to finish his race.

All in all a great day. Naiqwan was the stand-out, with a strong 6th place finish in the very competitive Junior Men category. Dave and Csaba in the upper half of the almost 200 rider Master C field. Eric and I passed a lot of people in our race but couldn't quite make it into the points. I rode clean, and felt great. Jeff got back on the horse after a crash and mechanical to finish out the race, and my boy Danny managed one full course lap in the Kids "A" field.

Next week is Rainier High School, a truly awesome course. We'll meet at Naiqwan's place Sunday morning to carpool, time TBD.

Brrr, its cold up there!

Snow on Lolo

By Jake Hansen


Supposedly record crowds gathered at Alpenrose for the Cross Crusade.

While the chaos ensued in Southwest Portland, Aubrey Edwards, Randy Word, Stephen Bedford and myself opted for some quiet and stunning scenery along Marmot Rd & Barlow Trail.

The rain held out on us and everyone rode REAL STRONG up to Lolo Pass Rd. Randy and Aubrey bombed back on Hwy 26 while Bedford and I decided to get crazy and tackle the snow.

And yes, there was snow and toe freezing temperatures up at 3400 ft.

I got some pretty high quality pic's from my phone camera of this crazy guy practicing his cyclocross up there too...

Until next time!

Battle At Barlow v.2009 by Greg

I won't be as long winded this time. The length of my race report will be in proportion to my placing. Since I came in 16th, I'll keep it short.

Naiqwan and Marquell joined in with DeyShaun to race the Juniors field. I don't have photos, but you should all be proud of how these 3 represented b.i.k.e. and Cyclisme. They are courteous, competitive, fun loving, and hungry teens. Naiqwan took 5th in his first cyclocross race ever, DeyShaun came in 6th after another dropped chain incident, and Marquell finished in 8th place.

All 3 of them worked hard, and were thoroughly exhausted when done.

Jeff, Eric and I raced in the Masters B race, which is neat because we're on the course at the same time as the juniors. We all had great line ups, and I got off well and was in 4th for a while, then really faded the last 2 laps. Jeff pulled out with 1 lap to go with breathing trouble in the windy, dusty air. Eric also had a bit of a cold and had a terrible start putting him at the back of the field.

With 2 laps to go Eric passed me asking "how many in front?" I answered that I though about 6 or 8 were ahead of me, and off he went. I tried to stay with him so we could work together but I was gassed. In reality I think more were ahead of me than that, but Eric's strength in getting through most of the field and finishing in 6th was very impressive.

Dave was in the crowded Master's C field, and seemed to pick up the pace each time we would all yell and cheer him on.

2 more smaller races (1 here and another here) before the Cross Crusade starts on Sunday with a hopefully muddy Alpenrose.

Greg

It takes a village?

So 

when's 

dinner?

This question has been asked more ardently in these latter days of this Indian Summer

of 2009. Thanks to the migration of the young Memphis man, 

Chef, 

Jay Ferries.

His culinary skills 

have propelled our Team and our vegetable 

garden  into

the social season.

Now stars 

of the 

community

align with 

stars of 

Cyclisme

in the back yard 

of the Atomic Ranch. 

Local business leaders 

like 

Jay Dykeman of "Jay's Garage"

on 7th and SE Morrison and 

Landscape Designer 

Catherine Raschke 

are poppin over for dinner.

Ms. Raschke knows a lot about plants. 

Like Jay Dykeman who sells Bio-Diesel, 

she leads the way in 

appropriate practices for 

Mother Earth 

with her company 

"Herb 'n Gardens."

From the safe vantage point of a dinner table business people, community people, 

friends all around became real Tifosi as they enjoyed a vision of cyclocross demonstrated by Cyclisme's Word-RCB, 

led by Dave Wingard, Naomi Byrd, Stephen Bedford, 

Jake Hansen, and  

Dey Shaun Lee. 

Guests passionately spied through a chain link fence as Bedford and Jake hooked handlebars. 

The Land of Speed

Indianapolis, Indiana.

by

Jake Hansen

My trip to Indianapolis, Indiana was big.

For the first time in my life I motorpaced full speed on the wheel of a motorcycle driven by John's coach Ken Nowakowski (see him and Rahsann Bahati at 3:22 min in here) on the Major Taylor Velodrome.

It's a big wide concrete outdoor velodrome that is much smoother

than Alpenrose.

Although the streets are 6 lanes wide and don't have bike lanes there are some people here who can really ride their bikes.

The Marian College Cycling Team has been the Division 1 National Champions for the last 15 years or so. It should come as no surprise then that the Major Taylor Velodrome (where they practice daily) is a stone's throw across the street from their campus. Nowakowski built them to a Collegiate dynasty over the last ten years.

Almost everyone on the team is as fast as Steven Beardsley, and it is rather intimidating to be hanging out on the infield.

Easily I traveled around this giant flat metropolis on my bike a lot. I made it to Joe's Cycles where I got espresso, and talked about the frames that Joe had just started making.

I rode the length of the Monon Greenway Trail which went due North all the way through Carmel for around 20 miles.

At the Baptist Church, that is home to the North Township, I delivered a letter and b.i.k.e. proposal to two pastors in hopes that someday we can continue our great programming in Indianapolis with a house in close proximity to the velodrome.

I traveled through some of the poorest neighborhoods of Indianapolis where houses are For Sale for a few thousand dollars, no money down. People seem like they are waiting for something cool like b.i.k.e. to come along.

Hood River Doublecross, Saturday by Greg

The Travel:

Dave Wingard and I left rainy SE Portland to be greeted an hour later by broken clouds and blue sky in Hood River. We drove up through the city orchards to Hood River Valley High School. Friend and former teammate Darren Pennington was warming up for the Master's C race as we parked and headed over to registration. The food vendors were stoking up an enormous BBQ as I went out for a pre-ride lap before Dave's race started.

The Course:

The course was very similar to prior years, with some sections run in reverse. The start was a flat grass lane for 50 meters or so, then into a wide short sand section, then a hairpin grass 180 degree left turn. Then a right and all the way around the big grass field, and along an off camber berm. The entire grass section was at least 10 feet wide and not as bumpy as past years. After cresting the berm, the course turned to a dirt downhill trail, then up a little rise with a couple swoopy turns before a right turn in loose gravel put you back on the dirt.

Back on to the grass for a slight descent, turn and climb, then bomb down the dirt/gravel into a trail (the high school cross country running trail) and the first foot bridge. This bridge platform was just high enough off of the trail that it could easily cause pinch flats or worse. The fast trail then turned to new fresh loose gravel before a single barrier and a sharp left turn over the second footbridge and into a railroad tie run-up. At the top of the run-up the trail went down, up, swooping narrow turns, before kicking back down into a sketchy turn into the 3rd foot bridge (I think this was the one Dave flew off of last year). After this bridge the trail continued another 20 meters or so before turning uphill with a sharp right turn (ridable, yet a possible major congestion point as some would surely dismount for it). Then an sharp uphill left turn that I planned to dismount and run. Another right, and one more left then the run-up was done and the trail crested into the parking lot.

Now through the coned chicane in the parking lot (wide lane for passing), around the school, through a gate and into the grass where the start/finish was located.

The Race:

After some cheering/heckling for Dave's race, I went and warmed up on the roads around the high school. After coming back and stretching I headed to the start about 20 minutes before race time. There were about 8-10 racers starting to file in, including teammate Eric Lanners. I took a front row position second from the left, while Eric looked to be front row on the right.

I got a good jump at the whistle and an immediate clip-in. I went into the sand 2nd or 3rd wheel, then was sitting in 3rd when we got off of the grass and into the first trail section. One or two passed me, and then I passed them a few laps later. My tire pressure was dialed in perfectly, as I could power out of turns in the loose sand/gravel/dirt that others were sliding in. I used this to gain good position so I could soft pedal/recover on the downhills while on someones wheel. About mid race the RCB guy up front faded and I passed him, while clinging to Karl Mikkelson's wheel. I passed and gave a good pull to try and bridge us up to Jeff Edes, but started to blow up and could not bridge. Karl then came around and put a little gap on me.

I caught back on to Karl, and Jeff was in sight, but the leader was not. Karl then took a bad line on the off camber and I got past him with 3 laps to go. I got up to Jeff when he got in traffic behind lapped riders, but when he saw me, he jumped and put in an effort I could not match.

At the time, I thought I was in 4th, but I later learned I finished 3rd. Eric came in 9th, with another solid race but a locked up back that caused trouble. I'm happy with my race, as I rode clean and had solid fast lines over the entire course. I kept my head in the race and did not make any mental mistakes that often cause technical errors. My bike was dialed-in, and the tires/pressure were spot on for the course.

I was motivated to do well, as there is talk of using Hood River and Barlow top 5's as seeding for call-ups at the first Cross Crusade race. This isn't a sure thing, but it helped me train and focus for a good result.

It sounds like we'll have a much bigger Team presence at Barlow, so I look forward to seeing some of you there. Good practice for the huge fields that the Crusade will no doubt have.

Greg

Recovered Footage!

Previously Unreleased

Racing was rampant on Knapp Street when kids zoomed from telephone pole to telephone pole after the food was all gone Labor Day Monday at the Atomic Ranch .