Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Mad Props

So Chad Hartley(BMC) even went back to get his tossed bottle after winning the Three Rivers Race, which is probably something very few of us would bother doing. Good on you Chad! We're lucky to have a classy little group of pro's in our fair state.

Also, mad props to your sponsor, Clif-bar, for having the tab on their gels stay attached after you open it. Lord knows I've dropped more than my share of gel pack tabs on the roads over the past few years. Not to get on some crazy environmentalist bent, but every little bit, you know.

Rubicon raged all over PIR last night. Chad had a good showing, Steve Holland(Finnegan's/Discover Chiropractic) was in the mix, the rain stayed away, nobody went down, all in all a nice night at the racetrack.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Onion Country

It looks like the biggest stage race for us amateurs this year may have been the Tour of Walla Walla. With the unfortunate demise of Columbia Plateau and Tour of Willamette, and the rise to prominence of Mt. Hood, WW will be the only northwest stage race geared at amateurs until Elkhorn rolls around. Mike Hone has pics up at his Flickr site.

So, I wasn't at the race but Matt Weyen(Bob's Bicycles.com) won. I may have mentioned his name before (and may have overestimated his weight, but hey, he's BIG compared to me [but who isn't]), nobody should be too surprised at that result. He opened up a gap by winning the time trial and finished with the front bunch for the rest of the stages (2nd in the crit) and was probably the strongest guy there.

Hagens-Berman was, of course, well represented as Oregons own Andy Fischer took 6th overall and won the stage 3 Waitsburg RR. Donald Reeb(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) made the top-10 overall. CMG teammate Seth Hosmer, whose scorching form has apparently cooled a bit, rounded out the top-20.

The Three Rivers RR was on Sunday for us Oregon guys that couldn't make a trip to Walla Walla. This was a great race on beautiful roads with little traffic, it could become really big (how 'bout we make it part of the Oregon cup?). Candi said the state championship was probably going to be on the 3 Rivers course next year.

As for the race, wel Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage) and Chad Hartley were there and the peloton basically let them have their way. An early group of six got off and on the second lap, Kenny and Chad were allowed to motor on up to it and the rest is right here.

Mark Blackwelder(Gentle Lovers) had a good ride bridging the gap with Steve Holland(Finnegan's/Discover Chiropractic) and picking off a few stragglers from the break.

Memo to Chad:
Dude, thanks for coming to race with us on your off weekends, it's cool to race with pro's and get a feel for how you guys ride. That said, it is probably not a good idea to be tossing your bottles off in the middle of nowhere backwoods Oregon. At the Tour de Georgia extra bottles probably make cool souvenirs for the kids watching, at OBRA races it's throwing trash in the yards of the people who happen to live on the course. Promoters lose courses because of the impact on the area us riders make. Please help us keep cool up and coming races going and be an example to the rest of us who, though none of us will admit it, look up to you pro's. Use the feed zone, at least there's someone to pick it up.

Janez Brajkovic won the Tour de Georgia, and will one day win the big one (in France). He's like 115lbs and can (almost) TT with the best of 'em.


Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's) top-10'd the final stage's wicked fast bunch sprint (that's him in the white there) pic by Jonathan Devich from CyclingNews.com.

Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet/Maxxis) hung tough even though that crazy ass 29 minute break took him WAY out of contention. He even showed for suicide duty jumping with like 3k to go in one of the circuit finishes.

See you guys at PIR unless it gets real nasty, which it probably will. Go race in Eugene this weekend.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Riders Down!!!

Apparently there was a big pile-up at PIR in the 1/2/3 field last night. After riding home through the pouring rain, I decided not to go. If anyone's got the scoop, holla.

The results were dominated by Rubicon, who are effing flying right now.

Before I forget, everyone should go do the Estacada TT that the Bossen family is putting on. Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage) showed some fine form last week winning the TT a day after King's Valley. Does this mean he'll defend the series lead this weekend or head to Walla Walla with everyone else?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Plenty for everyone.

Big weekend of racing just finished up(or just started if you happen to be in Georgia). Plenty of NW guys have been going plenty fast over the past week or so.


Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage) took the win at King's Valley. Seems that there was some confusion as a break got past the lead car. Not sure how nobody noticed that Donald(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) and Paul(Hutch's/OIC) weren't in the field for the finale, it must have been eerily quiet. Chad Hartley(BMC) was the lone Pro. Oregon Velo has all the pics.

The weather looks beautiful from the pictures. I haven't heard of any wrecks or misbehavior, so send something in.


The forecast for TST as of Friday afternoon was 90% chance of rain and a high of 50. We got lucky, it was beee-yooo-tiiiii-full. Hagens-Berman avenged their ball dropping at the Brad Lewis Crit by going 1,2. Super-fast track guy Adrian Hegyvery took the win and Oregon's own Andy Fischer was hot on his heels. Here's Andy leading Adrian up a climb, Will Routely(Symmetrics) was the only pro in the field, he's the yellow and black bit jutting out the side there.

Adam Curry is stateside and in fine form. Apparently he will be based in Seattle this season, so somebody else will have to drive the truck to PIR. Chad Nikolz was around to reinforce his reputation as the most handsome rider in the peloton. This year he added an authentic California tan to his repetoire.

Mike Hone of Hagens-Berman was there with his ridiculously expensive camera to get these shots. He's got one of the best flickr accounts anywhere, he's a way talented photographer for bike and other stuff. Check it out.

It seemed like the top end of the 1/2 peloton was spread a bit thin this weekend. Both of the aforementioned races were not exactly said to be screaming fast. The top guys were predisposed (Georgia, Sea Otter) and two big NW races in one day spread the fast guys pretty thin. Kenny didn't even make it back for Seward Park on Sunday(which Chad Nikolz of Hagens-Berman won).


The Rubicon boys came out screaming for Sea Otter. Tuckerman ended up 5th and Harm 10th. Sea Otter might not be as big as it used to be but that is seriously impressive. Maybe you guys should stay in Oregon and race in some good weather!
Here's some pics of them teaching kids about bikes and life and hard work and stuff.

Matt Brandt(Rudbicon), I think he's from Wisconsin, was the best U23 at the Sea O.

Jacob Rathe(Beaverton Bicycle Club) won his race at the Otter (under 16?).

So this guy goes to Georgia and is riding his bike, stop me if you've heard this one before, and he runs into an Italian, an Australian and a Belorussian. Well to make a long story short .....................DOUG OLLERENSHAW(HealthNet/Maxxis) GOT 2ND IN STAGE 1 OF THE TOUR DE GEORGIA. Daniele Contrini(Tinkov) got away at the end but Doug unleashed world famous hellacious sprint and left Navigator Ben Day in the dust for 2nd. Congrats to Doug, huge ride! PezCycling News has great daily coverage.

Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's) was actually involved in forming the breakaway but didn't hang on for the ride.

As an aside, why isn't Jelly Belly at the TdG? They freakin' won Redlands, the crowds love the bean boys. They were at Sea Donkey.

Seattle area fast guy Lang Reynolds(Axley) got a guest rider spot on Priority Health/Bissell for Sea Pony.

Barry and Ryan (Kona) both top-5'd the Sea Turtle short track.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Go Time.


Big weekend of racing for everybody.

Hagens-Berman Cycling Team puts on what is either the best or worst race of the year(depending on the weather)at Tahuya-Seabeck-Tahuya. May God have mercy on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend. Look for the Washington and BC teams to do some big time bangin'. The TST course is about the only (single day)non-circuit race on the northwest race calendar, its got hard climbs and fast descents and everything else that makes for an exciting race. Look for Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage)to add to his Brad Lewis Memorial Crit win from last week. Chad Hartley(BMC) might be there. I'm guessing David Richter will show, still don't know who he rides for these days. The Hagens-Berman guys will be out in force to defend their special race.Axley, BRI, and Recycled would love to spoil the party. According to his very entertaining blog, Tom Peterson(Slipstream/Chipotle) is already in Georgia preparing for the Tour de, so count him out.

King's Valley will keep the Oregon racers busy. Beautiful course and Scott Goldstein does a great job putting it on. Look for CMG to reestablish themselves as the team to beat. They've been a little short handed in the past couple races without Seth Hosmer. If he's there, watch out. I heard Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's) is already in Georgia. Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet) might be at Sea Otter, that's just a guess, but he's also preparing for TdG.

Zach Winter will be reappearing soon as a member of the Capitol Subaru squad out of Salem. Im pretty sure he's the only 1/2 rider on the team.

Sea Otter is happening. I haven't seen a start list, but Rubicon will be there.

As mentioned above, Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage) did indeed take the win at the Brad Lewis Memorial Crit in Seattle on Easter Sunday. The winning break of nine featured three Hagens-Berman(Curry, Nikolz, Clayville,)two Rubicon(Tuckerman, Carlsen), Kenny and Russell Stevenson(Benaroya Research Institute). Talk about the who's who of NW racing.


The race featured a bunch of wrecks. Morgan Schmitt(Priority Health/Bissell), went down, Dan Harm(Rubicon) also hit hard, no word on injuries. Mike Hone was there to put it all on film.


Ira Ryan was the finished the Portland commemoration of the Tour of Flanders first. He may have missed one of the last climbs, though. His bike has his name on it.

This guy finished it on a fixie. That is crazy.
The weather was (appropriately) shittay.
Dave Roth took a bunch of pictures.

No excuses this weekend. Everyone's got a few races in the legs, knows their competition and knows their teammates. It's time to get a win.......

Yes, I know this entry is formatted poorly, but I need to go to bed.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Svein-tastic!


Mad props to former Broadmark rider Svein Tuft(Symmetrics) for sticking it to the big teams (HealthNet, Toyota United, Nav's etc.) at the U.S Open today in Richmond, Virginia. Svein had to be the one to take a big win in a race where everyone left the thermal jackets and leg warmers on until the very end. Get this guy to Flanders. Svein and Pat McCarty (Slipstream/Chipotle) caught the big guys sleeping and motored away as the peloton shattered behind them. McCarty JUST held on for second.

The Northwest was well represented as Johnny Sundt(Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) also showed in one of the day's more prominent breaks.

Chad Hartley(BMC) and Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's) both finished in the money, 16th and 21st. Very cool.

The Rising


Easter means an off weekend in OBRA country. But they'll be bangin' bars up at Boat Street again. The race has been renamed in honor of Brad Lewis who tragically died of a heart attack during last year's race. The Brad Lewis Memorial Crit will feature the best in the NW slugging it out for $2000 in prizes (that number might be for all categories though, check on that before you drive 6 hours).

I'm sure Kenny(First Rate Mortgage) will be there, Rob Campbell(Bob's Bicycles.com), Russell Stevenson(Benaroya Research Institute), an army of Hagens-Berman guys, maybe Donald and the CMG crew, Rubicon, Axley, Recycled, etc. etc.

Pro's(or ex-pro's) may include David Richter(who is he riding for these days?), Todd Herrriott(now kingpin of Hagens-Berman elite), Tom Peterson(Slipstream/Chipotle) who's been chewing people up with his legs and spitting them out with his wit. Does Doug O.(HealthNet) make the drive for a crit?

So this US Open Tour of Virginia North America World Championship is happening this weekend. It's even on TV (NBC, is it live?). It's getting a ton of hype and is classified UCI 1.1. Sounds cool, weather report calls for rain and snow (budump, pow "thank you folks and make sure to tip your bartenders on your way out, you've been a great crowd.").

Some locals made the start list: Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's), Omer Kem(Prioriy Health/Bissell), Ryan Trebon(Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada), and Johnny Sundt(Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) are all there.

PIR startd this week, an old guy won the first one. Brad Gebhard outsprinted Evan Elken for the win. He must pack quite a punch.

Jacob Rathe(Beaverton Bicycle Club) tested his mettle in the 1/2/3 field.

Adam Curry(Hagens-Berman) finally washed ashore. No word on his condition, but he's back on the HB elite team.

Rubicon will be at Sea Otter next weekend, I'll be at TST, everyone else will be at King's Valley. There should be plenty of juicy gossip after all that. Send me a note if you see something funny happen (and it doesn't necessarily have to be HAHA funny, if you know what I mean).

I can't make this "penniless, suffering, pirate ride" on Saturday, but think it's as good a way as any to celebrate the arrival of Flanders. Send me a race report and I'll do my part to make the winner as big as Boonen.

Predictions:
Ronde van Vlaanderan: What Bettini wants, Bettini gets. Boonen can be a damn fine teammate.
US Open: Matty Rice(Jelly Belly), because it's no fun to just pick Toyota United all the time. Let's say TU and HealthNet mark each other out of the win.
Boat Street: Rubicon is going fast, Kenny's got the experience.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Mid-Week

So I took the poll down. It was making the page load really slow. King's Valley was the overwhelming winner. It's a great course, close and Goldstein does a great job year after year. TST is a beautiful race that everyone should make the trip for sometime or another. Omer Kem(Priority Health/Bissell) dropped a comment echoing my sentiments about Sea Otter. Just a couple of years ago (the last time probably being when Doug won it) it was THE stage race on the west coast. Right time of year, huge fields, beautiful location. Now, well it's PIR. A 2 hour circuit race around a car track. Not quite worth the trip. Rubicon will probably be there, Tuckerman had a good ride in Monterey last year.

Kent Johnston (Fred Meyer/Lakeside Bikes) made his return to racing at Icebreaker. He just had to remind everyone on proper leg-lubing technique. His Cat. 3 protegé Carson Miller is obviously following the big guy's example.

There was a bit of hubbub on the OBRA list about a topic I brought up a couple of weeks ago, the whole OBRA USCF thing. After talking to some folks, I realized that OBRA is about the best organization ever. They keep racing cheap and accessible, that is no small feat. Stuff like insurance and permits get more and more expensive each year. OBRA somehow manages these expenses and is able to keep membership and race fees ridiculously low ($20-25). That is very cool.

USCF (or is it USAC?) is a bit more convoluted as an organization. It's more expensive($60/year), and gives less support to race organizers (that's the impression I get), which makes races more expensive. If you race out of state often, you'll need USCF. If you stick to OBRA racing, be thankful that there is such a strong organization keeping your races cheap and easy.

If you're just dying to see how you stack up in the national amateur rankings, well, you have way too much time on your hands. Nobody cares if you pass up some kid from Hoboken, NJ for 283rd on the amateur rankings list.

BOOYAH!!!

Monday, April 02, 2007

A poll.

As suggested, I am trying a poll. Mostly just to see how it works. Don't cheat. Both these races are great, it's too bad they're on the same day. If you don't race on this weekend (April 14-15), you don't race at all.

Don't forget that at King's Valley you get to play the "pick an obscure mid-80's Classics winner" Trivia Game, and then Scott Goldstein acts all dumbfounded that nobody knows the winner of Gent-Wevelgem 1986.

TST will either be the most beautiful race you'll ever do or the worst conditions you've ever ridden in, ever. But it's not a circuit race!!!!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Kiwis have landed.

So I show up for the Icebreaker Crit and there's like a whole team of Rubicon guys millin' about. Well, they're here: Dan Harm, the Kiwis (Tuckerman, Richard, some newer faces), Kirk Carlson. They're also smokin' fit. Basically, the race started out with a bunch of the usual Oregon guys (Hutch's-OIC, Hagens-Berman, Therapeutic Associates, CMG) dickin' around trying to sort out a break. Well the Rubicon guys took the opportunity to counter some of the half-hearted attacks and ended up with a couple guys up the road. Then they put in some strong attacks on the (very windy) backside of the course. They ended up with a four-up all Rubicon breakaway and smoked it. Game over.

Back in the pack there was some disorganized chasing and some not-so-passive blocking on the part of Richard(Rubicon).
Words were exchanged.
With about 8 laps to go Richard was looking at butts or something and totally crossed wheels with a teammate (I think Harm) and hit the deck. Steven Beardsley(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) ran him over and also wrecked. It didn't really affect(or would it be effect) the race, but it was probably the most entertaining part.

The Rubicon guys were (mostly) on the new Orbeas, which are freaky-deaky Jetsons looking.

Cue up PoC.
Well, this is an interesting race. Totally flat, windy, decent weather and an interesting field from both Oregon and Washington. Top that all off with what is probably the best payout of any OBRA race (if you have a better one, send me a heads up, we'll all totally be there).

CMG/Alpine Mortgage, Therapeutic Associates, First Rate Mortgage, Hagens-Berman, Rubicon ,Team S+M etc. etc. were all represented as well as Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet) and Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's). Zach Winter was conspicious in his abscence (though it's not really his course).

Racing was a bit of a clusterf-ck as the winds played havoc with breakaways. Nobody seemed too committed to battling that long straight stretch into the wind (except Evan, who was working it all day long). Finally, on the third lap a group of Doug(Healthnet), Aaron Tuckerman(Rubicon), and a guy from First Rate Mortgage (whose name I can't remember, but will add as soon as results get posted). And they were off. It was a big-ish payday and Doug seemed a bit more committted to it than he was at races like Banana Belt.

A good size chase ensued but never really got a full head of steam. CMG had everyone on the front, Bike Gallery was there, Joe from Hagens-Berman was there when he wasn't back in the pack running his mouth about getting other teams on the front. Evan played coach and kept it all tight, as well as doing a couple guys worth of work.

Anyways, Doug took the win. The First Rate guy was second, and Aaron dropped off somwhere near the finish and got third. The sprint was a big-balls contest to see who could go into the final corner the hottest. Evan has the biggest balls and easily took the bunch sprint. Kenny "CR" Williams(First Rate Mortgage) was hot on his heels for fifth.

Inside 3k Kirk(Rubicon) got the DQ for centerline. It did get a little dicey (duh, it's a bunch sprint), but everyone stayed upright.

So, fear the Rubicon they are wicked-fast. And get ready for the next big decision in the Northwest cycling world: King's Valley or TST? They are probably my two favorite races on the calendar (at least single-days), can't you guys keep them at least a day apart?

Nobody goes to Sea Otter anymore, right? Since it switched from a stage race to 2hrs. of NASCAR on bikes.

Carl Hoefer used to ride for Rubicon (like a couple weeks ago), but has found a new home at Therapeutic Associates.

Anyhoo, you've got two weeks until the year's best racing weekend, get fast.

Oh yeah, send me pictures from the races. And anything else you shouldn't tell people but totally want to.