Ballers

I wasn't at Cherry Pie, cuz I was taking these pictures.....
The reporters' favorite.

Gesink won stage 3.
Georgie hasn't been thrilled with his rides this week.
Paolo on the prowl.
He slipped back into the stripes as soon as he finished the prologue.
Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara congratulate JJ Haedo. Jens hollared out in his cartoon German accent "How deed yoo doo thaaaat!?"
Tommeke put the hammer down in Sacto.
If you're really fast, the Terminator puts your clothes on for you.
The Lion did roar in the prologue, only finished 14 seconds off the pace.
Seriously.........

Check it suckaz!! It's a Y2k8 Season Preview. (Part 1 - OREGON ONLY!)

So, the 2008 race season will be here faster than we can say "not so hard, I'm just doing base miles", I'm sort of in the typing mood and I've resisted the overwhelming urge to pawn off all my bike stuff and buy season tickets for the Blazers. I guess we start things off with the much-anticipated end-all be-all season preview.

Right off the bat, the biggest Oregon related shake-up is happening over in the CMG/Alpine Mortgage Camp. These guys have been stockpiling so many big guns, it's a wonder that Hans Blix hasn't been sent over to investigate. Chris Hamilton is the most surprising name to offer the spearmint soldiers some help they don't really need. They've also rounded up some of the strongest young legs around, luring Jacob Rathe (ex-BBC) and Marcel DeLisser(did I spell that right?) from Kent Johnston's Fred Meyer team and Ian Boswell from Hagens-Berman. Oh yeah, and is Chris Sheppard going to be sporting the colors this spring, sheesh.

So the CMG squad would appear to be the Donald, Seth, Chris H, Chris S, Jacob, Marcel, Coker and Richard? Damn. Oh yeah, and Quinn Keough, who had a rippin' first season in the 1/2's. If his attack near the end of Stage 5 of the Cascade Classic (the race's hardest day) is any indication of things to come, 2008 will be a big year.

Apparently Steven Beardsley was told there was no room at the CMG Inn rather late in the team finding season. He was none too pleased, yet found a cozy home and new color scheme for his blog with............

The Gentle Lovers! Yay! Portland's best looking team will be straight up representing this year with a strong 1/2 squad. While Mark Blackwelder was flyin' solo last year, he finally managed to get Tony Kic (re)upgraded while adding Steven and Dan Watson, who raced for Hagens-Berman the past couple of years but didn't seem to show his face too much. I'm pretty sure there's a couple others who have been sandbagging racing the 3's for the past couple of years and are ready to upgrade.

Marcroft Cycles, Brian's eponymous bike company will be fielding a team this year. Brian's fielding a road team featuring himself, Mick Walsh, Damian Schmitt and Doug Wilmes on the road. With Kurt Haas rocking the SSMTB. And their kits look great.

Rubicon has lost some familiar faces to fairer fields, but will have plenty of horses come April. Only time will tell if they're able to pull off the killer teamwork that saw them win pretty much any local race they wanted. Brad Paine will be back killin' the sprints, and Logan will be doing the all-around tough guy thing (homie might look big, but he can get up a hill). Looks like they added Carson Miller as well.

Kirk's riding for VMG, who will go to a bunch of big races all over the place. Tuckerman signed with Jelly Belly, so at least he won't be here giving hell at every Tabor race.

Therapeutic Associates will field a similar team to last year, only faster.

I see plenty of Veloce kits around town, they'll be racin'.

Aside from Selker poppin up on Toyota's roster, the scene in Eugene remains the same. If Mark Collard is still in town, watch for a Paul's jersey neart the top of the 1/2 results. Midtown and Hutch's will try and keep Tuesday nights interesting.

Races!!
New stage race - Ominously just titled Wiillamette on the OBRA schedule. Sal's doing it. He said the courses should be up soon. He won't send them to me early.

(oooh, ooh! Site just went up! First impressions: short prologue(!), race near Alsea (40-some miles seems kind of short), crit sounds like the old Celebration course(!), Wolf Creek queen stage(!!!) Not a lot of racing for a four day event, but creative courses and lack of a long tt(!!!!) should make this a fun one.)

Everyone's discussed 'Hood to death. The stages in Portland will be sweet.

Elkhorn has the old (and much better) first stage back.

There's some new crits and road races on the schedule, more on that as events develop.

Kickin' off the 8-ball!

Once again, the year has ticked over. The sport in which participants actually carry their bikes, through the mud no less, has moved back to the dark heart of Europe (where it belongs). Us road racers are now engaging in our true favorite pastime: waiting for a break in the goddamn rain so we can go out and ride for three hours. Coaches call this "base miles".

VeloNews has published their definitive list of domestic pro teams and their rosters.

Aaron Tuckerman is back at the bottom of the world and showing off his shiny new Jelly Belly kit.

The biggest surprise on the VeloNews list is the addition of Eugene's own Kevin Selker to the Toyota roster. Kevin won the State Champ RR in 2003, when he was barely old enough to vote, and has recently been tearing it up on the track at U of Colorado in Boulder. I hadn't seen too many road results out of him lately, but the Toyota boys must want to lock up some good young talent.

Omer Kem and Morgan Schmitt are still holding it down at Bissell. Aaron Olson has officially joined their party.

Chad Hartley and Evan Elken are reunited on the other bean team at Jittery Joe's.

And finally, Doug Ollerenshaw will have some stories to tell at the end of this season. An outspoken owner and some teammates with, shall we say, dubious records will keep his season very interesting. Let's hope for his sake the hype dies down and the Rock Racing crew is making the right kind of headlines when the rubber hits the road.

Stay Dry.

Cunego, Cunego, Cunego!

It's a bit belated, but here's the deciding final k's from last week's Giro di Lombardia. The world's coolest bike racer taking the world's most beautiful race.
Bravissimo, Damiano!

Too Many Ghost Bikes

The Ghostbike project has, unfortunately, been active again on the streets of Portland. These stark reminders of our mortality have recently appeeared to memorialize the lives of Tracey Sparling and Brett Jarolimek. Their lives were tragically cut short in bike-car collisions.

Ms. Sparling was a 19 year-old student, beloved by family and friends, with a bright future ahead of her. Mr. Jarolimek was an employee of Bike Gallery, a cyclist and artist well known in the commmunity. Condolences to both of their families and friends. May their memory continue to inspire those whose lives they touched.

The car vs. bike debate inevitably picks up in the wake of these tragedies. Emergency meetings are called. The blogosphere heats up with thiny veiled, often misinformed, attempts to place blame. And then, after a couple weeks, everything settles down, little changes, and we go back to our lives.

While much has been done to mitigate the dangers cyclists face, and Portland is one of the most progressive cities in the nation in this regard, cycling is inherenty dangerous. Right-of-way arguments can continue until both sides are blue in the face, when a car/truck/bus/train and cyclist collide, the cyclist loses. Period.

The bottom line is that we have to do what it takes to get home safely each day. Use common sense. Give large trucks the extra room they need, stay way out front or way behind. Don't just check if you have a stop sign, but check if oncoming traffic is actually stopped. Ride only on roads that suit your skill level. Slow down, your boss/wife/parents/kids would rather have you there five minutes late than not at all. It's hard to make up much time by hammering through your ride anyways.

There are plenty of terible drivers out there who probably shouldn't be on the road, but we don't need to prove this point smeared all over their hoods. The police aren't going to spend their days ticketing minor traffic enfractions because they happened to endanger a cyclist. No amount of bike lanes and protected crossings will compensate for negligence on either side of the equation. All we can do is what it takes to get home safely each day, and then vote for leaders who demonstrate the willingness to continue to improve our infastructure to make everybody's commute safer and more efficient.

It's a beautiful Oregon fall, go out there and love life. Ride a bike, spend time with your family, eat a good meal and make someone smile. Serve the memories of these victims by taking those extra few minutes to stay out of trouble on the road and encouraging friends and family to do the same. Sometimes we all just need a little extra space.

A little scoop.

A little bird told me that Aaron Olson is going to be riding for Priority Health/Bissell next year and the team will now be Bissell/Priority Health. Talk about a sponsor that sucks (haha, I just kill me).

2007 Race Redux

Well, the days are getting short, the nights are getting cold and the legs are getting slower and slower. Yes, the season is over (almost) and the impenetrable depression that is winter in the northwest will soon be upon us. Rain will be measured in gallons and high-end road bikes will sit shamefully in closets mocking our spandex clad dalliances with glory that is the road racing season.

On the up side, my beer consumption is up, my sleeping in is way up and hopefully the bank account will soon recover from the strain of race fees piled on top of gas money piled on top of parts and tires and stuff.

It’s been a while since I’ve written, but the racing and drama really cools off as August ends, so hopefully this won’t be too long.

The Portland Twilight Crit was a huge party, as expected. Unfortunately, a hometown boy couldn’t nabbed the win but Doug O. brought up the back end of a HealthNet 1-2 while Chad Hartley(BMC) was breathin’ down his neck for 3rd. The course was SHORT, it seemed like the front of the strung out field would lap the back, but there were enough wrecks to really break things up. It seemed like the officials were pretty generous about putting riders back in the front group after a mishap, it probably ended up being easier to move up by wrecking than actually trying to close a gap. All in all, there were thousands of people out to watch us chase around after a big payday in the streets of our fair city. I wish it could happen every week.

Eugene Celebration Stage Race went down on a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Orion Berryman(MidTown) defended his home turf with a big win in the Stage 1 Maxon RR. The TT was mercifully short and had little effect on the GC, Sean Passage(Therapeutic Associates) took the win in one of his first ½ races. Young’en Carson Miller(Fred Meyer) capped off a successful season with a crit win while Marc Collard(Paul’s BWOL) took the Wolf Creek RR and the overall.

Some may remember Marc from when he won the 2004 Celebration overall. The 2004 Collegiate RR champ, he was gearing up for a 2005 campaign with Webcor, who had been tearing up the pro ranks with Chris Horner, but had some holes to fill as he left for Europe after the ’04 season. After 2005, Webcor folded (well, their men’s team did) and I imagine Marc went back to school, I think he said he was working on a Masters’ or Ph.D or somethin’. Apparently he’s landed back in Eugene, and he’s got a big motor, it shouldn’t be a surprise when he wins.

Dave Zimbleman(Z-Team) showed how to go strong all season long. He had some great results at the Banana Belts in March, and won the OBRA Hillclimb Champ’s in September. He put the beatdown on Carson Miller, who is young enough to be his grandson. Chalk one up to experience.

Molly Cameron(Veloshop) stormed to a nice win at Kruger’s Kermesse. The logical transition race from road to ‘cross had a solid local field as Doug and Shannon Skerritt(Vanilla) pulled in next. The infamous Zach Winter(Captiol Subaru) was also in attendance and showing he’s fit as ever, 5th despite a crash.

One last Crit on the schedule to round out the road season, the Sunset Crit in scenic Bethany Village is coming up on Saturday the 22nd. There’s actually a pretty good payday ($850 – 10 deep) and I imagine there’s plenty of fast riders coming into form for ‘cross. Look for guys named Skerritt, Reeb and Winter to make it interesting.

Next Year
Well, cross might be heating up, but that’s another column, some other time. What really matters is what’s happening on the road next year.

It sounds like we can expect three solid, Oregon based teams in the Men’s field next year. CMG, Therapeutic Associates and Guinness were all making strong showings as the season wound down. Look for the latter two teams to show off some newly upgraded riders while CMG is apparently picking up even more firepower.

Hagens-Berman kind of fizzled out as Solomon moved back up north (he’ll be back in Portland for cross though) and Andy Fischer focused on the NRC. Their elite team lost Michael Grabinger to the pro ranks before March was out. A couple other elite team riders got bit by the burnout bug gave up the glamorous life of amateur on the NRC circuit. Watch for them to put the focus back on the Washington based riders. It will be interesting to see what happens to the club that’s been the Northwest’s pro factory for almost 10 years now.

Doug’s rollin’ the Escalade next year, is he gonna get a new wardrobe to match? Word is Rock Racing is landing the likes of Horner, Rodriguez and Creed. The owner guy is a bajillionaire former cyclist and Frankie Andreu is gonna be DS. Very interesting.

Sounds like Evan Elken is still with Jittery Joe’s and Chad Hartley might be back in orange as well.

Aaron Olson is apparently going to be stateside next season, I have no idea where.

Next, end of season awards. Watch out.

Crit Racin'

Crit Champs!!!!!

Crit racin’ this weekend. Crawfish on Saturday, OBRA Champs on Sunday. Friday would have been the PDX, HealthNet, Twilight, no streetlights so be careful Crit, but it got pushed back a few weeks this year. And moved, hopefully to a part of town where the streetlights go on.

Crawfish seems pretty wide open, I guess it depends who shows. I’m guessing Hartley(BMC) and Elken(Jittery Joe’s) will be at the big money crits out east. If so, watch for CMG/Alpine Mortgage and Rubicon to duke it out.

The OBRA Crit, in scenic Gresham, should have a strong local field. Bike Gallery usually represents for this one with solid old guy power. Rubicon will probably be there. Donald’s never won this one, as far as I can tell. Will it be CMG’s day again? Who’s gonna make the break to settle this one? Personally, I’d like to see Chris Hamilton (Casa Bruno/Adidas) take a big one.

Can Nick Skenzick(Hutch’s/OIC) repeat at Crawfish, or better yet, take the one he really wants.

If Zach’s reading, come out and race. It’ll be more fun with you there. Seriously, you’ve got a win in ya.

I don’t like the drugs, but the drugs like me…..
Another Kazakh goes down. Wait, you mean there’s not just this race of incredible cyclists being raised in a nearly third-world country with no development program or bike races? Whodathunk?

Seriously, the exact same thing (homologous blood transfusion) your biggest star went down for three weeks ago? Give the doctors a little time off, jeez.

End of an era
You think sponsors considering filling Discovery Channel’s shoes were thinking about all the wins Lance racked up, or the fact that basically everyone who was there killin’ it in the mountains at the Tour (Heras, Hamilton, Landis) got hit as soon as they left the team. And so did about everyone they raced against (Ulrich, Pantani, Mayo, Basso).

Best team in the world? Best at something.

I’m kind of surprised Nike didn’t step up and do it. Nike Pro Cycling, it’s got a ring to it.

Hats off to the guys at T-Mobile for fessin’ up and cleanin’ house. Also, Sliptream is getting VERY interesting. Millar, VDV, Backstedt, Zabriskie. Vaughters still says they will not be ProTour next year.

I’m getting some end of year stuff ready. I‘d like to do an awards post. I need nominations and some ideas for the categories. I’ve also been working on a touching and heartfelt state of cycling post. It’ll be all nice and stuff. Send some ideas to uzideth@gmail.com.

Booyah!
Jza




I don’t like the drugs, but the drugs like me…..
Another Kazakh goes down. Wait, you mean there’s not just this race of incredible cyclists being raised in a nearly third-world country with no development program or bike races? Whodathunk?

Seriously, the exact same thing (homologous blood transfusion) your biggest star went down for three weeks ago? Give the doctors a little time off, jeez.

End of an era
You think sponsors considering filling Discovery Channel’s shoes were thinking about all the wins Lance racked up, or the fact that basically everyone who was there killin’ it in the mountains at the Tour (Heras, Hamilton, Landis) got hit as soon as they left the team. And so did about everyone they raced against (Ulrich, Pantani, Mayo, Basso).

Best team in the world? Best at something.

I’m kind of surprised Nike didn’t step up and do it. Nike Pro Cycling, it’s got a ring to it.

Hats off to the guys at T-Mobile for fessin’ up and cleanin’ house. Also, Sliptream is getting VERY interesting. Millar, VDV, Backstedt, Zabriskie. Vaughters still says they will not be ProTour next year.

I’m getting some end of year stuff ready. I‘d like to do an awards post. I need nominations and some ideas for the categories. I’ve also been working on a touching and heartfelt state of cycling post. It’ll be all nice and stuff. Send some ideas to uzideth@gmail.com.

Booyah!
Jza

Moving Day.

raceOregon at Kenji’s place.
By Jza

So, we’re going to have a little change of venue here. As racing heated up and I still had to go to my job, I didn’t have much time to keep an entertaining blog going. Kenji here seems to have the wherewithall to keep a site going full-on, so I’m going to drop some reports here. I’m going to keep posting on the raceoregon.blogspot.com site, just so I have all of my work in one place, but obra3.com is now your one-stop shop for all the bike racing minutiae your weary eyes can handle.

Another reason I lost momentum on my site is that this time of year usually leads to a dearth of cycling related news. Most of us seem to be winding down a bit, hitting a few crits and otherwise takin’ it easy.

Speaking of crits, Seth Hosmer(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) triumphed again on the mean streets of Vancouver. The break went early, as Donald(CMG), Seth, and Kirk Carlsen(Rubicon). The CMG boys played they’re cards right and Seth went on a long range attack with a few laps left to cruise in for a W. Good thing too, because Kirk dusted Donald in the sprint for second.

Nick Skenzick (Hutch’s/OIC) defended the south of Salem territory that is so kind to his massive legs and won in Harrisburg. The race was probably most notable because Zach Winter (Capitol Subaru) was in fact racing and was, once again, DQ’d. No word on why, and he’s probably not answering my messages anymore, but chalk another one up for Oregon’s most enigmatic cyclist. It also marked a new organizer putting on a race in Oregon, hopefully all went well and he will be around to put on bigger, better and more races. How about a crit in downtown Eugene? There’s gotta be a sponsor for that somewhere.

Seth then won the OBRA TT champs, no surprise there. I thought that Rob English(Bike Friday) might give him a run for his money, but Seth seems to be finding some late season form.

A bit of info I gathered on Mr. English: He is actually from England. He is working at Bike Friday for awhile. In England, if you’re a recreational cyclist you just race TT’s, there aren’t many road races. Rob was the national amateur TT champ of England. I imagine that is somewhat akin to winning an American Elite National Championship. He rode a 10:15 up McBeth Rd. When Billy Truelove was going crazy fast, he posted a 10:45 up McBeth. I’m not sure what Karl Maxon posted in his day, but imagine that Rob crushed any previous record. Apparently he had never ridden a mass start race before coming here. He races on a Bike Friday bike.

Jacob Rathe is coming back from Belgium with some wins, incredible.


A couple of crits on tap this weekend, Crawfish in Tualatain and the OBRA Crit Champs on Sunday at the traditional, and scenic, Gresham course. Watch out for CMG, though Bike Gallery usually has some experienced legs that can go fast for an hour or so. I’m not sure if the Rubicon guys will still be around.

The big one, Portland Twilight Crit, got pushed back a few weeks this year. Mark your calendars for Friday, August 24. It will be fun, there’s beer and music and a ton of people, and probably a bunch of pro’s to make all us amateur guys look silly in front of our families and friends. If you’re single and able to race, this is basically the ONLY opportunity you have all year to actually meet a girl due to a bike race, better bring a tight game.

Back from the dead.

So, I ran out of steam for a little while there. racing 2-5 days a week, working full-time and trying to get a little rest became a bit much. But I'm back up on it and can hopefully get in some good rest before I get to go get dragged around the desert by a bunch of uber-pro's at Cascade. I've got a bunch of reports to roll out, I'll basically spread it out over the week before I go to Bend. So hang in there and I'll bust out some thoughts on Tabor, Elkhorn, PIR, and any other big ol' races that locals happen to find themselves at.

What should be freshest in our minds is the epic display of firepower at the OBRA RR last weekend in Eugene. The guest list included(but was by no means limited to): Aaron Olson(T-Mobile) fresh off the Giro and back home for some vay-k, Doug O(HealthNet/Maxxis), Evan Elken (Jittery Joe's), US national CX Champ Ryan Trebon, and his brother in height Barry Wicks riding incognito for Sellwood Cycles, Andy Fischer(Hagens-Berman)who's been MIA for most of this OBRA stuff, Aaron Tuckerman(Rubicon)who hasn't been having too bad of luck lately, and assorted and sundry OBRA regulars.

I'm sure most everyone was excited to spend a beautiful summer day rolling around Eugene wine country with best riders Oregon has to offer. Until like two miles in when stuff got crazy.

I think Tuckerman attacked first, with Erik Tonkin(Sellwood)and Mike Zimbleman(Z Team) in tow. Elken quickly bridged up and us amateurs were quickly in a world of hurt. As the pack hit Briggs Hill, shit got even crazier. Ollerenshaw and Trebon hit out to the leaders near the beginning of the climb and bridged the gap. In one of the most impressive displays of riding I've seen in Oregon, Aaron Olsen hit out and big ringed the entire climb like a psychotic eagle dive bombing out of the gates of Hades, and the breakaway looked set. Quinn Keough(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) and Chris Hamilton(Casa Bruno) were there to stick us for us amateurs.

Some fairly serious chase groups gave it a shot, but legs seemed to be weary from Elkhorn as Donald Reeb(CMG), Mark Blasckwelder(Gentle Lovers), and Molly Cameron(Veloshop) didn't stand much of a chance of gaining time on the lead group.

Molly is fresh off 5th overall at the Tour of Ohio. From the looks of it, a very cool race including the lower level pro squads and top end amateurs.
Check it out.

Now the big question was "who's the biggest of the big dogs?" Well, Tuckerman finally found a group he couldn't hang with and rocked a DNF. He may have been a bit winded from winning Elkhorn. Trebon showed some impressive attacks and proved that he can do it for more than 90 minutes.

But the finish came down to some good old friends Ryan, Evan, and Doug sprinted it out with Evan taking the win. I'm not exactly sure how they got rid of Aaron. Doug even updated his blog about it.

Word is AO may have been playing patron of the peoloton and dropping a Eugene rider who may or may not be known for his unsavory tatics from the front break. Maybe.

Dress Rehearsal

Rehearsal RR was last Sunday. Seth Hosmer(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) notched his belt yet again, taking the win after besting Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet/Maxxis) in a two up sprint that was all arms and legs. I wish someone had a video of the two lankiest guys out there winding it up at 200m. If Trebon and Wicks come back, we could have an all tall guy sprint off. It would be the bike equivalent of midget wrestling. Did somebody say pay-per-view???


The State RR course is a good tactical course. The climbs could break it up, but they both have pretty fast descents that make it hard to get a gap. The Briggs Hill section is one of the more scenic sections you'll see in OBRA racing.

Doug then took PIR tonight. So, apparently, his sprinting legs just needed a warm-up.

Tabor is Wednesday and could be a stacked field. A few pro type guys are kicking around town, Tour de Nez in Reno is the only NRC action this weekend.

Tour contenders are warming it up at the Duphiné Liberé (did I get the accents in the right places?) I'll start to get a list together of places (coffee shops, bike shops, bars etc.) that show Le Tour, seeing how it's the only bike race that really gets any live coverage over here, I try and make it out to watch a few days. Send me your fave place to watch, hopefully I can get together enough places that nobody has to go too far before they've had their coffee.

AWOL

Sorry for the lateness, I've been busy or tired or riding. Something like that.

Sounds like there will be some new faces in the 1/2 field as Jacob Rathe, Carson Miller and Ian Boswell all got the upgrade after Hood. We could use some fresh legs.

Seth Hosmer(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) won Tabor. Eric Tonkin(Kona) blew it all up. The weather was pretty blah and not many showed to watch.

Big track race this weekend. If you're into that.

Rehearsal RR in Eugene. Challenging course. Expect to see some fast guys and maybe some track guys.

The sprinter types who do it for money will be racing Philly on
Sunday(?).


Check out next year's Madone. The Bike Gallery guys gotta be STOKED!!! I thought those Lance frames were lookin' a little dated. CyclingNews.com has all the details. Best idea ever: no BB cups. You just pop the bearings in!

The Big One.

Mt. Hood has come and gone. Not a ton of local news out of the race that was once the end-all-be-all of NW amateur racing. It turned into a logjam of the big boys as Navigators, HealthNet/Maxxis, ToyotaU, and Priority Health/Bissell dominated the GC. The new TT made it Nathan O'Neill's race to lose, and the square-jawed Aussie doesn't let many slip away.

Aaron Tuckerman(Rubicon) is starting to make these top-10 finishes at NRC races look easy. He was 8th on the week.


So I was obviously wrong about DiLuca. He kept the power going right through Saturday's TT. Cunego(Lampre) and Simoni(Saunier Duval) couldn't put the time in during the drag race up Zoncolan, though Simoni netted another big Giro stage.

The big surprise of the Giro was Andy Schleck's(Brother of Frank[Both CSC]) 2nd on GC. Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) absolutely dominated the moutains taking the Santuario Nostra Signora Della Guardia stage and a maglia verde for himself while giving away stage wins to whatever teammate happened to be around. Iban Mayo(Sunier Duval) also rose from the dead for a stage win, though was nowhere to be seen in thw mountains.

Overall, the race looked a bit different than recent grand tours. Riders who went on monstrous attacks generally faltered in the next couple of stages. The winners of the flat TT were not miraculous in the mountains. There was no Basso/Armstrong dominating every opportunity to gain time. The Santuario stage won by Piepoli absolutely devastated every rider. The Tre Cime de Lavaredo stage, which Piepoli gave to Ricco, had the lead riders suffering so bad it was hard to watch. DiLuca jumped to an early lead and managed to hold it. It was a great three weeks of racing.

Oh yeah, Pettachi's(Milram) sledgehammer-style sprinting is now back in full effect.


Aaron Olson(T-Mobile) made it to Milan with a depleted T-Mobile squad.





Here's some pictures of Damiano Cunego(Lampre) to wrap up my 2007 Giro coverage:



Pics from CyclingNews.com.

Jacob Erker(Symmetrics) took the opener at Tabor. He came out of a break of eight followed by Molly Cameron(Veloshop) and Shannon Skerritt(Bike Gallery)

John Leonard(Casa Bruno) notched his belt at PIR for the second week in a row and made the break at Tabor.

PIR and Eugene Twilight Tuesday, Tabor Wednesday, Rehearsal RR Sunday(in Eugene). 'tis the season.

Scary.

As everyone has probably heard by now, most of the Silverton were cancelled due to a pretty gnarly crash in the Men 4/5 race. Talk was that up to 20 guys hit the deck, several were hauled away on stretchers. Ryan McKnab got the worst of it and suffered some extremely serious head trauma. Updates on his condition can be found here. Best wishes to Ryan during his recovery and his family and friends through this difficult time.

I'm sure that there will be alll sorts of solutions to the crash problem discussed, but the reality is that bike racing is dangerous, there's no way around it. OBRA does an amazing job giving us as safe an environment as possible to get our race on. As amateur racers, we need to make sure we err on the side of caution.

On to the riding,


The Mt. Hood classic started tonight. Here's the prologue results.

Two teams got more than one rider in the top-10 Navigators and Team Rubicon (Harm and Tuckerman).

Glossy-media type Mt. Hood previews:
VeloNews
CyclingNews.com
Daily Peloton

K-man has lists upon lists of nothwest participants.


The weather forecast looks pretty good, guess we won't be seeing Decker sportin' his rain gear. (Pic by NWeventphotography.com)

There's been plenty of talk about doping with the big boys. I'd rather the clean guys that were racing in the late '90's just stand up. That'll be way less press conferences to keep track of.




















All this doping talk is overshadowing a pretty great Giro. Simoni attacking DiLuca through tthe streets of Bergamo was CLASSIC!!! Tomorrow is the Zoncolan. Watch it here, en vivo. Race ends about 8:15(usually). Cunego's gonna kill it.

Chad Hartley(BMC) has joined the chattering class.

Mt. Tabor tomorrow, better go fast, everyone's watching!!!!!!

I'll try and stay current with Hood.

NO OFF WEEKS!!!

So there aren't any NRC races on the calendar this weekend, and several of Oregon's fastest are back home before Hood, which means that this weekend's Silverton RR field will be STACKED. I'm just guessing here, but wouldn't be surprised to see Doug(HealthNet/Maxxis), Evan(Jittery Joe's), Hartley(BMC), Omer Kem(Priority Health/Bissell), Andy Fischer(Hagens-Berman) as well as Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage), Donald and the CMG/Alpine Mortgage crew, and Team Rubicon fresh out of the Tri-Peaks leader's jersey.

Zach Winter ended up taking the win in the Golden City crit, making him 2-for-2 last weekend. Watch out for the Captol Subaru jersey on Sunday.

John Leonard(Casa Bruno) won PIR, neither of the top-3 were Rubicon or BMC, wow.

King of the Mountain starts next Wednesday, that's right, the Mt. Tabor series. Bring it!!!!!

Not much to talk about this week, next will be busy Hood, Tabor, PIR, Philly Week. Locals should be at all of them.


Giro hasn't shown much yet. Aaron Olsen has been putting his time in at the business end of the peloton, defending the Maglia Rosa with a 6 man team (OUCH!!!!). I'm pretty sure that'e him sitting on Pinotti's wheel.

Here's my viewing guide/predictions:
Salvodelli wins tomorrow(Stage 12).


DiLuca will fade (that's a guarantee).







Cunego will only get stronger.













Simoni will do more ballin' than winnin'. He's a baller.







The Dark Horses: Ricco(Saunier Duval), Simoni already called him the team leader in a bit of pre-race gamesmanship; Andy Schleck(CSC)on the podium?; how well will Salvodelli climb?.

See you Sunday, I got rained on tonight. WHILE DOING MONSTER HILL INTERVALS, BOOOOYAAAAAHHHH!


For some reason comments were turned off for the last post, I'm not sure how. I didn't do it.
They're back on.

Motorin'!!!!(What's your price for flight)

Team Rubicon's wild ride at the Tri-Peaks Challenge has come to an end. After three stages defending the leader's jersey, Karl Menzies(HealthNet/Maxxis) took the lead after the Stage 4 TT. That left the penultimate Mt. Nebo climb to decide the GC.

On Mt. Nebo, Jelly Belly uber-climber Andy Bajadali managed to launch himself to the top of the GC, crazy fast skinny guy Chris Baldwin(ToyotaU) snuck into second and New Zealand-via-Vancouver/Portland's own Aaron Tuckerman(Team Rubicon) landed 3rd overall.

Aaron was going super-fast at this time last year, but this ride is above and beyond. Mad respect to all of Team Rubicon for not only winning stage but defending the jerey through most of the race. Watch out at Hood!

Unfortunately, media coverage at Tri-Peaks was scant at best. Aaron's stage-1 win was ahead of schedule and there was nobody there to get a pic. Results also barely trickled in over cyclingnews.com. We're used to seeing results of our amateur races an hour or two after the finish (OBRA is the best!!!).


So Zach Winter(Capitol Subaru) went off and does what he does best: start trouble one day and then totally throw down the next. Here he is taking his victory lap at the Table Rock RR way down south. Pic by theK-man, who has a bunch of 'em up over on his site.

Young'en Ian Boswell(Hagens-Berman) took the 3's.

Aaron Coker(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) took a great win on Swan island in the pouring rain Sunday afternoon. After Donald Reeb(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) attacked after the final prime lap, Aaron bridged up with a small group and took a great sprint.

Tuckerman wins at Tri-Peaks!!!

Holy moly, Aaron Tuckerman(Rubicon) took the first stage of the NRC Tri-Peaks Challenge over Karl Menzies and Chris Baldwin. Check it out.

What the????

The craziest thing happened at PIR last night. A small group of riders decided that they could ride faster than the rest of the field and, I don't quite know how to say this, broke away from the main bunch. Well, this "breakaway" managed to last, like, the whole race. It lost a few guys and Steve Holland(Finnegan's Toys/Discover Chiropractic) managed to bridge up to it. But in the end, PIR did not come down to a Rubicon driven bunch sprint, because Rubicon is in Arkansas, more on that later.

Steven Beardsley(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) did best Chad Hartley(BMC) in the bunch sprint, so good for him. Zach Winter was back in action and looking pretty strong. Apparetnly he did not pay so his top-10 result will go unrecorded.

Question for OBRA: Why record the "not signed in" guys at all. Why not just ignore them completely, offer points to the top 10 or whatever riders that sign and pay, and not give the guys that don't pay the satisfaction of being the NSI 7th place guy? Here's some pics.

Joe Martin ended up being fairly kind to local boys. Chad Hartley took 5th in the final day's hilly crit, Dan Harm(Rubicon) ended up 16th on GC. Tri-Peaks is this weekend so hopefully those guys can keep the ball rollin'.

The TTT State Champ's were a week or two ago and the CMG/Alpine Mortgage guys led by Seth Hosmer took that one with half a minute to spare. Carson Miller(Fred Meyer/Lakeside), Jacob Rathe(BBC), and Ian Boswell(Hagens-Berman) took the Cat 3's no problem. How long 'till they're all in HB kits?

The racing is spread far and wide this weeekend Table Rock on Saturday, Swan Island and Golden City crits on Sunday. Yes, an OBRA race south of the border, what is this world coming to? Enumclaw is also happening this weekend in Washington, it's an omnium instead of a stage race this year.

You should be able to watch the Giro over at RAI, I can't seem to get it to work on my Mac, but I could on my girlfriend's PC and the video qualty was great. Most stages finish up about 8'ish, perfect for watching the last 40k before you're out the door to work (or a ride if you're lucky). I'm calling it now: Cunego, Cunego, Cunego!!!!

Did anyone catch that Simoni was bitchin' about his younger, fitter teammate (Ricco) this year before the race even started?

Aaron Olsen(T-Mobile) is again riding the best bike race in the world. Hopefully this year he carries that over into a Tour appearance instead of mopping the floor with us this July.

Big Results at Joe Martin!!!

Stage 2: Donald Reeb(CMG/Alpine Mortgage), 10th, without teammates (WOW!).
Chad Hartley(BMC), 14th.

While I was out.......

So, it's been a little while. I'm finally settled in Portland more permanently, Comcast FINALLY got my internet hooked up, the mountain of moving boxes in my living room is now a small pile, and my fitness isn't totally gone.

On the Oregon tip, the biggest news seems to be the carnage at PIR. The first 1/2 PIR in May had a nasty wreck going into the last turn of the first hot-spot lap. A couple Rubicon guys went down, one from Hagens-Berman, a French(?) guy who I'd never seen before. Mark Duff(Guinness) apparently got the worst of it with a broken collarbone and collapsed lung, hopefully he's recovering.


The May 7 Masters' race also featured a nasty wreck, captured here by Shane Young at OregonVelo.

It seems as though guys might be keeping it a little too tight on the curves for a Tuesday night series. Yeah, PIR can be fast, but the sprints are like 500 meters long. It's not exactly one of those course where the first guy around the bend wins the race. The Monday crash was apparently caused by a seam in the pavement, so that might be a different issue all together.

For some reason, the OBRA schedule experiences a big drop-off in road races when May hits. Meanwhile, the Washington schedule remains lively:

Vance Creek Road Race - It was a while ago (April 29), but deserves a mention. How's this for a stacked field: Tyler Farrar(Cofidis), Ian McKissick(BMC), Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet/Maxxis), Evena Elken(Jittery Joe's), and David Richter(ItalPasta), just hangin' out at the weeekend amateur race. Maybe someone established a regional pro championship that nobody else knows about. Add those guys to a full Hagens-Berman squad and the Rubicon boys who are riding out of their skulls these days and we've got a race on our hands.

On a windy course with all that horsepower, the field shattered into a select 12-15 rider group containing most of the Rubicon guys and about all of the pro's. Doug, Tyler and Aaron Tuckerman(Rubicon) managed a gap which Doug eventually dropped out of. Farrar was the not so surprising winner and the rest of the results are right here.

Washington also settled their State Championship last weekend on a course in Longbranch, WA near Tacoma. The course was fairly difficult. It was seven laps of a 10 mile with one extremely steep(12-14%) climb of about 800 meters toped off with a rolling section before the descent whipped us back around the course to do it again.

A break got off early, and much to everybody's surprise, stayed away for about 6 of the seven laps. Chris Daifuku(First Rate Mortgage) took the win, ageless fast guy Dave Zimbleman(Z Team) was there to help the break motor along. Hagens-Berman put in a couple laps of serious chase, but the obvious contenders Russell Stevenson(BRI), Jamie Stangeland(Wines of Washington), and Lang Reynolds(Axley) seemed pretty OK with the break and just settled in to finish the race. Pro's in attendance included Richter, Brandon Crichton(Symmetrics), and Ryan Miller(Toyota United). Mike Hone's got all the pictures you need to see. WSBA's got results.

The month of May also means that the NRC really heats up. Hagens-Berman sent a team to Gila. Sam Johnson looked to be their strongest rider finishing with the main pack most days. Former Broadmark rider Tom Peterson(Slipstream/Chipotle) took a HUGE win in the stage 3 road race.

The Joe Martin Stage Race kicked off on Friday, a bunch of NW riders are in attendance: Chad Hartley(BMC), Team Rubicon, Hagens-Berman, Donald Reeb(representing CMG/Alpine Mortgage solo), Omer Kem and Morgan Schmitt(Priority Health). Bend's own Andy Fischer(Hagens-Berman) put in a very immpressive 14th on the first stage.

Bits of team news to wrap it up:
- Chad Nikolz has stepped back from a spot on the Hagens-Berman Elite squad and is now racing for Axley Sunglasses, where he'll also work.
- Mikkel Bossen(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) is apparently a Scientologist and has decided to try out for some Scientologist conflict diffusion team. Now that's an experience you don't get on a bike. Apparently we won't get to see him go crazy fast when crit/track season is in full swing.
- Ian McKissick(BMC) is over in Europe where the BMC squad won the TTT at the Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia. That's a long way from winning Elkhorn.

Keep the rubber side down.
I'll try and post more.