Short Track

I raced Short Track this last Monday, first Short Track race, super fun - Short Track is an off road race, in Portland a 1/3 of it is on a moto cross course with dippers and berms, the rest is grass, trees, sandpits, rocks and mud. It's a lot like Cyclocross only without the cold weather and barriers - more to come soon.

Mancold

For the past two weeks I have had a good case of the mancold. The mancold has made me tired and made me ride my bike less than 350miles a week.

Surveyors Ridge MTB Sunday Baby!

The last week has been challenging having a mancold and the onlaught of allergies, but Sunday I managed to get out on a group mountain bike ride with a ton of people from work.
A well massive crew rolled up on Surveyors Ridge (Hood river area) this Sunday, 10 Vigilantes representing! good times and sweet trail for 3hrs.





Click here for 80 more photo's

PB and Bananu

What is this - you may ask. From someone who forever hated peanut butter, there is change in the air.

Heartbreaker (Velodrome Racing PDX)

Today I competed in an event called the Heartbreaker, - I think they call it the Heartbreaker because some of the races are long or lots of laps - one is 100laps. This is a velodrome event held in Portland, it was my first official OBRA race. It was a day of many races, different categories and styles of riding the velodrome, the weather was awesome (finally) and I placed 10th in my category. This is out of 16 riders, yeah I know, not great, but first official race. It was 35 laps with sprints for points every 5 laps. With 16 other riders I soon realized that the start was critical, my start was not good, I was positioned really close to the back and I was not aggressive enough to bump forward. Once the lead group had broken off, I had lost the opportunity to roll with them as I was so far back. Anyway, it was fun, it was good experience and I know I will do better next time. I have to say 35 laps is pretty tough, this is an all out sport, where you are riding just below or at max all the time.

One of the most interesting races today was called a Madison , where there are teams of riders, normally two riders per team, where the objective is to do the most amount of laps in a given time, this sunday it was 30minutes. The rides changeoff (like tag in wrestling) by using their arms while riding to slingshot each other up to speed all,while riding a banked surface ! fun fun.

The keirin is a mass start track cycling event in which 6 to 9 sprinters compete at one time in a race with a paced-start. Riders draw lots to determine starting positions and start as the pacer (which could be a motorcycle) approaches. The riders are required to remain behind the pacer, which starts at the deliberately slow speed of about 25 km/h, gradually increasing in speed and leaves the track approximately 600-700 meters before the end, at a speed of about 50 km/h. The first cyclist to finish the race is the winner (sometimes finishing at 70 km/h). Keirin races are about 2 kilometers in length (8 laps on a 250m track, 6 laps on a 333m track, and 5 laps on a 400m track).

More photos here:

Product Design meets bike parts....

Hot of the press, brand new and sexy, new Dura Ace.... $1820 worth of sex.

Obra Team Time Trail

The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (OBRA) hold a Team time Trial once a year, this year we decided to represent - Basically it's see how fast you can go over a fairly flat terrain, competing against other teams. The event was this last weekend. We had 4 riders for an all out 27.4 mile course, we finished at 1:08hr, averaging 25.7mph. For 4 guys with no time trail experience or specific equipment, I think we did pretty well. It was tough and we did not have a lot of experience, and riding full on for an hour is gruesome - so there you go.

(left to right) Me, Joe, Jeff and Dave

(left to right) Joe, Jeff, Me and out of sight Dave.

At the pub afterwards