PIR Action! – Updated

Great race tonight, but sadly an on-form Harwood – who had taken two hot spots already -got taken out by getting hooked in the final sprint. Prior to that finishing sprint wreck, another wreck happened with bars catching a rear rack. Please folks, no racks in races. If you wear one, stay in the back. Silly and unsafe, plain and simple.

In the end Crawfy ended up with 2nd place on the night as the team pieced together the remnants of a late race break and some charging sprinters coming around the wreck.

A get well to Harwood, who got his bell rung pretty good in his crash.

UPDATE: Poor ol’ Harwood is out some bucks as his helmet, front wheel, and brand new kit are all trashed. However, after some follow up X-Rays on the ribs and shoulder, he’s got the all clear. No breaks, no fractures, no nothing. And while when he rapped his head pretty hard, sadly nothing was put back into the right place, so he’s still the same ol’ Harwood. Can’t win ‘em all.

Thank for you for the classy comments ye Portland Velo and Sunset Cycles sortsand others, awful sporting of you.

Bear Springs Action Figure – With Movable Arms And Kung Fu Grip!

A pair of our riders, Hudson and Boeger, rode on out to the other side of Mt. Hood to frolic in the snow on Sunday at the Bear Springs MtB race. Late spring snow made for a challenging day as our boys slugged it out to finish admirably, and dirty, as well.

Seems to be the usual amount of whining and bitching on the OBRA forum about warnings about snow, etc, which of course degenerates into chest thumping and admonishing, and we’ll abstain from the forum part and offer this: It was a MOUNTAIN BIKE race, folks. They have knots and turns and berms and single track and all kinds of insane shit, and some folks want to bitch about…..wait for it……snow? Good fucking Christ, that’s some serious baby shit.

Kudos to the organizers for all their hard work to put on an excellent race.

We have no pictures….well, none fit for the general public. See you at PIR tomorrow, where somehow three day’s ago “70 and sunny” is now set to be “53 and raining”. Gotta love Portland weather! AND Mt. Hood weather, too!

Entire Population of Earth Descends On PIR

Jumping Christ, (wow, good band name, if I do say so myself) there were a lot of fancy pants’ed mofos out at the race track last night. By noon, Idaho and Wyoming and Illinois had deposited all of their residents at PIR, and by the end of the day, the rest of the earth’s inhabitants had all followed suit.

The Cat 3/4 field had 17,000 people in it. It was insane! Apparently the razor’s edge corner on the backside still has the bad handlers amongst us flummoxed and there were a few cyclocross impressions once again through the night.

Ironclad brought a good number of lads and lasses out to contest the matter, and we slotted yet another top 5 finish with Harwood in the 3/4. He was assisted by basically the whole team, as well as the populace of Guam and Puerto Rico. Afterward there were many a taco cart in the bleachers along with our shitty beer. We also managed to release a new strain of typhoid on the world with all the mixed populations out there. Sorry about that. It was also the first time on recored that Mr. and Mrs. Crawford raced together in the same field. Our plan is to keep putting hot chicks (and Gerow) in the race as a form of distraction to our foes. We also plan on leaving strategically placed cold beers around the course so to perhaps dissuade others from continuing to fight. Pretty soon we’ll have toys and jungle gyms and cigarette machines about as well, and we’ll be the only team riding. You wait, you’ll see. You’ll all see.

In the 4/5 we had the “Vetters” again (Johannes and Mark K) with Ryan sitting in showing an informative educational video to the group, and selling hot dogs at the back of the pack. Lana provided the rest of the group with instructions of what to do in case of a water landing. Remember – sometimes the exit nearest you may be behind you.

Bike racers need all beef franks. Plain and simple.  And they need BACON.

Dave took a pass on the night and went to have his face melted off at the Mastodon concert at the Hawthorne Theater.

There are some pictures coming later. We had them, but the delegates from Kamchatka took them with by accident, so we are awaiting their transmission. Er,….wait….the Telex is buzzing. “STOP. Here’s some girls. STOP”

Later, ‘tater.

The Rock and The Clock

Kinda sounds like a kids book, doesn’t it? Well, these affairs were anything but child’s play, sonny boy.

Kira Crawford made her return to racing with a solo mission deep behind enemy lines to take on Table Rock way down south. Results still not up, but initial radio transmissions from a homeward Crawford denote “beautiful course, cramping legs” and some jibberish about no crazy alpacas.

The clock was contested via the legs of Jeff Harwood and Josh Hunt, with Harwood taking the team’s best spot for the day with a blazing ride which put him in 5th place down at Estacada #2.

Kmac, Dave, and Kevin all stopped by the ride for the fallen Century Steve of Team Beer, who packed up his bike back last week to go ride where there are only tailwinds and multiple beer stops. He will be missed and by the looks of it, many folks turned up at various spots in the ride to pay their respects and say their own two-wheeled farewell. Rest easy, Steve, your many earthbound friends will miss you.

No, not THAT Roubaix, THIS Roubaix

Borrowing half the name and a millionth of the pain and zero of the cobbles, the Eugene Roubaix saw a lonely pair of Ironclad riders descend upon it, racing in separate fields.

David Monnig kicked some ass in the 3’s, and Crawfy did the same in the Master’s race. Results not in just yet, but we’re speculating at top ten for Crawfy and something similar for David.

As an aside – David left a wheel behind at the Roubaix, a Dura Ace front wheel, a few hundred yards up from the s/f line in  a field of blueberries. Did anyone see it or grab it? There’s a $50 reward in it fer yinz. Click the envelope at the very top righth of this page if you can help us out.

Another pair are at the Estacada ride today, and Kira is taking on Table Rock by her lonesome way down south. Reports soon to follow.

Ending on a very sad note, our friends at Team Beer lost a teammate last week. There’s a memorial ride TODAY, SUNDAY leaving from Roots Brewery at 4pm, going to Tabor, Rocky Butte, and finishing at Council Crest. All are welcome to remember “Century Steve”.

Tuesday Quickie

PIR last night, another “podium” finish for the black and yellow. Wait, does PIR have a podium? Ah, anyway, Harwood came good to sneak some prime points early and then take 3rd in the bunch gallop to the line. The race was pretty much dominated by the break of Mitch and Steven (PV, and Sunset respectively) which Dave momentarily joined, but only to exchange pleasantries before succumbing to the high tempo and his hangover. Luckily the team rallied to help pull back the break in literally the last lap to set up the tailwind sprint.

3.4 – Harwood 3rd, Crawfy 7th, Dave 17th, Ryan 23rd, Q 41st, Hudson 52nd

4.5 Lana Pressey took on the lads and hung in the pack for 6 fast laps. Deciding it best to let boys be boys she moved out of the way of the sprint but still finished with the main pack. Vetting the lads of Weber and Koller saw two more top 15 finishes.

1.2.3 – We had Willis and Monnig strapping on the big guns and taking to the battle, and both came home with top 20 finishes. Very nicely done lads.

Back to work now. So long!

Almost A King, Surely A Pauper

It was once again the story of the elusive shitters. We so badly wanted this race and its attendant naming rights, but despite our best efforts our first win – and one that would see one of our names adorning a plastic crap acceptor  – is still out in the ether somewhere.

The days started out alright, with Captains Dave and Kira rolling down to cheer on a squad somewhat depleted by injury and illness. Already suiting up and thinking of royalty were Barker, Q, Gerow, Carver, Joe and Brody. Also, Vanessa, Kristin, Ginny and Lana were warming. And for the Cat 3 race we sent a lone Drew Willis into the meat grinder of the Oregon peloton.

Kings Valley pics up here.

Fonzi?

Lovely scenic valleys laid the backdrop to some fun and at times chaotic racing, where there were a few crashes, and one horrifically tough deceiving finishing straight.

At the end of hostilities we slotted Carver in 4th in the Men’s 4, continuing his breakout season. For the women folk, Vanessa ended up 6th in the 4’s after all the women started together and the rest of our girls got gapped by a crash or a nagging cold. Willis fared very well for himself taking 13th all on his own in the 3’s. Good stuff.

waiting for the rest of the folks, Q looks cold

We all rolled back to the staging area together, well until some of our knobs decided they had some energy left and raced home.

We then invaded the Ixtapa Mexican restaurant in Dallas, as did half of the rest of the racers out in Kings Valley. Despite being initially overwhelmed, the eatery made a lot of money and fed all of the racers in due time. Good action. We thought the woman at the dek was going to lose her mind when she saw about 35 skinny folks with salt crusted on their faces stroll through the door.

It’s the little things folks.

We’ll see you Tuesday if it’s not dumping rain.

Tuesday Quickie Recap

Duty calls, so we’ll be brief: The first PIR of 2009 most likely set the tone for the whole year: yellow and black, and blue and black lighting off bombs in the 3/4 field. The whole race saw your favorite band of miscreants mixing up every break with the PV boys, and the teams in smaller numbers doing spadework to marshall all the moves. A tip of the cap to Bicycle Attorney.com who busted ass all night to keep things together.

In the end it was a PV/IC top 5 with several others of both ranks in the top 15.

We hope the two folks who went down are ok. Get well quick. One should note to buy stock in Tegaderm in April when the share price is still low.

The weather was great and the 3/4 had 77 freakin’ riders in it. I bet next week will not be as rosy an outlook, as it looks like 50’s and wet are moving back into the area for a while.

See you at King’s Valley!

The Great Tuesday Night Shootout Is Upon Us

Though we’re still reeling from the greatness that was the Cherry Blossom Classic, some of us are sneaking out of traction and disobeying doctor’s orders to head to PIR to engage in the first of the TNSO’s (Tuesday Night Shootouts).

Having gone from the stunning roads and views and excellent organization of Cherry Blossom, we descend into PIR and all it’s attendant goofiness. Don’t get us wrong, we’re extremely happy to have PIR – no where else can you find such an excellent set of training races to keep the legs loose. Always good team racing there too, since Portland has the best and classiest teams in Oregon. But you have to admit, the music sucks. Since it’s in the 70’s in Portland in April, there’s no way a bunch of us are missing racing tonight at Ye Oulde Raceway.

We can barely move after the beatings we took at Cherry Blossom – and we took more than we dished out, but we’ll give it a whirl. Speaking of CB – there’s a ton more pics up, and more going up all the time. Lots of pics of lots of racing, so go find yourself here. Oh, and if you choose to travel to a race and have any kind of car, there’s only one transportation and/or racking company you need to look at : YAKIMA. All boob jokes aside, they make the best racks out there, period, bar none, end of story. Rock solid in even gorge winds. Plus they’re local. Plus they support cycling by having a team. Plus they engage in the scene with sponsorships and crazy shit like 1-story windmills, etc. So, there you go. Don’t stop at Saris, don’t collect your $200, go directly to Yakima.

The Cherry Has Blossomed

Beautiful and deadly. This race was kinda like most predators in the natural world: sleek, efficient, indiscriminate, and effective. By the end of three days of racing, most had that feeling of having time warped into the future, and what it will be like to be in an old folk’s home. Most were alone, confused, soiled, and craving visitors for attention or, most of all, contact. Most just wanted to be touched by anything other than a bike seat.

At the end of the day, it was all about hurt. Well, hurt, the last days of some dude named Jesus, a fucked up crazy alpaca, lovely times in The Dalles, a bunch of miles, wind, and an incredible team ethic. You can see a shit ton of pictures here. If you do use our pictures,  please credit ironcladcycling.com. If you wish to leave comments, leave your name, or they won’t be posted.

Your cast for this production was M3: Sanders, Harwood, Willis, and Voytilla. For M4 it was Boeger, Aldersebaes, Meisel, Carver, Spahr, Leineweber, Barker, Gerow, and Q. For the W4 we had Clark, Willig, Pedersen, McCarthy, and Cass.

The team didn’t leave empty handed, as we nagged a few 2nd place finishes on stages (McCarthy in  the crit, Carver on Stage 4) and a whole slew of top tens. We thought we had a win for a second, but it turns out the official’s timing equipment was misbehaving badly on the time trial. They then told the rider in question about their error in front of the group before the start of stage four. An incredible showing of poor form on their part, but that’s another matter entirely.

At the end of the race we had three fine top tens in GC with Carver, Pedersen, and McCarthy all doing enough to stay at the business end of the results. But these results were due to the efforts of the erstwhile teammates doing the spadework when they could, where they could. All in all it was an incredible team effort of epic proportions against the typical shenanigans of stage racing to put up some very fine admirable results.

Carver enjoys podium time for his 2nd place on the race’s Queen Stage

While a team effort, each rider goes through their own kind of hell at some point in these affairs. Everyone has their highs, and everyone has their lows, but together as one cohesive fighting unit we had a hell of a time and delivered when it mattered most.

Congrats to all the winners.

ponies in the stable

So despite a few errors here and there, many thanks to the promoters for their efforts and providing a difficult and stunningly beautiful race for us hacks to go murderize ourselves on.

in a word, gorgeous

We hope this race is on the calendar next year!