Ultra Gross Lousy Yes

Now, as if they weren’t hideous enough, we’ve been let loose with a bottle of Tanqueray and a case of Rainier and look what’s happening.

bedazzlers, booze, and bad haircuts

And all in preparation (H) for the most fun on two wheels, coming soon. Do you need a picture, sonny boy? Well, here you go.

Warriors……come out to plaaaaay

Monday Round Up = Winning and Partying Go Together

Saturday was the big team party action, and you should definitely read about that awesome night by scrolling down or clicking here.

But Sunday brought us our first men’s team win for Cyclocross for 2009, with David Monnig’s demolition of the B’s field, aided by Trevor Spahr, who ended up 3rd in the same race, giving us two on the podium. We also stuck Voytilla and Willis in the Top 20 for good measure. Sanders, Sestrich, and Koller all helped out in the same field. Observe the winner in action:

Photo: Pat Malach – Oregon Cycling Action

And the weather was perfect, nice and warm. We can wait a week to really break out our hideous new fleece skinsuits en masse, but a few of us were brave enough to try. Firstly, it’s a given that our fair women’s team does a much finer job of doing these orange strips justice than to the meatwagons among us. Our girls are pretty, our boys aren’t, it’s just kind of a fact. But given the temps, two brave Ironclad sorts, Brody Boeger and Atlin Sestrich, busted out the fleece lined skinsuit actiion to help destroy camera equipment everywhere along the course.

Here’s Brody:

no, this wasn’t staged – photo Oregon Cycling Action

In the single speed field we had Brody and Gerow. In the women’s B’s we had Lana, and in the C’s we had Barker, and in the Master B we had Harwood.

I think the orange brings new meaning to “winning ugly”. Gross. But nice job everyone!

Party On, Wayne

Saturday saw our annual team party executed with near perfection. It’s the time for our squad to look back on the year and celebrate our friendships, our successes and failures, our struggles and troubles, replete with an awards ceremony and some so-good-it-should-all-be-illegal food. Yes, this idea incorporates Sanders’ family recipe barbequed chicken. Amazing stuff.

Such a year for us, really. From a rocky start with a bunch of near misses, to some serious injuries, to cancer, and then to breaking the ice and having the wins come flowing in. Last night we celebrated all of that and more.

cancer and brain injuries ain’t got nuthin’ on these two

Along with some of our newer members coming out to party, there was a new food item in the offing as the estimable Brody Boeger took it upon himself to flawlessly execute the Bacon Explosion. Don’t believe us? Check it:

That’s about 4 pigs worth of pork. And it was DELICIOUS.

And of course another debut of sorts was the en masse unveiling of our special edition 2009 Cyclocross skinsuits and jackets. No worries, we’ll be back in black in 2010 for road as we always are, but we figured with so much black creeping into so many team’s kits, that it would be a good idea to rock some blaze orange action, which of course matches our reflective orange Ironclad gloves. Well, sort of matches. The idea behind this was both change, and of course, the “pursuit of hideous”, and we think it’s safe to say we succeeded on both fronts. We plan on installing a lot of headaches in spectators this year. They’re just godawful. But hey, you won’t ever be able to miss us in races now!

House of Orange

All in all, it was a great year. We thank all of those who were along for the ride, especially those who really showed up in our times of near death medical situations. 2009 was our 3rd album, and our 4th is going to be even better. But first, a few months of mud and falling down.

Every Night Is Halloween

Another Thursday, another Wolfpack. And as the spiral draws tighter as the Crusades loom, the lunacy and risk-taking increase exponentially. Last night was another rung up the crazy ladder.

About ten souls went out to sea and all came back, though with less skin and more bruises. About 300 beers were consumed, and many a derby were contested after the usual ascent and descent of  the Lief trail. Some highlights were Atlin’s 400rpm descent, Eva and Brody’s nudity, Chris the night janitor coming along for kicks, and last but certainly not least, the debut of the House of Orange skinsuits, dominated this night by the Colonel. He was also awarded the Wolfpack’s first ever leader’s jersey, a high honor indeed. For next week he need not carry his own beer, or take a pull, or basically do anything as he’s in our fucked up version of the maillot jaune.

Beard, check. Helmet, check. Hot chicks, check. Leader’s jersey, check. Win!

A somewhat new element to the Wolfpack was taken to new heights yesterday as the bicycle combat known as derbying came to the fore at Chapman school. Memory banks are shot full of Budweiser holes, but we’re pretty sure everybody fell down at least once.

Roundy Round!

And finding friends along the way is always good. Sure, we had the usual visitors on the trail that you see this time of year, lots of folks out dusting off the cross skills, but late at night is where you find the best ones. Locking up for the night we found Chris, the Chapman night janitor. He stepped outside into pure derby excellence, and was immediately smitten. Staring profoundly at the swirling mass of hops and spokes, his curiosity sufficiently piqued, it was only moments before he was astride his cruiser and in the mix. He actually won a round, too. Nice work, Chris.

All aboard the Chris train.

This morning finds the platoon bruised, battered, and hungover as gin-stealing baboons. Our 2009 team party is Saturday, and then the worst run up in history awaits at Barlow. That is, if there’s anything left of us come Sunday…..

Stag At The Date

We sent a bunch of lads andd one lady to the Blind Date and no one scored. Well, off the bike, anyway. But on the bike things went well! Trevor was 2nd and Willis 4th in the B’s, showing their mighty skills are right on track for a good crusade.

Lana scored 12th in the women’s B’s, and Gerow (10th) and Voytilla (19th) and Brody (22nd) took on the single speed sorts. Joe and Barker slotted well to the back of a massive field of C’s in their own ding dong battle, as Paul may say.

We don’t have any pictures sadly. But we have an image that suits this time of year.

the troops are assembling and hitting the hot LZ

Cyclocross Updates

We had Voytilla and Bickle up at StarCrossed, and both posted some fine results. Waiting on the official word from on high, but in the meantime, we installed laser beams in our Cyclocross Team Issue gloves for 2009, in order to more effectively neutralize the competition. Observe the picture below. And if you want a pair of these bright “I-Viz” yellow or orange gloves, complete with 3M reflective material, simply shop BikeTiresDirect.com. They got Ironclad gloves for your hands.

you want not to be on the receiving end of these puppies

We had a handful of riders at the Hood River Double Cross as well, waiting on final number of participants and whatnot.

More details by tomorrow. Work now.

Pain, Rapha recap

Looks like we held up our own in both races…

For the Rapha ride we had a men’s and a women’s team in action, with our women taking the top slot, and the men coming in 7th or 8th out of 23 total teams. Lots of other details to wait on. Our sister team Veloforma was the only other all women’s team but suffered some severe allergy issues out on the road. Get better Tina! Quickly! All the teams no doubt had some adversity on a tough, long day. Congrats to all finishers.

6 women, 140 miles

For the men’s team it sounded like a good ride, averaging over 20mph for about 7 hours, but bitten with 6 total flats along the way. There’s some Garmin info you can see right here. Those are the numbers from Willis’ on board computer. You can see all Rapha results HERE.

Rapha men’s team readies to roll

The other half of the team went to the Pain on the Peak CX race and as with most CX races, we had good luck and bad luck, sometimes both at once. Highlights were Joe Leineweber taking the only podium spot for the day with 3rd in the Clydedales, and Brian Gerow rocking out a nice 7th in the Single Speeds. Other racers included Barker, Harwood, Dezellum, and Boeger. Some pics up here, more coming. Good work, ye dusty lads!

Brian and Joe bite the dust

Pain on the Peak Photos = HERE

Rapha Gentlemen’s Ride Photos = HERE

It’s A Double Dip Kinda Weekend

do I have your attention now, class?

Two great events lie in wait for the weekend!

The fine folks over at Portland Velo (see jersey above) and Sunset Cycles are presenting the 2nd installment of Pain on the Peak, a real humdinger of a Cyclocross race. We here at Ironclad have thrown in some goods on an impressive prize list as well, so show up, throw down, and you might get yourself some glory and some cool shit. You can find all the information you need RIGHT HERE. So click it and trick it, Daddy-O.

Also on tap is the Rapha Gentlemen’s Ride, a cannonball run style, invite only death ride from the coast back to inner SE. We’re fielding a men’s team and a women’ team to take this one on, and all other available riders will be reporting for duty at Pain on the Peak. The Rapha ride is a curious little beast, and will certainly be a challenging ride that will resort in many memories and smiles. Last year it invoked the kinds of reactions you see in the picture below. In keeping with today’s theme of hot chicks, we present to you:

hooray!

If your team got an official invite, see you at the Rapha Ride. If not, see you at the Pain on the Peak. We’ll be in force and at both!

On the surgery front, Carrie is healing as best she can and dealing with considerable pain; and thank you very much for all the wonderful donations. All of your generosity has certainly softened the blow and we’re working towards a good chunk of money to pay down the initial bill, which the beancounters are still tallying. It’s gonna be a lunker, as they say back home. But thanks again for all the help. If you find an extra sawbuck laying about, please send it via paypal to savecarriesthumb@gmail.com

Thanks again, stay safe out there……

Shattered Thumb + Disappearing Insurance = Huge Medical Bill

Carrie Goodbrake, the better half of Dave and rider on the Veloforma cycling team, recently underwent extensive surgery to repair her shattered thumb. The injury was sustained during one of Ironclad’s infamous wolf pack night rides. Unfortunately Carrie’s insurance is just north, check that, just south of worthless, leaving Dave and Carrie high and dry and with a bill in excess of $8k.

For those of you that know them, there is no justification needed for why you should help them out.  Please make a donation via PAYPAL to: savecarriesthumb@gmail.com

For those of you that do not know them, allow me to wax poetic for a moment.  First off, from a personal perspective, the two of them have been rocks for Kira and me in our fight against Kira’s breast cancer, from helping to raise money to cover our out of pocket expenses, to watching our daughters, to sitting at the hospital with me while Kira underwent surgery, and most importantly, being there when we needed someone to help us keep up the fight.  This is not an isolated event, the two of them repeatedly go above and beyond, for instance, coordinating a charity ride “Underpants and Heavy Cans” to benefit the Oregon Food Bank, and raising funds to help a fallen teammate out with medical bills and replace her demolished bike, but again their true worth is in the friendship and support they provide to so many of us on a daily basis.

Please donate what you can to help them out.  Every little bit makes a difference.

Go to PAYPAL and send money to: savecarriesthumb@gmail.com

Thanks!!!

Crawfy

long road ahead….

Cyclocross Is Underway!!

The first Cross race in the valley took place in the unorthodox format of a stage race in Eugene, Oregon, at the Crossover Stage Race. Ironclad sent down Trevor, Dave, Gerow, Voytilla, and the moonlighting Hudson and first timer Emiliano to take over the Hampton Inn and try our hand at early season cross racing. All the lads in black and yellow ended up with top ten finishes, but that was due in some cases to there being only 10 riders in the race. Great performances by Trevor, Voytilla, and Gerow, and Dave just sucked a mile of donkey ass in what could only be described as “an epic shit show”.  Ah, not his forte anyhow.

The Prologue was a rad little 3k jaunt around the Lane Community College campus, the crit was similar but with a wonky off camber downhill gravel-to-pavement stretch, and the following days’ long course was just a big, fat, hairy bitch. I mean TOUGH. The good thing was, we were all hallucinating and saw giant goofy rabbits in downtown pubs. No lie – visual evidence:

told you so

The Bad Luck award goes to poor ol’ Gerow, whose bike simply mutinied on the poor lad. If it wasn’t the bike committing mutiny, it was the course, whereby at one point pre-riding the long course he hit a center crack on a footbridge resulting in his front wheel being tacoed. Damn! He also got yelled at by a super serious gal completing her last lap, many minutes off the back and in dead last, but hey, she seemed pretty into it I guess. Maybe delirious.

“hey Dave, got any more wheels?”

But at the end of the day we managed to put up some good results, despite what the gods (read: bars) had in mind. We are off to a good start. Once our new sparkly cross skinsuits arrive (look at the gloves, that’ll give you a hint) there will be no stopping us!

Thanks to Sal Collura for a great race! You can check out about 50 pics of the weekend right here, so please do.

(L-R) Trev, Emiliano, Gerow, Dave, Voytilla, Hudson

We’ll see you at Pain on the Peak, or the Rapha ride, this coming weekend!