Ironclad Cycling

What a day. What a day indeed. Pictures HERE.

Congratulations are in order for Cat 3 Drew Willis, who snared his first win of his racing career after a stellar performance in the breakaway of the day, and then escaping said breakaway for a clear win in the sprint to the line. A fine job for a fine lad who’s had nothing but bad luck this season with mechanicals and flats. Truly couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, and none more deserving than he. Always a solid and stalwart workhorse for the team, Drew took his moment and shined on this horrifically windy, rainy day. I hope his Mama is reading this because ma’am, I know you’re twice as proud of him as we are, and we’re beaming over here.

Drew sprints convincingly to his first win

In the M5′s we had Atlin Sestrich, excorcising his ghosts his Cake ghosts of 09 by successfully finishing the race that ended his year last year. Well done, kid!

In the 4′s we placed Shaun  Conley in 4th place, with help from Mark Koller in the mix.

In the women’s 1/2/3 we had Anona who got in  the right move with the Earthquaker and held in just fine for 5th.

In the women’s 4′s we had a good group of girls going at it, and a touch of wheels caused a pile up ending in some injuries for a couple of girls requiring hospital visits. We wish all those injured very speedy recoveries. Thanks to our guest rider from MPLS, Iman, who took on her first ever bike race today, finishing strong.  Our other girls that had the unfortunate luck of crashing are all ok, a few beers and enchiladas on the way home helped that. Their bikes, on the other hand……

And special mention (and I do mean special) to the incredible job done by the promoters, OBRA staff, and course marshalls, who had to contend with the most irate motorists I’ve ever seen in a road race. Folks ’round Perrydale school don’t take kindly to them bike folk, no sirree. We were discussing it at our post race meal, when a truck pulled up with “Ditch The Bitch, Let’s Go Fishing” stenciled on the windshield. The vastness of the social chasm at hand became crystal clear in an instant.

All in all an amazing day for the sqaud in some, at times, complete shit  weather. Mother Nature had the sink thrown at us today, hard rain, light drizzle, sledgehammer winds, sunshine……a slap and a tickle.  As for the racing, we got some really good luck, and some really bad luck, and that’s exactly what bike racing is all about. Win some, lose some.

Yup, them’s motorcycles

Yes, now cake. Where is pancake house?

It’s time for Piece of Cake, folks, on a new and improved course in the Salem area. Promising mostly flat and some “slight” rollers, it should be one a new type of racing since we’ve been all up/down/up/down this year so far. The weather looks to be right shitty, and you can probably bank on stiff winds. It’s like Belgium!

It’s got a little spur to and from the race circuits, and the finishing straight after the last little dogleg in the spur is .25 miles. Close quarters for what will most likely be a day full of bunch sprints.

get a slice

Of course, the winners get cake. We don’t know what kind of cake, and we don’t care. If the cards fall our way and we get some sugarloaf, we’ll add our own little picture to it. The the ivory toothed Tuscan himself.

sandwiches, and two fingers

Women and men make sandwiches differently, you know. Cipo once regaled his team in the hotel at Tour of California with just why that is.

Anyhow, see you out there. Pray for some ok weather….

Does anybody dig old Ozzy? It’s kinda fun, like a slap and tickle every once in a while.

Since we had a race free weekend, we decided to resurrect the Wolfpack ride on a beautiful sunny 70 degree day up in Forest Park. We had a good crew, a tired dog, and a cart towing a stereo. If that sounds too hard to believe, you should watch this video for the proof.

Sure, some of us went on long road rides, and there’d be no finer day than that for such an activity, but the trails were glorious and welcoming, the beers tall and cold, and the company perfect. The formula hadn’t changed much – meet at the market, buy some suds, roll up the trail, drink the suds, come down, derby. But today’s edition was held in the daytime, and today was special.

We had our first non human jersey winner at day’s end, and boy howdy did she earn it. That damn lab ran all the way up and down, and still had some leftover in the end. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.

Good Girl, Bruce.

So up went. Down the beers went. Up the fun factor went. There were all kinds of feats of strength. And then down we went, and on to the school to derby for our lives. A wheel got broke, but we managed to make it rideable. If you ever taco a wheel….well, a taco with a split from end to end, here’s a quick fix video on how to get it good enough to get you home.

But derbies are fun, no matter how you slice it. What a great day for all to be on a bike. 6 hours of bike fun followed up by the Veloforma party and a fine meal at Pause. We could think of no finer nights in Portland in March! Special thanks to Nate, Nick, and Cheever for making things just that much more special. And yes, I do mean short bus kinda special.

Thanks to Rapha and Jeff Mitchem for another fine Banana Belt series, one Mother Nature saw fit to let us compete in without the rain or snow we’ve grown accustomed to in previous years.

A fine third race was turned in with the headlines being another podium finish for The Ace with a 2nd place, and Harwood in the men’s 3′s with an 8th. By our picture count and completely unofficial, we might add.

For the Men’s 3′s we had Harwood finishing best along with a seaworthy Willis, Crawford, Weber, Gerow, and Spahr. We read the early move right and got Johannes in the break, but a flat scuttled that move.  Unable to bridge the gap to the break, we got a sneak into the top ten in the bunch sprint to the line. Congrat’s to Ironclad sponsored Portland Velo’s Mitch Lee on a well deserved win after spending all damn day in the one and only break group. Well done!

For the women’s 3′s we had Anona going solo and trying some stabs here and there in a small field. Good racing prevailed with our girl coming home just off the pace after some attacking, and Leia Tyrell coming home for her 3rd straight win, to take the overall prize. Good racing, ladies.

maggie the dog got sick, but hung in to cheer us on

In the women’s 4′s we had Ace, Steph, Lana, and Alana all duking it out. Skipping across to the solo break, The Ace hung on for a fine 2nd place finish well ahead of the field, after some good set-up work by the team. What a start for the new bike racer!

Men’s 4′s saw Leineweber and Koller going at it, with Joe getting a bit of a respiratory snakebite, and Mark sticking it out for a long solo sojourn after losing contact on the early climbs. Good job to both for flying the flag!

Tons of pics from the day right HERE.

Album. I mean album, and if you’re getting one, it should be Foreigner 4, no doubt about it. If you want the other kind of foreigner, grab a German. Or an Italian. In our case we haggled the dealer down to a half-and-half. Swarthy but precise, Johannes brings to our team a wealth of cultural depth, and a never ending hunger. I swear, half of this kid is hollow. This photo was from roughly 9 a.m.

And the true wonderment of these moments lies in the fact that afterward, you get yourself a nice serenade.

We can’t keep coming up with the horseshit banana word plays, so we’ll stop after this. Besides, we’ve used them all by now.

Anyhow the team had a fine day today ’round ol’ Henry’s waterhole for the second Banana Belt race in the series of three. Trevor Spahr takes headlines with the win in the men’s 3, free and clear after bridging to, then dispatching the breakaway. Good job kid. I smell a 2 upgrade coming in a bit. Anona Whitley scores her first podium since joining OBRA with a well earned 3rd place finish in the 3′s, and Stephanie Croy also gets her first podium in OBRA with the same position in the 4′s. Well done ladies, well done indeed!

Bunch of pics uploading – rather slowly, too – right HERE. More blah blah later. Beer now.

the early bird gets the worm

Trevor Spahr brung us a nice podium finish today, clocking a time of 26:37 at the Raven TT which was good enough for 3rd place in the 1/2/3 race. Well done Trevor!

On to Banana Belt #2; here’s to hoping for a dry, safe day.

Remember that old show? Where the Monkees met major league mascots I believe. And I bet dollars to doughnuts there was some serious amyl nitrate abuse going on on that set. No doubt about it. Just look at them. I’d be taking it all day if it were me.

Well, we’re off to Banana Belt #2, the rogue Banana, being it’s going against the grain, a true maverick. Don’t believe us? Look at what #2 is doing to all the other ‘nanas.

crying shame, he used to be as normal as pumpkin pie

So I am sure we’ll be seeing your smiling face there, won’t we? We hope so.

In other news IRONCLAD.COM has relaunched! It looks a lot better, don’t you think? You sponsored teams out there clamoring for your base layers, just simmer for a sec, we’re uploading the product offering in dribs and drabs and having all the attendant BS go along with it, so we promise to be up and running at full speed before you know it.