Tuesday Quickie

Threw some riders in a race, got some fun results. In the 1/2/3 we had Gerow, Crawfy and Harwood locking horns ending in 34th, 14th, and 12th respectively. Harwood escaped near disaster in the end…..good thing. PIR wrecks are the worst kind.

In the 3/4 we had 6 riders, 4 of whom were women, andafter the initial escape plan was foiled, we still got The Ace in the break of the night and she came home in 7th. We figured we’d do our part in our new campaign “Beautify the Peloton”. Last night was a case in point. Dave and Greg escorted Anna (welcome back, graduate!), The Ace, Lana, and new rider Brianna Walle in the race.

To that end, join us in officially welcoming Brianna to the fold. Her considerable 1st year talents are sure to be cultivated with the rest of our women’s team. She’s off to a great start this year, winning most of her first ever bike races, incuding 3 consecutive Tabors. We’re happy to have her on board and she significantly bolsters our already impressive women’s team. Welcome aboard, Brianna!

introducing Brianna Walle to Ironclad

Afterward, being a bit of a chilly night, we decided on a fire to warm ourselves. And backyard fires usually come with beers, so we enlisted Trevor to haul the booty. Observe.

Monday Night Open Mic

We brought a few logs to the fire last night at PIR, where we saw Conley, Lana and Alana on the road, and Trevor Spahr and lil’ bit Anona Whitley on the dirt side of things, all with really good finishes. Anona 5th in the pro women, Trevor 4th in the Cat 2′s for the dirrrrrty side of things, and Alana 7th, Lana 11th in the women’s open, and Conley 6th all by his lonesome in the 4/5. Seems like the good times and easy living of Elkhorn was years ago. We got some other catching up to do…..let’s look back in the last 10 days worth of fun.

where have all the good times gone?

As we hit the really meaty part of the season, it’s important to pay as much attention to recovery as one does to training. This includes diet and everything….we at Ironclad have adopted a rigorous nutrition program as seen here.

we can help you

Outside of racing, we went on a silly bike ride with cowboys and all kinds of zany shit, courtesy of Team Beer.

yeehaw

And prior to all of this we swiped Luciano to pump some beer and hot dogs into him at a secret undisclosed location. Marley was there too, the official dog of OBRA. After some intense negotiating – “Will you?” “Yes.” – we locked up Luciano to be the voice of our upcoming races in July!

Ironclad Wins Swan Island For 2nd Consecutive Year!

In the men’s 3′s race, we brought home another W – same as last year. A less dominant but equally effective effort was turned in by Dave, Crawfy, Dizzy, and our winner – Jeff Harwood – who scored his first criterium win as a Cat 3! Well done Haywood!

In the Men’s 4/5 we had Koller, Conley, and The Colonel himself duking it out, with the boys sheparding Conley to a fine 4th place finish (we think).

In the women’s 1/2/3 we had Anona Alona…..but she did just fine all by herself and posted a fine result. Unsure of actual placing at presstime.

In the W4 we had Alana, Steph, Vanessa, and Stagaire Brianna taking the fight to the field of 28, and we ended up with Alana in a fine 2nd place when all the points were tallied up! Nice job! Lots of pictures of all the races here.

(l-r) Harwood, Dizzy, Crawfy, Dave

Vanessa, Alana, Steph, Anona – missing, Brianna

special cheering section on this team

Trevor Spahr Wins Thursday Track Race

Trevor done brung us a nice fish winning the Cat 3 Omnium at the Thursday Night Track race at Alpenrose!

Nice work Bickle!

Tabor ness!

Tabor.

Good times.

Cat 2 racer Drew Willis took to his first ever open race since upgrading and got a nice 10th place. The young buckhorn Atlin Sestrich got 3rd in the 5′s, and our women took to the 4′s and the open to score a bunch of nice finishes. Barker rolled in the 4′s along with Killer Koller.  The Carver rocked it in the 3′s. There’s some pictures forthcoming, and there’s new about our races!

Famousosity

Tuesday PIR. Dry, warm-ish, fast. In the 1/2/3 Harwood scored us a fine 2nd place even though he was all alone. Not too shabby whatsoever. But, being a teacher and having his last day of work prior to the race, as well as having a bottle of wine waiting in his shoulder bag, we think he just wanted to get the race done quickly and open the wine.

In the 3/4 we had Alana and Dave battling a frantic field which saw teammates chasing down teammates, breaks attempting to go away by attacking a neutral, and poor blocking etiquette – all offenses committed by the same team no less. We also saw a lot of strong chicks in the race that pulled like hell and that was awesome. Is it just me or are the women racing in the 3/4 with the men more plentiful and much stronger? Gotta love it.

In the end no one hit the deck and a late race break was destroyed by a solo bridge effort. Afterward, quotes abounded at the post race debriefing bbq. Observe:

“My only advantage is stupidity and sheer determination.”

“Last Friday I got drunk with an astronaut.”

And now, a picture that makes no sense and has no bearing on anything.

GC Victories Cap Elkhorn Weekend!

Someone had the bright idea a few weeks ago to arrange for the team to pile into the Magical Blackass RV and  go to Baker City to contest the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race for the 3rd consecutive year, and somehow about 15 of us thought it a good idea. So, into the RV with the lovable lab Bruce and eastward we went.

And when we left, we had two General Classification wins, and a few podium spots and wins from various stages. An amazing showing by a dedicated group of squads. You’ve read about the other stages, but the decisive Stage 4, the Mt. Dooley Deathmarch, is where the rubber met the road. We were in striking distance in the M3′s, W3′s and W4′s, and made the moves to end up with Anna Christiansen and Steph Croy winning the 3′s and 4′s respectively with epic rides. To be fair, Anna’s win came at the expense of the sitting GC leader who went out of the race in a bad crash and we all wish her a speedy recovery. That’s racing, sadly. In the men’s affairs, Willis moved up a few notches with a podium finish on the stage to move up to 4th overall on GC. Our Men’s 4′s saw Joe Leineweber improve drastically on his previous efforts with a fine finish just off the main group.

And the day itself? Fuck. 102 miles, 7500ft of climbing, high 40′s for temps, and wind driven rain all day. Not at all for the weak. At the start lines in the morning, it was clear half of most of the fields had thought better of racing, and stayed in bed. Who could blame them? It was a miserable day. And by miserable we mean awesome. You can see all the evidence of the weekend right here.

the men’s 3′s team and their winnings

steph croy, 1st place, GC women’s 4 (and upgraded to 3!)

anna “the ace” christiansen, 1st Place, GC women’s  3

Men’s 4

Mark Koller, Joe Leineweber, Shaun Conley

Men’s 3

Johannes Weber, Robbie Carver, Dave Aldersebaes, Andrew Willis

Women’s 3

Lana Pressey, Anna Christiansen

Women’s 4

Eva Van Deusen, Alana Armstrong, Stephanie Croy, Vanessa Cass

Support Crew

Greg Sanders, Brody Boeger, Bruce the dog

And when it was over, we piled back into the RV with our hardware and cash, all muddy, grimy, tired, cold and wet – but we were smiling ear to ear. 4 pizzas, two 30 packs of cheap American beer, and a westward vector were all we needed. Thank you to Ernie Conway and all the support staff for putting on such an amazing race.

into the sun

Time Trials, and Crits…well, sort of…

The Time Trials were great and our GC riders held firm to their spots. We have The Ace sitting second in the W3′s and Steph in 4th in the W4′s….while Willis sits just 1:14 off the lead – which we all know is nothing in the face of Dooley.

The Crit was great for the 4′s, where Conley, Joe, and Koller all stayed in the thick of things to not lose any time. In the W3′s, Lana and The Ace kept their noses clean and did not lose any time either.

The biggest fireworks came in the W4′s, where Alana Armstrong made the podium with a fine 3rd place finish, and our GC rider Steph had a miraculous ride. The rain started halfway through the race and sure and shit, the crit course went to hell, causing Steph to crash after a short breakaway. Something about the pavement here gets slick as snot in the rain. Steph remounted and chased hard. Missing her chance for the wheel pit break, she kept chasing and caught the other gals who were close to her on GC, losing no time in the end. The others in 2nd and 3rd missed a chance to put time into our girl, who is just fine and fit and ready to tackle the long course. Mileage and hills suit Steph so we’re hoping she might move up a place. The leader of the 4′s is some ridiculous amount of minutes up on the rest so the top spot chance looks remote, but you never know. In the M3′s, the race was canceled as the rain kept coming in buckets. Good call, refs.

fuck the rain

Tomorrow is 102 miles with 7k of climbing. The weather looks to be scattered intense thunderstorms……good times.

Pictures are coming soon….

And……We’re Off Like A Prom Dress

Good times, good racing, and good weather in Baker City, kids. The squad’s off to a good start with all of our GC riders sitting in the top 5 in the M3, W3 and W4. In the M4 our climber Killer Koller (say that 10 times fast) turned in a good ride sliding into the top 30. Of course, for balance and all that zen, yin/yang kinda shit, we put the Captain and Eva in Delta Foxtrot Lima positions in the M3 and W4. Top hat and tails, folks.

Time Trial and Criterium ahead……our ticket is punched for the pain train.

rolling to the start

We’re surprised no one called the cops on this shady looking group

The Gang’s All Here

The horns of the Elk are upon us, and about to impale us.  Yet we’re all in it together. And thanks to the colonel and the raddest team vehicle ever – Blackass – we’re going to die in style.

Here’s to a good safe race!

And the skies aren’t sure what they want to do with us. Maybe we’ll get some sun, maybe we’ll get some clouds, maybe we’ll get some snow  like last year. We went out for a little pre-ride to have some fun and stretch the legs and open the lungs.