Ironclad Cycling

When you’re a small glove company taking on the world trying to build a global brand, you take your opportunities where you can. For instance, when Nokia in Hungary wants to make a commercial for Hungarian TV, you find ways to get the talent some gloves. We do it a lot stateside (you’ll see us on America’s Extreme Home Makeover, Smash Lab, Overhaulin’, etc etc etc) but this is kinda cool. Let’s play “Spot the Ironclad”, shall we?

Just ask Harwood and Willis, who went out yesterday and took on the weather (and each other) in an epic training ride of never before seen awesomeness.

When one flagged, the other picked him up, and so it went, on and on, kilometer after kilometer.

Here we see Willis, sporting his new “Reverse Mohawk” giving Harwood a little friendly guidance on the bike. It kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

Apparently not.

There’s a really nasty cold/flu running through our ranks as though we’ve been hanging out in elementary schools, and it’s taking its toll on a lot of Ironclad riders. And to boot, there’s snow on the ground and it’s threatening our race weekend along with the sickness….upwards of five inches expected at Hagg Lake which might hamper Banana Belt Race #1 this Sunday.

I suppose we’ve nothing left to do other than take in the fluids. Begin the healing.

Good times at the Jack Frost TT were has by all, thanks to the BBC team. Well done folks!

The team brought Harwood, Spahr, Ace, Sandoval, and Dave to the party, slotting in good times for all. We think Ace won the 3′s in a small but tough field, borrowing Harwood’s TT bike and a co-worker’s helmet. Good job Ace! Two wins for the team in two days is one hell of a way to start the 2011 season! Harwood notched a fine 2nd place in the 30-39 as well. Spahr’s time was 18th on the whole day of over 280 riders. The rest of us are happy with our times, and happier still with our post race recovery decision. Aside from that very impressive treat, we got a small pile of photos for you to observe, if you so wish, right here!

The day was made a bit more special as it was Sharon Sandoval’s first race for the team since joining last month. Nice work, Sharon, and welcome to the fold!

welcome aboard Sharon,  you make us look better….

And of course Jose Sandoval had his eye on the prize as well, racing as well as taking some pictures and you can see them here. And here’s one he got of Ace on her way to victory whilst having donned the luxurious skinsuit from our cyclocross season, bringing the wolf out in the winter.

the ace in the deck

Next week we see Sublime Sublimity’s certain brand of pain, as well as the first Banana Belt. We’ll be seeing you at both!

The cherry has once again been popped, as the Cherry Pie road race signaled the beginning of the 2011 road cycling season for OBRA. Another excellent edition of the race brought to us by the fine folks at Pacific Power Blue Sky saw sunny, dry roads, and stiff winds. Taking to the fray were big fields testing the early season fitness.

For Ironclad it was men 3′s, women 3′s, and the lone Travis Bickle in the 1/2′s.

Our menfolk all fought the good fight, but tasted a little bad luck in missing big breaks from big fields….however they all looked really good, stayed upright, factored a bit, and had a good time. Did I mention they looked good?

none the worse for wear

For the ladies, it was a good strategy, good legs, and numbers helped carry the day delivering Brianna Walle to the foot of the finishing climb in perfect position to fire her engines and win the day. Complete, total, and selfless riding by the team set up Walle as best as possible. The first lap stayed under the watch of Pressey, Levo, Cuhna, and Croy, while Brianna and Ace waited for the hill to throw the decisive haymakers on both ascents of the finishing climb. A great way to start the season, especially against such a stacked field of 3′s. It is truly great to see so many talented  Cat 3 women get their own field for such a beautiful race. Rough start line count saw just shy of 30 women. That, my friends, is awesome.

six pack ftw

Pat Malach of Oregon Cycling Action has a write up of the affair, soon to be packed with pics right here. And we have a pretty good assortment of photos from our day here as well.

We did have one good fright though, as our dear Jenn Levo – in a cross-eyed haze from her early race work – missed a turn and went off course. Race over, all other riders in, we began to wonder if she had found a ditch to hunker down in and some roadkill to feast off of Bear Grylls style, as we organized a search party. Luckily, just then, a local in a beat up Ford pick up pulled up, with Jenn in the passenger seat, and her bike atop a pile of freshly cut firewood in the bed. It was a close one.

Good luck to all this weekend, safety and good races to anyone and everyone pinning a number on. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the sun won’t swell and eat you up like the little cupcake you are.

There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
There’s a black cat caught in a high tree top
There’s a flag-pole rag and the wind won’t stop

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

And so it goes, on and on. If you don’t know, now you know. A good group of the Black and Yellow made their way mostly up, and around the fair city of Portland, with a few esteemed guests, Alex from Illinois and the estimable Steve Schwaeber who we found along the way. There was also an old, fast dude on a super expensive bike for a wee stretch of the Fairmount loop….but he peeled off. Was it something we said?

This was the last weekend to pack it up, pack it in, let me begin, come to battle me….oh, shit. I’m sorry. House of Pain just invaded my post. That sucks.

As I was saying, this was the last weekend to sharpen the swords, stare into the fire, cook the biscuit, tend to the baby – in other words and as you well know, the time to draw swords for the 2011 season begins one week from now with Cherry Pie and Jack Frost.

We did our final engine checks by educating children about audible nipples, playing with stranger’s dogs, and climbing. And getting split up. However, it all ended with pizza and beer, so that’s a big win already.

First, the cute pet of the day award goes to Loki, who we found on Council Crest:

I’m handsome, and I know it

Of course, after going up until we couldn’t go up any more, it was time for a stretching party. It’s usually at this juncture of the ride that two camps are formed: those that will continue on and ride, and those that will find the first available bar. Can you guess who chose what from the following picture? I’ll give you a hint: the group that went to the bar collectively hit on the waitress. She didn’t take the bait, try though we did.

sad clown in the center? don’t mind if I do

Let’s all grunt together in the final push to the race season! We take this moment to wish all of you well – from the 1′s to the 5′s, the men, the women, anyone planning on pinning numbers on this coming weekend.

Safe racing all, and to all a safe race….

You’ve waited, and we’re late. This is just about how it should be around here.

So, have a laugh at us having a laugh at ourselves, our sport, you, and a little demented daydream. You can check out the Filmed By Bike edit of our ditty right here.

Please watch it and if you are so inclined, repost, retweet, rehash, release, relaugh, reload (though not like Metallica), rescorn, and every other re- under the sun.

We’re proud to announce that the wee little film made about our wee little team by filmmaker Will Walle from Picture This Productions has been accepted to the Filmed By Bike festival, along with these other fine entrants. (Our personal fave is “All you haters suck my balls”)

Thanks to Will Walle for making the film, and we had fun making the short version. The long version is still in the works!