Ironclad Cycling

Brianna Walle and Ace Christiansen swapped their positions from the weekend’s Franz Bakery Crit, and went 1-2 Wednesday night at the weekly battle on the volcano, with Walle taking the top spot after a long time alone off the front. Whitley helped out animating the early prime hunting.

Trevor Spahr nabbed 5th in the senior men’s race (helped by WDP), Penner 11th in the 3′s (helped by Thompson and Carver), Alex Schultz 5th in the women’s 4′s, and Sharon Sandoval puked – twice – in the masters women’s race, while Crawfy was pukeless in the masters men. Nice work you nutbags.

Nita Galambos has a ton of cool pictures of the night right here.

photo by Nita Galambos

In other news, steam continues to gather for our upcoming races, and you can see the flyers by clicking the link above and to the right. You can pre-reg for both events at Obra.org as well! PLEASE Pre-Reg for the Speed Never Sleeps Street Sprints – it will help us seed brackets and make the race go much more smoothly for you AND us. Check it out! We have piles of schwag from Rapha and Surly in the house, PDW’s is on the way, and BridgePort Brewing just pitched in Free PINTS to the winners, and a bunch of $2 pint tickets to hand out, along with some shirts and hats….there’s HPC massages in the offing, Ironclad gloves, and tons of cash money. Come out and race…..you know those races you go to and you get a good result and you get a gel and a pair of socks that don’t fit along with a trial sized candy bar? Yeah, well, you won’t get that here. We need you to make our events successful, and we’re baiting you with a looooooong list of prizes and cash. Show up.

A great month long battle between Sorella Forte and Ironclad ended coming down to the final sprint of the final race of the series. Levo took the final hot spot and the final sprint to earn that one crucial point needed to knock the cagey Sarah Tisdale of Sorella Forte out of the top spot. A true team effort all month long, which saw Levo consistently turn in solid rides every Monday, despite losing some teammates to stage races like Elkhorn, etc. Ironclad brought the numbers and the ladies played their cards well, sending two up the road to sweep the early primes, then sitting up to come back to the group to drill the leadout for the top spot. Nice work. Cuhna, Schultz, Pressey, Christiansen, Croy, and Walle.  Post race beers at BikeBar sealed the win!

Levo gets the honor of wearing the Blue Leader’s Jersey for the month of July coming up, congrats Levo!

Mention must be made as well for Beth Chase’s return to racing after nearly a two year hiatus, jumping in the women’s novice race and completing all 3 of her goals: finish, don’t get dropped, don’t be last. Hooray!

On the men’s side of things, Crawfy, Thompson, and Dave bobbed around the bunch. Our dear Harwood decided on a night out with the wife instead of giving the other old men fits, so the other 3 messed around a bit, but did not get a triple double.

soon to be in Blue

Firstly, you need to queue up this song. Got it playing? Good. Then look at the image below. We’re gonna party like it’s yer berfday.

The 2nd Franz Bakery crit along with the 2nd Pringle Creek Circuit Race filled our weekend, and good times had by all at both. Some actual summer weather serenaded both races, and we made hay while the sun shone.

Franz Bakery was capped off by 1/2 wins in BOTH men’s and women’s fields with Trevor Spahr and Ace Christiansen respectively. Great rides all. Alexandria Schultz started warming the podium with an earlier 3rd in the W4′s race with Sharon Sandoval. We had 3′s and 4′s in the mix as well for the men, with both squads turning in solid rides. Penner, Carver, Thompson, Crawfy, Koller, Crouch, McCoy, Walle, Levo, Whitley, and Barker. Undoubtedly the best smelling race on the earth. That may sound funny, but it’s true. We were proud to kick in some cash and Ironclad schwag to support this fun (read: masochistic) race, and were happy to get such great results.

Pat Malach of course has in depth coverage and photos right HERE.

Leonard at Hot Foot has a pile of photos as well, and those are here.

Catherine Cooper had her camera with her, and has cool images here as well.

For shaky and questionable candids shot by the team over the weekend, Click HERE.

Celebration Commencement

And Sunday a smaller pod of us went down to the Pringle Creek Circuit Race, which was a really painful treat. Cool course, great weather, great roads. And we were given the privilege of riding in the Jim Henry Memorial Lap earlier in the morning. Birthday racer Mark Crawford highlighted the day with a fine 3rd place in the masters overall (2nd in his age group), so a podium placing on your day of earth entry is somewhat rad, wouldn’t you say?

We have some Pringle Creek images here.

Good times!

rolling off into Pringle Battle, a very special kind of battle indeed

The Ace and the Kid scored a 4th and 5th in the women’s open and women’s 4 last night, Koller finished well in the 4′s. Good action on the Murderhorn, with Ace sweeping up ALL the primes in her race. Nice action.

In other news, our races are getting there….just about done with the finishing touches…

You can check out the official race website right here for both flyers!

July 9th, and 16th, All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

Another Monday Tuesday double in the books, with a 4th on Monday for Harwood and Levo, and a 2nd last night for Danny Penner.  We’re far from actual summer heat but it seems there’s a bit of tempers flaring here and there. I actually thought some racers were going to just stop the complaining and start whaling like a 3 year old who not only didn’t get the ice cream he wanted, but he protested so loudly he filled up his britches with a new steam pile. Guys, really, take it easy. It’s just the PIR. It’s just the racing. And besides, it’s summer…..why cry?

Tonight, there won’t be enough wind in the lungs to complain as the Murderhorn, she waits. She takes your breath away and breaks your balls with ball peen hammers. A cruel woman is she. We’ll line up and take our beatings with the rest of yinz….

Onward.

Anna Clark leads all headlines out of Baker City with the overall victory in the Elkhorn Classic in the W4′s! Greg Sanders 2nd on GC M4′s! McCoy 3rd GC in PRO men 1/2! Ace 3rd GC in women’s PRO 1/2! Excellent rides by Whitley, Willis, Spahr, Pressey, Walle! Wahoo!

Hot damn! More coming very soon!

We got all sorts of top 5 and top 3 action going on at Elkhorn this year on the GC: McCoy 6th, Ace 3rd, Colonel 3rd, and all others sitting well within striking distance. Should make tomorrow’s annual pilgrimage up Mt. Dooley pretty exciting.

Stay tuned!

The PRO 1/2 men’s field was addressed before the start of Stage One at Elkhorn. Turns out Trevor Spahrticus must have made some enemies with all his underwear clad hotel hallway sprints last night. Ernie sent the group a message, and someone had the tape rolling, check it out:

It’s that time of year again, kids! Elkhorn time! Most people would rather repeatedly blast their balls with a pick axe than ride this race (your humble author included) but we’re sending a squad of losers who drew the short straws. Lost the bet. Taking the mickey. So long suckers. So join us in wishing bon voyage to Clark, Sanders, Ace, Anono, Lana, Willis, Spahrticus, McCoy, and Brianna as they make their way eastward to the sprawling anti-metropolis of Baker City, Oregon.

Mt. Dooley and it’s sadomasochistic tendencies await you, my pretties, and all the rest of you brave and somewhat foolish souls who are headed towards it.

Last year we walked away with the Cat 3 and Cat 4 women’s overall titles, as well as a top five for the men’s Cat 3 race. This year we’re in the PRO 1/2 fields with men and women, as well as men’s 4, men’s 3, and women’s 3 and 4 as well. We wish good luck, good recovery, and delicious eastern Oregon breakfasts to you all.

I assure you that by the 2nd feed zone of stage one, the language spoken by the peloton will be akin to the following blend of cycling esperanto:

In other racing news, Ironclad sent riders out to Monday and Tuesday’s PIR (Monday’s feats are recapped below) as well as last night’s little jaunt around the Murderhorn, Mt. Tabor. Not too much to report there, other than a gutsy ride by Stephanie Croy at Tabor, hanging on while admittedly feeling not so well on the bike. Nice work Steph!