Ironclad Cycling

Or something like that. I might have started every Jack Frost blog post with something similar. If you’re tired of it, forgive me.

Anyhow, a few of us jumped in Walter (now fully racked with Yakima bike holder type thingies thanks to Dizzy and the Colonel) and went up to Vancouver to go fuck off on a 12 mile course in the Four Seasons (winter, summer, etc) for shits and giggles.

Good things happened. Deann Krill, Dave, Mark Koller, Sharon Sandoval, Travis Bickle, and Cristina MiCommunist went out and threw down. Trevor won the Merckx category, that little whippersnapper. Everyone else pedaled with intent and everyone but Dave landed a top ten in small fields but good action nonetheless!

Afterward, we toasted apple cider and Bushmill’s, to commemorate the day! See all you jokers at Banana Belt next week!

photo by Jose Sandoval

Annnnnnnnnnnnd, we’re off! Cherry Pie kicked off the 2012 racing season this past Sunday outside of lovely Albany, OR.

The standard opening race for the season did not disappoint as good temps and dry weather greeted our squads fighting their way around the skinny rectangular course.

Crawford brought us home a fine top ten in the Masters race, while Willis avoided the Human Ping Pong Ball and brought us a fine one as well in the 1/2 (assisted by the Fuzz, TSpahr, and “Bones” McCoy). Killer Koller dug around the 4s field for a solid finish, and our ladies brought home the sole podium for the day with Cristina Mihaescu scoring 3rd (after a 250 mile training week) and Stephanie Croy slotting in 5th, to put two in the top 5 (assisted by Lana Pressey) so that means 2 of 3 in the top quintet. Hey, we can’t win it every year! Our large men’s 3 team and our women’s 4′s were not lined up at start time due to a conflagration of weirdness in life, pocketbooks, and illness.

Lots of big fields and solid racing all around. While numbers were down, it was a clear indicator there’s a lot of teams looking to lock horns this year and again….everything….just….seems…..faster.

A few pictures HERE, but a laptop meltdown has delayed the rest. Check back for actual racing photos. In the meantime, you know Pat always has good stuff to show you.

Afterward, we decided to adjourn to a nearby Mexican restaurant and enjoy shitty food, but very good Margaritas. A team that drinks together in February (and January, and December before that) wins together throughout the year!

tequila cures all

Our little glove company keeps doing good things…

Along with our further forays into the cycling world with not only this team, but also with our new agreement with Jelly Belly p/b Kenda Pro Cycling Team, too! They got our logo rocking on their sponsor page, right here.

We also are digging deeper into Supercross, and we have a new video with our racer Jeff Ward. Check it out!

It seems it is a tale of two teams within a team – half of us are waylaid out sick, the other half are piling on miles and fitness as though it were available in Costco sized portions. There’s a cold/flu bug that’s like that pesky neighborhood salesman, knocking on a few of our doors. We’re doing our best to stave him off, but he’s made inroads into our respiratory systems…

The other half though are all smooth sailing, moving right along with long rides, tons of elevation, efforts, all that kinda shit. The sick ones hate the healthy ones, and we’ll probably end up sacrificing Conley’s putrid liver up to the gods to bury the hatchet between the two factions. Or maybe just get over the sniffles and get back on our bikes.

Cherry Pie is upon us this weekend. Man, how time flies. Can you believe it’s about to start already? We just barely got our CX bikes cleaned and stored, and now we can remember how to pump up tires over 100psi…..

Walter Payton will make his maiden race voyage this weekend, and he’s happy. As a result, also happy are Brie, Steph, and Cristina, as evidenced in the photo below.

smiles and miles

And nothing is finer for butt workouts than putting stickers on your butt after said workout.

Observe Walter, he gets it.

#34, Walter Payton

We thought we’d die, our time was nigh, but we got by, side by side, way up high, in the sky.

the spiral tightens