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

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

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.

But seriously folks….

Mark “The Silver Fox” Crawford busted open his 2010 season by taking a fine 3rd place in the men’s 3’s race at Banana Belt #1, after the team suffered some bad luck trying to bridge some mechanicaled or flatted riders back up to the group. Mark stayed cool, made his own plan, and came in 3rd in a tough field sprint. Other riders on the day were RVD, Shaun Conley, Willis, Haywood, and Dizzy.

peace plus one

Training Camp 2010 is underway and we’re all up in it now. Rain, wind, cold, all the good stuff you need for a cycling team camp. Who needs warmer climes? Phooey. We’re eating road paste and huddling together for warmth. Gaining strength, killing the weak.

And you know what? The Phoenix herself is here and on her bike and lookee, here she is on the front pulling us around.

We’ll be splitting the squad this weekend, with those of us who are going well right now racing the Banana Belt series, so look for us in the mens and womens 4, and mens and womens 3, and the rest of us will be off to a secret location to attend the Ironclad Training Camp, a mixture of speaking in tongues, snake handling, bomb making, and bike riding. There may or may not be some beer intake there, but you know we’re so incredibly serious about our racing, we’ll be weighing our MGD 64. Or not. We expect the bomb making to end up something like this, with adoring chicks and all:

Chicks go for the bomb diggity

For all of you racing, we wish you good luck. For all of you east of the Cascades, we also wish you good luck and advise you to stay off the roads and to double lock your booze.

UPDATED:

Results posted, and Trevor Spahr scored 2nd in the 3’s (thanks go to Harwood for loaning the funky warp drive engine and the silly helmet), and Alana Armstrong slotting in 10th at the end of the day in the women’s 4’s. Two top tens – we’ll take ‘em. Great day, great race, thanks to BBC for putting it on!

Recipe:

Willis’ Down Home Tart: (no, not the kind the boys hang around)

1. Unwrap Tart

2. Place Tart in Toaster

3. Depress Toasting Mechanism, cook to taste

4. Party

Anna “The Ace” Christiansen won the Cat 4 women’s race for Sublime Sublimity, in her 2nd bike race ever, with teammate Stephanie Croy 5th!!! Trevor Spahr took 5th in the Men’s 3’s stacked field and both fine finishes were due to some sacrificing riding from teammates Lana Pressey, Johannes Weber, Brian Gerow, and Andrew Willis! There are some pics of the day right here. Anona Whitley took to the Women’s 1/2/3 all by her lonesome and had a solid finish too! Solid rides all around, we’re off to a great start as a team. Congrats to anyone and everyone of you looney bastards that took on this course. Any one who finished this race – you’re f’ing crazy, be happy knowing that.

Here’s the Ace, two-for-two in her first year racing.

if you look closely in the shades, you can kinda see Travis Bickle….