Perhaps the Best Weekend Ever

Well done, all, well done indeed. There’s a ton of pictures soon and more words as well, but this is how it shakes out:

1. Harwood wins Twilight Crit with big assist from Joel.

2. Boys get best time of the grueling 100+ mile Rapha Gentelmen’s Ride. Women’s team rides super strong as well. We call it a win. 27 teams. Which means with best time we claim the winnings of 27 cases of beer. Say it to yourself: 27 cases of beer. Team party should be a doozy this year.

so long, and thanks for all the fish – and all your beer, too

3. Conley 2nd in the 4’s, Crawfy 4th in the 3’s, at the Longview Criterium Saturday.

4. It’s official, we have another championship title with Anna “The Ace” Christiansen winning the OBRA Hillclimb championship race Sunday afternoon. Also competing were fellow teammates Vanessa, Robbie, and Trevor; all of whom did the Rapha ride yesterday. Ballsy. Maybe a little insane. Worthy of respect, no doubt. That makes two OBRA jerseys in our camp in 2010. We’ve had a very fortunate year so far.

Great rides by all in what might have been the finest weekend result-wise in team history. We’re pretty happy. Tired, but certainly happy. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We leave you with this: would Star Wars be different – for the better – if this were true? We think so.

Harwood Wins Twilight Criterium For Ironclad!

Jeff Harwood did us all proud tonight by winning in style the Cat 3 race at the vaunted (and flesh eating) Twilight Criterium in downtown Portland! Huge assist goes to Joel Crouch for the sheep herding excellence keeping the dangerous breaks in check!

Full report and pictures coming soon! Well done Jeff! Well done Joel!

Like Ants At A Picnic

Another fun Tuesday of racing on a cool night at PIR. Only a few of these left and we’re showing up en masse to get the last bits of goodness out of the track before retiring for 2010. Brianna, Ace, Anona, Steph, Lana, Dave, Joel, Dan, Robbie, and  Ryan took to the 3/4 battle and attacked the race from the gun. After about the eleven millionth attack, we snapped Robbie and Penner off with a few others. Shaking their company, the two finished alone ahead of the field. In the bunch sprint we snared 13th for Ryan Smith.

In the 1/2/3 we had Dezellum, Crawford, Harwood, and Willis in there, with Willis digging in for a point to place in the top 15. Words like “holy shit that was fast” were heard after the race, with an average speed of 28 mph. Wow.

Retiring to the HQ afterward for tacos and beer, we were able to have a little moment for our Anona “lil’ bit” Whitley to receive her OBRA Road Race Champions jersey, the first in our history!

Whitley resplendent

And you may have noticed this guy out there, following us around with a hopped up camera on his shoulder, or on the ground, or on the track. Meet Will Walle of Picture This Productions.

hot camera on camera action

Turns out we’ve drawn the attention of a production company in Liechtenstein who is now producing a reality TV show starring us. Something about bike racing and beer seems to interest them and we’ll be gracing their screens soon. They’ve already got a theme song for the show set, done by a national favorite band. You can  see and hear the theme song to the Ironclad reality TV show right here.

And to top the night off we put neo-pro Joel Crouch in the birthing chair for good times and good Hamm’s. Joel deserved the throne and the suds since he spent his whole night patrolling the front and getting in the early breaks.

push! push!

That’ll do it for now. It’s on to the Rapha ride this weekend where we have a men’s and a women’s team in the mix. We’re hoping for good times! Looks like the weather is going to get kinda like summer around here, ain’t that grand?

Spahr Wins Team Beer Track Race Omnium!

The hits just keep on coming! Travis Bickle scored us a fine win at the Team Beer Track Race by taking the overall omnium for the men’s Cat 3 race. Harwood was 4th! All sort of questionable images right here for your perusal.

Anona Whitley Brings Ironclad First Ever OBRA Road Championship!

The energy laden Anona Whitley brought us our first ever OBRA Championship jersey for the Category 3 women’s road race Saturday in Trout Lake, WA! Look at this to see her on the podium! Congrats and well done, Anona. Great ride! Scored separately from the 1/2’s but racing with them, Whitley lit things up on the first climb to whittle down the 31 woman field, then hung in as the group whittled down to about 8 or so. Stephanie Croy helped out and slotted a respectable 5th place! A win and a top 5, top notch riding by our Cat 3 women!

More congrats are in order for Vanessa Cass, who scored her first ever podium finish in the Category 4 women’s race, giving us our second podium appearance of the day. Here’s a great picture of the podium celebration. The Chief Ref decided on a truncated version of the course due to high winds and higher attrition rates in earlier fields, so the climbing was mitigated significantly but Cass hung tough, assisted by Anna Clark, to get 3rd in the dash to the line.

Bronze W4 Cass (L) and Gold W3 Whitley (R)

Mark Koller took to the Men’s 4/5 by his lonesome and managed a very respectable 13th spot in a fairly large field. Check him out taking his pulls right here.

In the 3’s we had Daniel Penner and Joel Crouch throwing down, but the big field, winds, and top competition proved too much for our lads and they joined a large pod of riders who called it a day. Smart move, tough day.

Our pics from the event are right here, so check them out.

Congrats to all the winners of OBRA jerseys! A demanding course and great races!

And this just in, Trevor Spahr won the Cat 3 Omnium at the Ironclad sponsored Team Beer Track Race! More on that tomorrow!

It’s A Long Way From The Ardennes

But it might feel like it this weekend in Trout Lake as OBRAlites line up to challenge for the jersey. The course is all lumpy. In the Ardennes you don’t have anything like the centerpiece of Mt. Adams rising above the landscape,  but you do have the constant up and down. Not too steep mostly, but not flat by any stretch. It’ll be a strong person’s race. But hey, if you’re one of the dropped riders you couldn’t ask for better scenery.

We’ll be sending relatively small numbers to race, but big numbers to mountain bike, camp, and lay about in the woods without any pants. See you guys there. Until then, just channel the Ardennes….why, we don’t know. Just do it.

Victory Graces Us With Her Tuesday Presence

Finally, we nabbed a 3/4 victory on a Tuesday night. Robbie Carver took the victory out of the 3 man breakaway, while Dave Dezellum took 3rd to put two out of three on the “podium”. We had the numbers last night and took it by the throat, constantly attacking and trying to get something to stick. Heard a few grumbles from some folks once the break went away, but we’ll make no apologies for blocking or strategy. Usually, we come to PIR to practice stuff, with no result based goal. Last night we wanted to win one as we hadn’t yet the whole year. And if a team has the numbers, then you get what you get. I can’t count how many times I’ve been outnumbered and you can only rely on your racing acumen to sniff out the moves that are worthy of getting involved with. It’s PIR – so many agendas at work as it’s a weekly practice race. Strategy, fitness, just riding along – you get it all there. When a team shows in numbers, they have the responsibility of making the race, we feel. Some days you’re the bug, some days you’re the windshield.

Supporting in the total team effort were Stephanie Croy, The Ace, Dave, Barker, Johannes, and Penner.

In the 1/2/3 we had Howard the Goat and Willis duking it out…..tough times!

Training Hard. With Goats.

Try not to look into that too much. Well, unless Willis is involved. We’ve learned that there’s a new type of doping out  there, known as “goating”. And we’re guilty of it too, it seems. The sanction will be determined by Candi after she’s guzzled a handle of whiskey. Should be a good ‘un.

run, little buddy, run

Outside of that little playtime break, the rest of the folks were out training for the Rapha ride and state RR. Most are on hiatus, but some, like these folks, are tearing off legs like sharks.

up, up, and away

And here’s a video of some cross training. It’s a swim/bike mashup, with a furiously masturbating cameraman.

And here’s life at Friend Road.

Wolfpack Redux

Good times for all. Check out the photos. Many special guests, and surprise players on this 7″ ride, only on vinyl.

Don’t you miss it already? We do. Soon they’ll start as a regular part of our “training” for “cyclocross”. Remember our kits from last year? Well, we got something better for you coming this year, you just wait. Imagine this, but with rockets and naked chicks.

So this was just a short look forward, this summer wolfpack. This means a shift in diet to the foods that will help propel us to victory. Diet is very important to ‘cross, and we’ve found the late night nutrition we’ll need to secure the back of the pack.

We’ve also employed weapons. I mean, why not?

And since so much of this takes place at night, up in the forest with no light other than what the moon is givin’ ya. So, you should be smart and use lights. And you should be extra smart and use PDW lights, because they’re good and bright, unlike we were as kids. Get yourself a nice pair like this, and be seen. Stay alive! Be sure to check out all their cool offerings, as well.

It’s that time of year….been at it since February and the legs are tired. As are the minds, though they weren’t that sharp to begin with. A few more crits, the state champ RR, maybe a celebration in Eugene, and we’re looking to the dirt.

Clark-ittack Podiums Twice in One Night

Anna Clark scored two 3rd placed at the PIR STXC races Monday night in the Women’s U35 and Singlespeed fields! Nice work Clarkittack! (it’s like a shark attack, only worse). The Colonel went at the SS field as well with a fine finish. Anona Lil’ Bit decided better of racing about halfway through due to dust blindness and a general fucky kind of feeling.

Dizzy rode the pavement side of things and enjoyed himself.

Now watch this and have yourself a proper laugh.