Famousosity

Tuesday PIR. Dry, warm-ish, fast. In the 1/2/3 Harwood scored us a fine 2nd place even though he was all alone. Not too shabby whatsoever. But, being a teacher and having his last day of work prior to the race, as well as having a bottle of wine waiting in his shoulder bag, we think he just wanted to get the race done quickly and open the wine.

In the 3/4 we had Alana and Dave battling a frantic field which saw teammates chasing down teammates, breaks attempting to go away by attacking a neutral, and poor blocking etiquette – all offenses committed by the same team no less. We also saw a lot of strong chicks in the race that pulled like hell and that was awesome. Is it just me or are the women racing in the 3/4 with the men more plentiful and much stronger? Gotta love it.

In the end no one hit the deck and a late race break was destroyed by a solo bridge effort. Afterward, quotes abounded at the post race debriefing bbq. Observe:

“My only advantage is stupidity and sheer determination.”

“Last Friday I got drunk with an astronaut.”

And now, a picture that makes no sense and has no bearing on anything.

GC Victories Cap Elkhorn Weekend!

Someone had the bright idea a few weeks ago to arrange for the team to pile into the Magical Blackass RV and  go to Baker City to contest the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race for the 3rd consecutive year, and somehow about 15 of us thought it a good idea. So, into the RV with the lovable lab Bruce and eastward we went.

And when we left, we had two General Classification wins, and a few podium spots and wins from various stages. An amazing showing by a dedicated group of squads. You’ve read about the other stages, but the decisive Stage 4, the Mt. Dooley Deathmarch, is where the rubber met the road. We were in striking distance in the M3’s, W3’s and W4’s, and made the moves to end up with Anna Christiansen and Steph Croy winning the 3’s and 4’s respectively with epic rides. To be fair, Anna’s win came at the expense of the sitting GC leader who went out of the race in a bad crash and we all wish her a speedy recovery. That’s racing, sadly. In the men’s affairs, Willis moved up a few notches with a podium finish on the stage to move up to 4th overall on GC. Our Men’s 4’s saw Joe Leineweber improve drastically on his previous efforts with a fine finish just off the main group.

And the day itself? Fuck. 102 miles, 7500ft of climbing, high 40’s for temps, and wind driven rain all day. Not at all for the weak. At the start lines in the morning, it was clear half of most of the fields had thought better of racing, and stayed in bed. Who could blame them? It was a miserable day. And by miserable we mean awesome. You can see all the evidence of the weekend right here.

the men’s 3’s team and their winnings

steph croy, 1st place, GC women’s 4 (and upgraded to 3!)

anna “the ace” christiansen, 1st Place, GC women’s  3

Men’s 4

Mark Koller, Joe Leineweber, Shaun Conley

Men’s 3

Johannes Weber, Robbie Carver, Dave Aldersebaes, Andrew Willis

Women’s 3

Lana Pressey, Anna Christiansen

Women’s 4

Eva Van Deusen, Alana Armstrong, Stephanie Croy, Vanessa Cass

Support Crew

Greg Sanders, Brody Boeger, Bruce the dog

And when it was over, we piled back into the RV with our hardware and cash, all muddy, grimy, tired, cold and wet – but we were smiling ear to ear. 4 pizzas, two 30 packs of cheap American beer, and a westward vector were all we needed. Thank you to Ernie Conway and all the support staff for putting on such an amazing race.

into the sun

Time Trials, and Crits…well, sort of…

The Time Trials were great and our GC riders held firm to their spots. We have The Ace sitting second in the W3’s and Steph in 4th in the W4’s….while Willis sits just 1:14 off the lead – which we all know is nothing in the face of Dooley.

The Crit was great for the 4’s, where Conley, Joe, and Koller all stayed in the thick of things to not lose any time. In the W3’s, Lana and The Ace kept their noses clean and did not lose any time either.

The biggest fireworks came in the W4’s, where Alana Armstrong made the podium with a fine 3rd place finish, and our GC rider Steph had a miraculous ride. The rain started halfway through the race and sure and shit, the crit course went to hell, causing Steph to crash after a short breakaway. Something about the pavement here gets slick as snot in the rain. Steph remounted and chased hard. Missing her chance for the wheel pit break, she kept chasing and caught the other gals who were close to her on GC, losing no time in the end. The others in 2nd and 3rd missed a chance to put time into our girl, who is just fine and fit and ready to tackle the long course. Mileage and hills suit Steph so we’re hoping she might move up a place. The leader of the 4’s is some ridiculous amount of minutes up on the rest so the top spot chance looks remote, but you never know. In the M3’s, the race was canceled as the rain kept coming in buckets. Good call, refs.

fuck the rain

Tomorrow is 102 miles with 7k of climbing. The weather looks to be scattered intense thunderstorms……good times.

Pictures are coming soon….

And……We’re Off Like A Prom Dress

Good times, good racing, and good weather in Baker City, kids. The squad’s off to a good start with all of our GC riders sitting in the top 5 in the M3, W3 and W4. In the M4 our climber Killer Koller (say that 10 times fast) turned in a good ride sliding into the top 30. Of course, for balance and all that zen, yin/yang kinda shit, we put the Captain and Eva in Delta Foxtrot Lima positions in the M3 and W4. Top hat and tails, folks.

Time Trial and Criterium ahead……our ticket is punched for the pain train.

rolling to the start

We’re surprised no one called the cops on this shady looking group

The Gang’s All Here

The horns of the Elk are upon us, and about to impale us.  Yet we’re all in it together. And thanks to the colonel and the raddest team vehicle ever – Blackass – we’re going to die in style.

Here’s to a good safe race!

And the skies aren’t sure what they want to do with us. Maybe we’ll get some sun, maybe we’ll get some clouds, maybe we’ll get some snow  like last year. We went out for a little pre-ride to have some fun and stretch the legs and open the lungs.

Goodnight, David.

The memorial lap at PIR for David Oliphant tonight was indeed a surreal and amazing thing to be a part of. A bunch of us jumped in the “peloton” numbering….I don’t know….200? It seemed endless.

Doing the first half lap in cold rain and overcast, finishing the back half in sunshine escorted by dual rainbows (really, truly, no shit) was beyond description. Rest easy, David.

Racing was racing, we did well in the 1/2/3 with a 4th and a 6th. Pales in comparison with the theme of the night, which was David Oliphant, his family, and his team. Pat Malach of Oregon Cycling Action caught the bicycle procession in the moment.

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Harwood WINS OBRA TT Championship!

Congrats are in order for Jeff Harwood, who brought our first OBRA champion’s jersey into the camp by winning the OBRA 40k TT with a best time in the Masters Men 35-39 category of  57:25:00.

Well done Jeff! The results were under review due to some timing equipment errors, but the truth has come to light after some looking back over the results and we have ourselves a champion!

We Love It When A Plan Falls Apart ….. Then Comes Together

Awesome day for the squad both on and off the road on Saturday. On the dirt at Vernonia Short Track we had MK47 and Barker scoring 2nd and 3rd place respectively in their fields. WELL DONE dirt heads!

And on to the wonderful Mississippi crit, where we brought numbers and a plan to the Cat 3 race. The numbers were quickly halved and the plan went right into the crapper about 20 minutes in, but plan B came to the fore with flying colors. With the numbers we were expected to do some of the work, and work we did. Robbie Carver wins the MVP award for the race for almost single-handedly chasing down a dangerous mid – race break of 7 or 8 riders, then having the cajones to snap off the front in the final laps to set up our remaining well placed riders for the sprint. A rider came out of nowhere to take top honors, but Harwood and Willis slotted 2nd and 3rd respectively. Swiping 2/3 of the podium ain’t bad at all. Hot roller derby chicks as podium girls ain’t bad, either. Pat Malach got the picture. Helmet on the podium?

Gratuitous Crotch Shot

We had Trevor in the 1/2 race, and the poor guy got wiped out by some chick throwing water out of a cup at the riders. Raising his hand for a moment to deflect the woman’s outstretched arm, a tumble occurred. Everyone is ok, so far as we know, but folks -PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep your hands and feet out of the roadway during a race. And don’t THROW SHIT at the riders. Please. Thank you. Other than that, thank you NoPo, for coming out in force to support this great event.

Robbie, MVP

Bunches of pics coming very soon. Joe was snapping away and you can find them all here. Soon.

In the meantime, you can get the professional version of events from Pat Malach here. We also use his pictures in this post. It will cost us a Miller High Life.

Slicing Up The Murderhorn

With heavy hearts after the passing of our colleague David Oliphant of the Ironclad sponsored TAI team, we set out for the first of the Mt Tabor race series on the volcano Wednesday night. Though it felt like January, we tore it up out there and posted some great results.

Ace 3rd in the Senior Women was our top spot, with Hannes 5th in the 3’s, Croy and Armstrong 5th and 6th in the W4’s, Atlin 7th in the 5’s, Killer Koller in the Fixed Gear class, and our man Trevor Sparhticus 4th in the Senior Men’s race. Assists by Barker, Gerow, and Robbie.

Now that’s a fine night’s work if I’ve ever seen one.

Also, in memory of David, there will be a remembrance lap in the Tuesday edition. Armbands with David’s “112″ will be passed out to wear. Please join to remember him, racing or not. The lap will be lead by his brother, his team, and his family and friends.

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