Slow Motion with D

Hey guys and gals!

Are you in Bend, or heading over for the Chainbreaker mtb race this weekend????  Here’s a coupon to support one of our local sponsors, Thump Coffee.  You Portlanders can get your Stumptown fix at 25 NW Minnesota Ave.  Print the coupon and click here is for a map to the shop.  If you see Kent, thank him and his crew for the great offer!!!!  Good luck and have fun racing/riding this weekend.

Damian & Scotty

 

Are you ready for a blog-o-rama? Well, I’m not sure I want to write one, but I’ll give it a go and update people on what’s been going on in my world. Here’s the condensed version of what my typical week has been like:

Monday- Work 10 hrs, try to recover from traveling and racing. Wear compression shocks!
Tuesday- Repeat, tell myself that I’ll ride the trainer after work, but I won’t.
Wednesday- Run errands that didn’t get done Mon/Tues, work, maybe lift at the gym.
Thursday- Rest, and ride for 45min. A few times I stretched the ride to 1.5hrs.
Friday- Wonder where my day went and ride for an hour, dance party of some sorts.
Saturday- Work 10 hrs, do openers after work on the trainer, pack for the crusade.
Sunday- Up early, carpool, constantly be amazed at how awesome the crusade is, cheer, race somewhere around the top 10, drive home, sleep.

Repeat.

So, since August, that’s what I’ve been doing. Not exactly the best cross season preparation or routine, but it’s what I’ve had to work with. Considering all the factors, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The key to being able to maintain my fitness level has come from Bart Bowen at Carpe Diem Coaching. He’s helped me learn how to make the best out of the time I have for riding. Our original plan was to train long and hard enough to travel a full UCI schedule, focus on nationals and maybe travel to Belgium with Molly C. However, when life got in the way, I had to refocus. My plan has been all about training with power, using the time I had. It’s not all that fun sometimes, but a typical ride for me is, warm up 5-10 minutes, do 4, 4 minute intervals just below threshold and ride home. Once in a while do 3, 10 minute zone 3 workouts. Woo hoo, I know, but it paid off when I had tons of fun on Sunday afternoons!

So, that’s the secret to almost being a top 10 overall at the Cross Crusade. If you want to know more, get a hold of Bart and he can set you up with great training plans to fit any schedule.

My crusade series ended with a pretty good ride. Not as good as I would have liked, but it was a great race within the race with Mark B, Eric S and myself. I didn’t make the initial front split (it’s a reoccurring theme in my races) and had to work my way through the top 20. Once I hooked up with Mark we were able to work well together and chase down a few riders while keeping a big group off our tails. Eric, Mark and I rode around together for a good chunk of the race and with 2 laps to go, I made it my goal to get rid of Eric since with just Mark and I we seemed to be going faster. I didn’t want Eric out smarting me like he did both days in Hood River! After an all lap pull, I thought Sheagley was still with us and was a bit disappointed. When I gave a look back I was happy to see that we’d dropped him in a big way! The last lap was down to Mark and me battling it out all the while bringing back a fading Sager. We didn’t quite get to Jason, and headed into the last rodeo poop pit more or less together. Mark had 1 or 2 bike lengths on me, but I wasn’t concerned since I’d ridden the mud better every lap. I came up on him fast and we actually hit wheels sending me off my seat and my right foot hit the ground. I was able to do a scooter kick and kept myself moving forward enough to stay on the bike. At that point I figured I’d lost the battle as Mark sped around the next corner. Just about that moment I heard Don Leet going crazy for me, followed by my good friend Ali and 3 more of my Bend peeps all sitting along the fence. I figured I would give it one last dig and started bringing Mark back. He hit the deep mud before the puddle and let out a loud grunt as he slogged through the middle. I took the inside line like all the laps before and hit the puddle just on his wheel. What came next was a drag race where I slowly pulled around and crept up, eventually coming even before the final turn. I took my outside line to the tape and crossed the finish line in front of Mark giving a fist pump and a loud yell. If you didn’t know any better, you probably would have thought I won the race, not just the battle. A good end to a pretty good season. After the math was done, I came in 9th on the day and 11th overall by 1 point. 1 POINT! Damn, I really wanted that top 10. Next year.
photo by Ali!

Since I’m not really good at giving race reports in a timely manner, I’ll give you quick run downs of my races from where I left off. Last I posted, I wanted redemption at Rainier…

Rainier. Spent Saturday night at a wedding reception with my closest Bend friends. Only thing was we didn’t know the bride, groom, or anyone there! We got a hot tip that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band would be playing and we basically snuck in and danced till 1:30am. Good times. I was good and did not drink more than a few beers and went to bed sober. Sometimes that easier said than done. The dancing must have been good openers for my legs because I had my best race of the year the next day (I repeated the evening before the finals)! 7th with a hard fought battle between Kevin H, Ben T a Hagen’s Berman rider and myself. I was able to drop them on the last lap and enjoyed my final climb up that steep hill.

Astoria x2. First day I was pretty happy with 10th place. I had an awesome start and did what I’ve seen so many do before…ate shit at the 6 pack. I had finally made the front split of 5, we had a gap and I wasted the effort. I decided to shoulder my bike and went for the down tube, but changed my mind and tried to come back up for the top tube and just fell to the ground. I didn’t even trip on the barrier, but I rolled up next to it. Fetal style. I fell back a long way, but worked my way back. I also held off a hard charging Ben T and Carson Miller on the last lap. Day 2 was not so good. Made the front split and finished lap 1 in 4th right with the leaders. Awesome! I was stoked, but then it happened. I had nothing and slowly drifted back to 29th by days end. Knowing that I wouldn’t get lapped, I took a small break the last time by the stage. Every lap I was stoked to hear the sweet tunes coming from the area and I felt like dancing. The perfect opportunity presented itself when all the Bend crew were planted on the stage for the final lap. I pulled off to the side, ran to the stage and danced my way to a beer. I love cross. Back on the bike and finished. Note to all of you costume racers. DO NOT WEAR AN AFRO WIG ON YOUR HELMET WHEN IT’S WINDY!

Mid way through, on a downhill I was wondering why I felt so slow. Yeah, the wig was creating a sail that was slowing me down. Lame. I must have put out some good watts that first lap to make the split considering…oh well. Good times and the party was great. I love the crusaders!

Barton Park. Good start and rode a 2 man tt with my teammate Brig. Ben made the front split and eventually finished 4th. Brig and I were like 5 seconds back the whole time. Suck. If we could have made the split, it would have been 3 Sunnyside riders with the powerhouse Vanilla squad. Could have been fun. Next year! I flatted and that was the end of my good effort. After getting a wheel from my roommate I started back up passing a bunch and not passing some. Oh well, another wasted result in 22. Brig hung strong and finished 8th right where he was when I left him.

PIR. Awesome start, but too bad we had to restart. Bad second start followed by a good hour of racing. Nothing too eventful other than being cut off and ran into by Davey Yeater. I still have a large bruise on my thigh. He thought he could make a pass that he couldn’t and came into me on a side hill. I had nowhere to go, since I was already far left and he wasn’t strong enough to pass Ben T and me on the short stretch he chose. After yelling to him not to cut me off, he still tried and we collided. Neither of us went down, but I think that was the last we saw him. I punched it through the thick mud and Ben and I set off after Blackwelder. We got to him, but he snuck away on the last lap and Ben and I came into the finish together. He took 11th and I finished 12th. Not too bad considering Trebon, Shep and Tonkin were there along with the usual heavy hitters.

There you go. Another long post by yours truly. Hope you enjoyed reading about my season (there are some races left, but I’m not sure if I’ll attend). Once again, the Crusade has been a blast and it seems too early for it to be over. Oh well, only a handful of months before training for next year starts up! Thanks for reading!

D

So, it sounds like the ladies of Ironclad have thrown down the gauntlet to the ladies of Team Beer.  I would like to offer up my personal game board for this challenge.  I’m just saying… 
Halloween 2008

Race updates are on their way.

D

So, we’re trying to shorten the name and are currently taking suggestions! Although it would be pretty entertaining if the announcer said the whole name every time we crossed the line. Cross season is in full swing and we’re 2 races deep in the nations, make that that WORLDS largest, craziest and most fun cross series, the Cross Crusade. All I need to say is we had over 1260 racers in race 1 and another 1230+ in race 2. Insane! Does your series get 150+ women who kick ass showing up? Over 70 elite field racers in a non UCI event? I mean, this stuff is out of control, in a good way! Not to mention the crazy family, friends, fans and supporters cheering every single racer on as they suffer over the course of an hour. Cheering, yelling, heckling, cowbells, ooohs and aaahs as riders rail and flail. As I’m writing this, I’m forgetting the pain I felt from last weekend and I just want to race again. Speaking of races, I’ve got a few reports from a handful of races that we’ve been doing. I’ll give the shortened versions since I waited so long in between to post ‘em.

Thrilla wrap up.

Bend’s own early season prep races concluded with a few of my best rides at the Thursday nighters this year. Race 1 was a botched tactical error in which I let Jimmy lead so I could attack him on the last lap. Unfortunately lapped traffic plays a huge roll in the Thrilla series and you can chump your buddies pretty easy if you’re aggressive with some passes. A third place followed by a 7th, in which I took myself out mentally since I didn’t like the aggressive passing nature that the course requires, basically took me out of the running for a 2nd consecutive overall title. Well, Ryan Trebon showing up to all the races may have had something to do with it too… in race 3 I made it my goal, as in the previous races, to take the hole shot and keep it as long as possible. I also wanted to work on my standing up and accelerating out of corners and up hills. Mission accomplished and I took top unpaid honors with a 2nd place finish. Race 4 went much the same with the goal being taking the hole shot and keeping it as long as possible. I did A.M. intervals and felt like poop, so I wasn’t expecting too much. To my surprise, Ryan didn’t take the lead until 2 laps to go and Brig and I battled the rest of the way for 2nd place. We’re both pretty nice guys when it comes to lapping traffic and neither of us wanted to be jerks, so due to my leading the last lap Brig wasn’t able to find a way to pass me, so another 2nd place led to 2nd overall in the series. Missed out on the cool trophy, but what can you do?

Hood River hosted a pair of races and Hood River is always a good time, so the Damian and Scotty’s super fun cross team presented by Edge Composites, Hammer Nutrition, TRP, Oakley, Crank Bros, DT Swiss, Chris King, Marcroft Cycles, Redline, Sunnyside Sports and Hutch’s Bikes headed north for a weekend of racing and hanging out with the Penningtons! Good times for sure. Here’s what our race day mornings have been looking like:
group breakfast

doesn’t he look like he’s having fun packing?

an extra passenger

coffee from Kent at Thump!

driving…we’ll memorize these roads by season’s end

bathroom and fun stops
and riding bikes

Hood River race 1 went pretty well with myself or Eric Sheagly leading most of the race. Carson Miller rode a great, steady race and joined us with 2 laps to go…It would have been nice to have a bit more help (if you know what I mean) as we rode around for the last 2 laps, but no one was interested in pulling through and with Chris Brandt dangling close behind, I chose to do a pretty good chunk of the work. Just outside of 1 lap to go I decided to start accelerating every now and then to see how people were feeling. Carson was keen on chasing me down, so on the last lap I decided to play my card on the run up. I’d felt strongest at the top in the soft sand, so I tried to stay in front going into the run down/run up. Carson punked me with a hidden line through the trees and punched it on the run up gapping me and that’s all she wrote. Sheagly followed Carson and then gapped him in the last 100 yards for the win. We all finished about 3 bike lengths behind each other. 3rd.

Day 2 brought out a few more fast guys and Blackwelder, Hulick and Brown were gone in a blink of an eye. I didn’t exactly line up in a good row, so I was bummed that I had to chase the whole race. 1/2 way through I saw Kevin running with a flat and set off in search of the leaders. I joined then dropped Sheagly, but he soon joined back up. Again, it would have been nice to have a bit more help as we tried to real in the leaders, but Sheagly played it right and as I drilled it the last lap he waited patiently and dove in on the last corner to take 3rd with me finishing 4th on his wheel. Anyone who has raced Hood River knows the grass/pavement/gravel with a fence transition and I didn’t feel like chancing a face plant in the early season. I told myself that if I couldn’t get rid of him by powering away on the pavement that I wouldn’t risk the last corner. He took it fast and I let him have it along with top weekend honors. Another cool custom trophy lost in the early season, but that’s ok with me!

Alpenrose is amazing and this year didn’t disappoint. Over 1260 racers. Are you kidding me? Crazy. Brad Ross and crew do a great job promoting fun as well as racing and that’s why so many people come out for this series. It’s not just about the racing, it’s about the atmosphere and carnival like environment where the racers in tights are just one attraction. One of these days, I’ll get a darn call up for Alpenrose. A 3rd row spot isn’t really where you wanna be when most of the top 10 in the results come from the front row. I thought I was good being lined up behind Jon Frey, who is a really fast starter, but I was wrong. The yahoos next to him both ran into him and he slipped a pedal. This caused me to stop less than 2 seconds into the blazing fast start. Oh well, chasing would be the order of the day and chase I did. It took me a long time to get to my normal group of people, but I made it. The course was fun, muddy and slick. It started raining at the start and that made it epic. The mud wasn’t deep, but was more like a layer of ice making every corner tricky. I did my best to keep it upright, but failed a few times as Brandt, Kic and Paxon all battled around me. I felt awesome, but I also felt like I couldn’t open it up for very long since every corner took more concentration than usual. After an hour of riding in the mud I crossed the line in 13th. I was pretty happy considering I watched everyone ride away in the beginning, but I couldn’t help but think I had a better result in me on what is my favorite course in the Crusade series. Good times.
how we roll

Scotty isn’t the only one who gets to have fun

Did I mention it snowed in Bend already? Yeah. Lame, but kinda cool. It was cold enough to bust out the full winter gear for my short ride before this last weekend.
This is how my living room looks before race weekends. Gluing tires is fun!

Big race weekend #2 meant racing outside of Salem on Saturday. Great course with fun sights and a pumpkin cannon…yes, a PUMPKIN CANNON!!!!!! How could you guys not come out for this???? Seriously? Only 1 Portland elite racer came down? 100% payout for the A field and only 8 racers. Are the other 60+ people from Alpenrose that spoiled that they can’t drive and hour for a race that actually pays? Rant over. We raced in loops, much like every other cross race. Brett Lueling took the hole shot and very quickly gave it away as he ate it 20 seconds in. This put me in the lead and I didn’t pre-ride, so I was going very cautiously around the loose gravel corners wondering where this crazy mud puddle I had heard about was. When we got to it, I punched it up the other side and had a gap. I kept going as Evan Plews joined me on lap 2 and we slowly pulled away from Ian Brown until he ate crap bunny hopping a barrier. Then we pulled away rather quickly. I would lead, then Evan would lead and I decided that I didn’t like riding behind him going through the puddle. I took the front and hit the puddle taking my own line, punching it up the tricky, muddy hill after and I never rode with Evan again…well mostly. I figured he must have wiped out and I took a 10 second lead. He brought it back to 6 seconds and with 2 to go I pinned it (wasn’t exactly feeling good all race and didn’t want to be too tired for Sunday). With 1 to go I had established a pretty good lead and all seemed in hand…seemed like it anyway. I just concentrated on taking the corners smooth and not pushing my tired legs too hard on the last lap. I approached the puddle, rode clean through it and punched it up the other side feeling stronger than I did at the start. Something was wrong at that point and my tire soon went flat. Lame. I started coasting and contemplated running as I climbed the next hill leading to a double barrier. I dismounted, jumped and gently remounted. At that time I decided I could ride the course at least since it was pretty darn smooth. I told myself that the first time I felt like I tanked my Edge carbon rim, I would get off and run. After that I just kept it smooth with more weight up front than on my rear flat. Then it happened…about 100 yards from the finish Evan passed me and I finished just seconds behind him for 2nd. Blah. Fun race and great course with super thankful promoters. Like I said, DO THIS RACE! Pumpkin cannon!
Damian and Scotty’s super fun cross team presented by Edge Composites, Hammer Nutrition, TRP, Oakley, Crank Bros, DT Swiss, Chris King, Marcroft Cycles, Redline, Sunnyside Sports and Hutch’s Bikes!
see the cannon in the back?????

Cross crusade numero 2 was…interesting. Bumpy as sh@t more like it. I didn’t ride the tubies (fixed the flat) on advice from a buddy. Wish I would have. No pre-ride means no opinion on tire choice. 45psi in clinchers was way too much. After a sweet call up I had my best start of the year tail gunning the lead group for a lap and a half. I was waiting for my legs to feel fresh, but it never happened and I started drifting back as I bounced all over the course. I felt like I could still be in store for a top 10, but it wasn’t meant to be. Sometime in the top 15 this happened:
I’m actually a little more beat up than you’d think. Who crashes on an UPHILL? Oh yeah, Justin Finn does. Granted it was a tricky up hill with many different lines to take. I had no time to do anything but run over him and flip off my bike. Luckily for him he was still with his bike and he quickly rejoined the race. I, on the other hand, had to go grab my bike and watch about 5 As pass me. I would never get them back, but had fun trying. Thanks for the water and bread feeds on the far side of the course! Bread doesn’t really go down that easy when you’re racing FYI. Brig Brandt, buddy and kinda teammate, passed me late and quickly established a gap. On the last lap I decided to drill it on the few road sections and closed in on him near the end. He botched his next remount and coming into the final barriers he botched him mount again. Brig is the same guy that I battled with at all the Thrillas and I wasn’t about to chop him on the tricky downhill corner, so I geared up for a drag race down the finish stretch. I was actually excited to see what kind of sprint Brig had, but unfortunately he wasn’t so into it and after we hit the pavement he looked back and told me to take it. Oh well, maybe next time we can wind it up. An unimpressive 21st place was the result on the day. That might go to 20 unless Andy Redden really uncorked a great ride and did actually finished 15. If he did, that’s a great result for him! He used to be a Bendite…maybe he still is?

The week leading into Cross Crusade #3 has been super mellow as far as bikes go. I’m tired, beat up and sore. I’m hoping a rest week will bode well for Rainier, which is a course that I’d like a little redemption on from last year.

That’s it from Damian and Scotty’s super fun cross team presented by Edge Composites, Hammer Nutrition, TRP, Oakley, Crank Bros, DT Swiss, Chris King, Marcroft Cycles, Redline, Sunnyside Sports and Hutch’s Bikes! Thanks for reading and I’ll see some of ya’ll this weekend!

D

So…it’s been awhile, huh? Yeah, I’m about the worst blog poster ever. I figure that I at least owe it to my mom and my uncle Mike (I think they’re the only ones who check this thing…well, maybe Kenji too, but even he’s probably given up by now) to update ya’ll on what’s been going on in my world, and there’s been a lot!

I think when I last left a note, I was putting in a week of sweet rides and big hours getting ready for whatever kind of pedal bike racing season I could salvage after traveling so much all Winter/Spring. Well, that was about the only real block of training that I was able to manage. I finished that stretch with Pickett’s Charge mtb and it went ok. Not great, but not bad either. I did feel like I was able to, “race,” not just, “ride,” the whole time, which is something I haven’t felt in a long time in a mtb race. Small victories. I also decided that my first proper road race of the year was going to be Cascade in the 2s. That was a pretty tough weekend that resulted in a DNF on the last day. Just a word of advice, if you want to race effectively in a stage race, maybe you should do a road race or 2 before hand so your body doesn’t get completely wiped out. Good times though as I was happy-ish with my tt and the crit was crash less for my friends and me.

Jimmy and I had some fans out on the last day!

I’ve also stopped working with the boys at Pedro’s. Seems like forever ago, but it was just a few months back. Not the lifestyle for me it turns out. I should have taken Darren up on the Thule job back when I was 22. That would have been a better time in my life for a job that takes away from basically everything else in your life. Lessons learned and I believe I’m a better person for it. Obviously the subject deserves more than a paragraph, so if you find yourself having beers with me one night, I can tell you all about it. Great guys at Pedro’s, and I’ll admit, as Interbike approaches, I find myself wanting to be in the loop setting up at 3am and standing on my feet all day on concrete with bad shoes. I made some great friends and contacts and my time in the industry hasn’t ended, it’s just on hold….kinda…

*Kenji, how do I make a good circle in Photoshop?????

Which brings me to the next big thing. I’ve been working at Bend’s (maybe Oregon’s) best bike shop, Sunnyside Sports. It’s about damn time! I’ve been asking them for a job for the better part of 10 years. Before I just wanted to help out for pro-deals, but they’re actually paying me! Ha! I won that battle!

I got to glue an actual rim that was used in Paris Roubaix! Pretty cool. The other pics are of Mike gluing some pretty important cross wheels and tires up. Sunnyside is where local fast guys like Adam Craig choose to bring their equipment.

Back to the pedal racing. Cross season is upon us and it pretty much snuck up on me. We’ve had 2 local CX races and a third one is tonight (written yesterday)! This weekend will be my first out of town race and while I thought it would be Star Cross, I’ll be keeping it local until a bit more fitness finds me. Working at the bike shop and running the vid store has found me riding my bike for about 6 hours a week, so I can’t expect much. Having said that, I am more fit than I thought I would be. Despite what my test said, I have a little cross fitness in me.

Lactate test at Rebound SPL. Not the results I was hoping for as I actually ?lost? fitness over the last 3 months! Woo Hoo!!!!

Brig Brandt, Jimmy Williams and Ben Thompson have been gearing up for cross.

Trebon hamming it up before the race. He’s shown up for the first 3 races. Makes the Thursday nighter a bit faster…He’s yet to win a first lap though…granted he’s been riding the single speed cross rig, but still!

Speaking of fitness, turns out a few of Bend’s best unpaid mtb racers will be making some waves at the Portland races. Expect some epic battles with Vanilla and Sunnyside this year. Silly you say? We’ll see…I mean Molly’s fast, but it’s not like she wins races…just kidding Molly! I only do 4 w/kg, so I can make fun of fast people!

Is that a new bike???? Not yet (sorry Brian!), but it looks pretty sharp. The poor Marcroft took a beating on the back of the Pedro’s Van last year, so I decided to spruce it up with some spray paint. Yup, did that with a rattle can. Totally stoked on how it turned out. I will have a new bike sometime soon, but for now I’ll just pretend. I’ll include a little teaser pic of what I’ll be rocking once the new bike shows up…I mean, once I pay for it…It’s always fun to get new goodies in the mail….

Well, that’s it for now. It’s kinda funny that as many people seem to read my blog (lack of) when I don’t post, as when I do. Now that race season has stood up and smacked me in the face, I plan on posting a bit more, but no promises…

thinking about this?

So, while most of OBRA land is in Baker City racing Elkhorn, I find myself missing the faces of friends and the challenge of competition. Having been home for a few weeks now with good weather, I’ve actually been on my bike more than 45 min, 3 days a week. It’s been nice. I really wanted to be in Baker racing, and Brian even worked his butt off to get my road bike ready, but after some long rides it was obvious to me that I wasn’t in any shape to be racing a stage race. Oh well, there’s still some season left to show my face. Instead I’ve decided to lump my last few weeks of riding into my own stage race. Like to hear about it? Here it goes.

Stage 1: 4 Falls in 4 Days

Stage 1 actually lasted 4 days, possibly making it the longest stage in the history of stages. The route started with a nice 3.5 hour ride in Salem. I met up with my good buddy Hugh and we explored some roads around a part of the valley that I’ve never ridden in. It was a nice loop to Silver Falls and the weather held nicely. The second part of the stage took place on Sunday and involved one of my favorite loops that I’ve ever ridden. It’s the Alsea Falls loop outside of Corvallis and it was a beautiful day. Thinking it would be a leisurely stroll, I met up with a group just outside of Philomath. Unlucky for me, the group contained Zach Winter, Jim Fischer (mr. needs to upgrade), Luke (used to be super fast and has been riding 5-6 days a week), Becka and 2 juniors who can kill it. Lucky for me, Alex Newport-Berra was on the ride and although he was once feared on the climbs, he’s been MIA from the bike for over a year. This made me the person with the second least rides in, and therefore, the second slowest! The ride went pretty good with some groupo-compacto riding, and some harder pace up the hills. The roads were clear and the weather was great. We had planned all along to end the ride by going up Mary’s Peak, a 9 mile climb with snow at the top. We all rode our own pace and were rewarded with clear enough roads to get all the way to the top! Part 3 was actually held on dirt and looped me from Phil’s Trail to Dillon Falls on the River Trail. The stage ended with some hard efforts up Skyliner to Tumalo Falls. I feel pretty good about my first stage and found that keeping the theme going made it more fun. To my surprise, I found myself leading the GC after stage 1.

Stage 2: Fresh Air Sports Individual TT, 12 miles

This TT was 6 miles up Skyliner and back. The effort took me 32:10:61 and landed me in 7th place on the day. About 4 miles in, I dropped my chain and it got stuck between the rings and chain stays. I had to get off on a hill and pull it out. Maybe 15 seconds lost. Those 15 seconds would have put me in 5th, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Overall I felt good about the effort and actually improved my 20 min power threshold. That in itself is a small victory. Yeah watts!

Stage 3: I though I was cool until I read this stage, 115 miles

The beginning of this stage consisted of 8 hours over 2 days in Bend and ended with a hors category 7 hour stomp from Oakridge to Bend. My good buddy Jon provided the transfer for this stage. He just moved to Eugene to finish school and needed someone to drive his car over from Bend (He U-hauled it). I volunteered and got the bright idea to ride home from Eugene. After mapping the route, I decided that 150+ miles just wasn’t in the cards and hitched a ride to Oakride 40 miles in. The route took me over HWY 58, over the Crescent cutoff to Cascade Lakes Hwy, Hwy 42, up the Sunriver cutoff and home via Century Dr. 6 hours 52 minutes of moving time. 1 luna bar, 1 gel, 1 Snickers bar and 2 bottles of concentrated Hammer Sustained Energy. I dropped the winner of the TT on the final climb up from Edson snow park and reclaimed the GC lead after this stage. It was the longest that I’ve ever been on my bike in one day.

Stage 4: High Desert Crit, 40 min

This was the first hard and fast ride on my new road bike. The steel frame was stiff and responsive when I needed it to be and paired with an Edge 2.0 fork, provided great cornering stability. A small group drifted off the front and finished with a 30 second gap on the main pack. I put in some good solid efforts and tried to sneak off the front for 3rd with a lap to go. My feeble attempt was quickly swallowed up and I had to settle for 9th place and pack time. GC is protected going into stage 5 which is for the sprinters.

Stage 5: Lower Bridge, 4hrs

This stage was uneventful and won by Timmy Volcano of Rebound Physical Therapy in a sprint finish. Usually on some longer stages the pack will respect the GC leader and stop when he needs to pee. This time we took a cold water and fruit pie break. I thank the group for banding together and collectively stopping for drinks and pie.

The next day is a rest day and this very unique stage race will end on Sunday, the same day that Elkhorn ends, with the Pickett’s Charge! mountain bike race. Stage 4 winner, Carl Decker, will be out there, so it may be hard to maintain the GC lead. No matter the result, this stage race has been a welcome change from the foul weather inside workouts. Thanks for reading!

P.S All the photos are from the Oakride to Bend stage and this muffin was my reward at the end of the day. It’s from Humble Bagel Co. and is made with sour cream, oil, butter, sugar and loads of other things that taste delicious.

Those of you who saw me show my slow legs off at the rehearsal road race and/or Albany crit, may have noticed that I was on my cross bike w/cross gears. Yeah, not that great for crits. Well, no more! The next road race that I show up for, I’ll actually be on a road bike. Here’s the process in pictures.

Fit by Herriott Sports Performance

Then Brian at Marcroft Cycles works his magic with the numbers and comes up with a drawing (his are much better)

Then he starts putting the tubes together and welds them.

The finished bare frame.

Finished paint. Are you jealous of my fork?

Finished build. Dura-ace 10speed (Ultegra SL brakes), Edge fork, Ritchey WCS bar, Easton post/stem.

Time to go ride!

It’s been a while since I last wrote and I’ve been a busybeavergrrr (shout out to OSU Cycling who won the NWCCC D1 title for the second year in a row!). As is par for the course, I’m gonna do most of my updating with pictures for your enjoyment. My drive home from Sea Otter included a stop at a military surplus store. In these times, I can’t think of a much more contradicting message as in this pic.

I almost made a purchase, just incase I ever have a daughter.

 

 

If you can’t read it, it says, “Guaranteed Virginity *DrPolasky’s Approved* Chastity Protector.” Awesome.

The next stop was Santa Cruz to kill some time before dropping Jason and Alex off at the airport. I got a sweet case for my Ukulele, but it ended up being too small. Now I’m stuck with it. Anyone need a concert Ekue sized case? We also discovered the Bike Church. I’m so spiritual. It’s a co-op where they teach people how to work on their own bikes. It’s cool. They don’t do anything for you, but they teach you how to do it yourself. They get lots of stuff donated and I picked up a sweet 3 speed for cheap. Score.

I pity the fool who steals my bikes!

When I got home, it was a mini break and then off to Massachusetts for the new company party. I was there for a week, but it should have been shorter. I met the new owners and it was cool that I had my own place to stay. It would have been nice to have a tour guide though, since the area is pretty cool with lots of old roads to ride. I got to ride in and out a few times with Jason and we also met up with the H.U.P team at their training camp. Cool group of guys and a few weeks later I met the founder Zac up at CBS in Seattle.

I got home and it was a quick turn around to head up to Washington for a little more work. When I pulled into Bellingham I went into a burrito shop. As I was eating, and admiring all the bike jerseys hanging on the wall, I heard a familiar voice. It was Luke Pennington former Jr. national champ! Turns out he had just got back into town from Mt. Hood and worked there. Random and cool to see him for the first time in a while. I also went to Seattle for the first Urban Assault of the year. Sweet event and I highly recommend doing one if it’s in your area.

The next week I was in Portland for the second Urban Assault. Totally opposite weather from Seattle.

That’s Doug Ollerenshaw and Jason Sager winning by like 12 minutes. Gee, who would have thought? I guess the winning strategy was skipping REI and being the first ones to Fat Tire Farm. Apparently the second place team stood in line at FTF for 10 minutes.

Somewhere in between all this I did a MTB race. I was rocking for about 2 hours and 10min, and then it all went downhill. Looking sharp can only get you so far.

I also attended the rehearsal road race and Albany crit. I had to throw down late night in Seattle with my friend who is shipping off to Iraq, so I wasn’t really expecting much from the race, but I flatted in the first 5 min and never saw the group again. Not very cool for my first road race of the year. I did one lap hard and a half lap easy before hooking up with Zach Winter for another lap. Yeah, that was tough. Good workout though. The crit wasn’t too exciting either since I have limited riding and even less racing in my legs. Plus, I was on my cross bike and when the heat gets turned up, a 46/12 gear combo doesn’t do much good. I tried 2 attacks that got a gap both times, but when I got up to speed, I didn’t have anymore gears to click down into and just spun my legs around till the group got me…about 5 seconds later. Oh well. I avoided a big crash at the end, closed the gap then sat on the back for the last 5 laps till the sprint. Good times. I like crits, so it was fun to do one. Plus, being on the cross bike meant that I could pedal through every corner and make up ground at will.

I’m the Magnum P.I looking fool in the maroon and white to the right. Speaking of not having a road bike to race road bike races with, I went up and saw Russell at Herriott Sports Performance to get a proper fit, so I can get a new Marcroft.

Ever since my big, “base 1 week 1 post,” I have hardly ridden. Guess it’s back to the drawing board. I just wrote down my cross schedule. Very long. Very exciting, but more on that later. Thanks for reading!