Gastown

Race report from Canada -eh?

The boys in orange are up in Canada for the remainder of the BC Superweek. The forcast, rain with possible showers mixed in -nice. Ever try riding over wet cobbles at 30 mphs and with a hairpin corner?

Tonight, was the Gastown criterium - 136 guys started maybe 30 finished the 50 lap event. 10 laps into the event, some 20 to 30 guys or so who started on the back where gone. Dougie O was in a 5 man break with Oleg Grishkin of Navigators, Svein Tuft of symmetrics and someone else whos names escapes me. Tuckerman bridge up to the break for the EB. The six worked semi well together, a few of the guys where skipping pulls and I think Dougie noticed that and attacked the group, but was caught, Aaron counters. This split the break group in half. Aaron, Oleg and rider X went up the road while the others where absorbed by the hard chasing bunch.

This break was moving, Aaron was take some long pulls and charging up finishing straight incline driving the break as again one of the break riders was not doing his share of the work. Back in the bunch, Kirk had gone down on the wet slipper course and was making his way to the pits as the field continued to drop guys right and left as the bunch was dead set on bring back the break that was a about 20 seconds up.

As more laps went bys so did more guys mading their way into the pit with torn numbers, flat tires and scuffed equipment from doing the Gastown slip and slide.

Aaron's break was finally caught after a couple of laps, Tuckerman attacked, once caught, Kirk O'Bee countered, that was it - game over, that was the break that would stay; Kirk O'Bee, Svein Tuft and Oleg Griskin. Kirk did a couple more slip and slides -poor guy. The break hit 30 second mark, the hard charging bunch could make time on them . . Brad Fairall, however was able to jump out of the bunch and start making time on the break. After 10 laps or so, he caught them! Now that was impressive.

With 6 laps to go and no more free laps after 5; Svein Tuff crashes out of the break. He was dang lucky that he did it on lap 6 and got back into the race . . . .Tuckerman, not so lucky. With 2 laps to go, his rear wheel went and the pit guys wouldn't give him get a wheel change to finiish. Dang! With so little guys finishing at least he could have placed, even at a lap down do to the "no more free lap rule." -oh well, you win some, you lose some.

After crashing a few times, Kirk hung in there and finished 17th. It was a tough race with the rain and wind so hats off to all NW guys who showed up to race Gastown - Dougie, EvanElken, Johnny Sundt, Chad Nichols, Morgan Schmitt, Brad Payne, Dan Harm, Logan Hunn, Aaron Tuckerman and Kirk Carlsen.

Maybe it will be sunny for the Giro de Burnaby? - One can only hope . . . .now it's off to bed, I have 5 bikes to wash tomorrow.

Cascade saturday and sunday

coming soon

Cascade Crit

So Reeb started it all off with Tree Farm and Dougie. Stayed with them for maybe 7 laps? But Doug and Ryan stayed off the front for almost the entire race collecting A LOT of money. It seemed to be $100 every other lap. Very cool, the crowd was great and making a lot of noise cheering for the 2. Olson and a BMC guy bridged but they were caught with 4 laps to go. Dominguez one the sprint for the W.

Brad had a good ride until he was caught in a crash. Everything came out ok except for the mistory bike blues which went away after a few laps.

Aaron crashed, flatted, and "Crashed" one last time. He was also fighting a bad case of the CBF


Dan's front flatted right in a corner. Needless to say he lost some skin but got back in there on a redline bmx bike and made if a few more laps.


Birthday boy Logan, had a great ride hanging in there till the end.

Really cool to see the Local heros Dougie and Ryan getting the lime light. Look for Ryan to be in the EB tomorrow with Olson, Dougie, and maybe a few more local guys.



Now it is off to cleaning bikes and laundry. DG

Kirk update

This kid is going to give me grey hairs!

Kirk placed 21st today in the road race at US Nationals Championships in the U23 division. That’s two days after being release from the hospital for having a torn lung! He can’t breath deep but everything else is feeling good no sever aches and pains from the door impalement he received on Monday.

Kirk attacked the field and was off the front for a lap when he was brought back to the pack. Kirk spent most of the time on the front of the field driving the pace then a break went and Kirk bridged the two minutes to make it a ten-man breakaway; containing Jenkins, Nordblom, Monteleone, Barton, Peter Salon, Graham Howard (Priority Health), Kirk Carlsen (Rubicon), Alex Welch (Mercy-Specialized), Andrew Dahlheim, and Jim Camut (Cycling Center Power). He was dropped on the final climb and finished 21st. That’s a great finish considering what happened to him on Monday.

He will lay low (right, Kirk) and race the US National Crit Champs on Sunday, where both he and his lung should be feeling 10,000 times better then. He also asked if there was anyone out there who would be willing to take out some stitches for him on Monday, as he will be back in P-Town Monday. Any takers?

Here is our new team van.

State RR and Monday

Sunday
Aaron "acidently got into the EB" again but got schangied by the pink monster. Logan did some damage on the field and Brad cleaned up the pieces. We stopped at ihop on the way home.

Monday
I won the gelato ride by avoiding the double scoop of can't go up hill goodness. Here is an excerpt from Casey and Jamie's adventures at Old Guy PIR.
"Had a rough monday at work..... took it out on the poor guys that thought they could out sprint me.

Jamie is getting fitter by the week!!! He was my leadout machine last night.

Casey"

Brad says I am in the EB today..... we will see about that.
cheers for now.

End of week post

Elk Horn wrap up. road stage 1, 1st Aaron, Kirk 3rd
Time trail. Aaron 2nd
Crit, Brad 2nd
Road Race, Kirk 1st, Aaron 2nd

Brad was nice enough to give me a report on the weedend's racing.

Elkhorn was a good weekend racing for the team, we went there with a few
differnt goals and in the end we got most of them, we picked some good stage
wins and the overall GC, we all rode well as a team helping each other to
get the result they wanted, and each result we got was set up by another
team member, the last stage was good for us as we wnted danger in the EB and
it took a while to go but he was in there and was the strongest in there by
far as they hit the climb he attacked from the bottom and got caught by the
small group left in the bunch with 1 k to go, but we still got 1st and 2nd
but would ob been good if he got the win for 160k out in the front, but we
all drove home happy and tired.

Tuesday. Brad and Dougy spent the day off the front at pir. Brad just got Doug at the line for the w. Not that it matters much but I am sure both of them had done some riding earlier in the day. Brad finished up 190K day. Check out Dougy's stat's on the day.Thanks for tracking that down K.

Wednesday. at this point I kind of feel bad for Dougy. Aaron just barely nipped him at the line for the win. I think that secures the series for him too.

Friday. Dean rides a 10.6 in C-Springs. and is apparently missing some of portland's finest.

Kirk gets 2nd at Fitchburg. and is 12th on gc at the moment. With out any one dominat team (VMG is there with 12 riders) it should be a crap shoot for tomorrow's 100+ hilly day.

Elkhorn 1 and Thursday track

Day one of elkhorn went ok. if 1st and 3rd is ok. ANT got angry as usual and won, kirk ended up taking the field. I would assume that Danger and brad had something to do with the whole thing.

Thursday didn't go so hot. Norrene and I got spanked in the madison. I have a long way to go! Norrene rode the womens race and remembered what it was like to spin. Then I rode the big boy points race. It didn't go so good. I got dropped on the first sprint then as I was getting in back into the field Casey and Zak ran into each other. Zak, only being 110 lb, ended up loosing the battle and went down with 2 others. He is broken now so that sucks big time.

More on elkhorn later.

Tabor 6-23

Wednsday Mt Tabor is a good afternoon hit out for us with us all doing 3-4
hrs in the morning and then go out there and have a race, we started with 4
guys, covering most of the early moves, it was raced very aggresive and fast
which is always fun, the race started to spilt early with guys getting spat,
Kirk managed to get the cash prime which was good and i also got a prime for
some great Bontrager handlebars, there wre a few attacks that came late in
the race with only a handfull left in the bunch but most riders wanted a
bunch sprint, so coming in to get the bell big dougie attacked with one lap
to go, he opened up a nice liitle lead, and on the back straight he was away
with one other guy, with aaron trying to jump across guys just wanted to sit
on him, so i did a nice turn with him and kirk on my wheel and caught the 2
front guys and aaron with his super sprint the win easy,, so aaron got up
for the win which is always good, even tho its only a club race its good to
turn up and try things, a good days training for all four of us leading into
Elkhorn..

Brad

This just in! exclusive interview with Vancouver Chocolate eating Champion.

DC
So ANT, tell me about the event.

ANT.
i just won the annual monday afternoon chocolate eating contest,, there was one contestent so i had to go deep to beat him, but i came out on top...the race went well i started hard, then refrained for a little then attacked again late in the race to set my self up for the finish.

DC
Some find this an unexpected result for you. Any comments to them?



ANT.
editor note. After such an amazing effort on ANT's behalf, he has not supprisingly fallen asleep. More to come later.

Mt Tabor

Tessa curl beat Darien Curl in the tricycle race early in the morning and set the good juju in motion. Keep an eye on that one! Chauncey gave it a go in the SS race but came up short when he had some mechanical issues. Apparently the selected gear was too big for the engine on that day. Next it was Norrene’s try in the women’s race. I think we are going to be looking for a new mechanic because Norrene had the same problem as Chauncey…. A few more hard rides like that will get them both up to speed soon enough.

There was a very good field in the pro 1-2 race this time. In attendance was overall favored Shannon Skeret, which is amazing because he just received his 10 anniversary card from AARP! Also in attendance was Doug O., Evan Elken, and The Chad + the rest of Oregon’s finest.

The race started with ANT going blocks and staying away for the first 6 or so laps. Doug ended up chasing him down and going it alone for a lap or two as well. Then it all came together for a bit and Danger
tried his hand, getting away in a small group for a few laps. With about 10 to go the stink hit the fan and Doug, Chad, Evan, Shannon, and ANT all having a go at it. In the end it was Shannon, Luke Pennington, and Kirk getting away with about 5 to go. Shannon should have had some Endurolytes from Hammer because he was suffering from the hammie cramps. With 3 to go Luke dropped off the pace some which left Kirk at the front by him self. All the heavy hitters tried and failed to bring him back. Even got away to try to bridge but with 1 to go Kirk still had a 30+ second gap.

Here are the results of the day.
Place Number NAME TEAM

1 185 Carlsen Kirk Team Rubicon
2 151 Elken Evan Jittery Joe's
3 611 Stevens Roger Nike
4 101 Hosmer Seth CMG Racing/Alpine Mortgage
5 1302 King Joe Hagens Berman
6 917 Rathe Jacob Beaverton Bicycle Racing/Bike N Hike
7 106 Skerritt Shannon Bike Gallery
8 196 Tuckerman Aaron Team Rubicon
9 53 Keooh Quinn CMG Racing/Alpine Mortgage
10 885 Blackwelder Mark Gentle Lovers
11 884 Hamilton Chris Casa Bruno - Adidas
12 1336 Reeb Donald CMG Racing/Alpine Mortgage
13 172 Blindert Yann Bike Gallery - Trek
14 1772 Forbes Brian Ride Clean
15 148 Holland Steven R Finnegan's Toys/Discover
Chiropractic
16 178 Quirk Dan Veloce/Felt
17 802 Sander Aaron Half Fast Velo
18 127 Roberts Carl First Rate Mortgage
19 191 Sampson Jesse Veloce/Felt
20 128 Braun Mathew Team S&M/SCR
21 119 Walsh Mick First Rate Mortgage
22 146 Bannink Jeff TBD
23 169 Rigg Rob Bike Gallery
24 132 Ollerenshaw Doug Health Net/Maxxis
25 892 Hartley Chad BMC
26 837 Groblewski Pete Garage
27 1906 Marzullo Patrick Guinness Cycling
28 887 Schwaeber Steve Veloce/Felt
29 896 Heaberlin Cliff River City Bicycles
30 850 Pennington Luke Team S&M
31 813 Collura Sal First Rate Mortgage
32 352 Haverty Chris Bridgetown Velo Cycling
33 774 Powell Scott Nike Cycling
34 852 Rosenberg Michael Hutch's / OIC

Oh, and this guy was there with his funny helmet cam.

All in all, it was a good day. We sold some coffee, won some bike races, and thanks to the Tracy’s all had full bellies.


Up next Wednesday Tabor and Elk Horn

Portland Roasting Coffee

Portland Roasting Coffee has been generous enough to roast some special "Team Rubicon Blend" coffee and donate it to the team. Now Portland Roasting has some speicial programs with its farmers. Here is an excerpt from their website.

Our way of doing business is built on integrity and trust and the belief that everyone will win if they are given and receive their fair share. Farm Friendly Direct™ mirrors our sustainability philosophy as well – for us it simply means being guided by a set of values that affects every decision we make with regard to our customers, farmers, products and employees.

You all drink coffee anyways so buy some Team Rubicon Coffee and help support a great company and some hungry bike races as well.