Sunday marked the beginning of the appetizer course for the upcoming cyclocross season with the first of three farm crit races out at Sauvie Island. I managed to have a quick start, got the hole shot and lead the race from the start. I was all alone up front for 4-5 laps until Ryan Smith of the Ironclad Cycling Team bridged up to me. From there we took turns riding each others wheels and putting in mini attacks to test each other all while we lapped the other cat C riders and worked our way deep into the B field which had started about 60 seconds before our group. However, in the end, a tactical mistake on my part and the excruciating pain from a blister on my left palm left me unable to respond to Ryan’s final attack and I finished second about 100m behind.
All in all I felt pretty good and am pleased with the result (mostly). Now I just have to figure out how I managed to form a blister on my left palm under my cycling glove so it doesn’t happen again. Ouch!
Posted on August 25th, 2008 by Laird
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Early reports have it that our own Laird Novak took 2nd in Sunday’s Krugers Kermeese!
Congratulations Laird!
Posted on August 25th, 2008 by Paul
Filed under: General | 3 Comments »
So I guess there’s a rumor floating around, completely unverified at this point, that the USAC is contemplating changing the current mtn bike race categories from: Beginner, Sport, Expert, semi-Pro and Pro to something much more like the current road system of Cat 1, 2, 3, etc.
I guess the therory is that it will make the racing more competitive and weed out a lot of the sandbagging that takes place. If they do move that direction, I wonder if OBRA will follow suit? Could make for some tougher racing; which is always a good thing.
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Paul
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HEY YOU! YEAH YOU, YOU F-ING MARIO CIOPPOLINI WANNABES! WHAT THE F*&% DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING???? Don’t you dare roll through my neighborhood, the one that I live and ride in everyday and blow through here like you own the streets! If you come to a stop sign, STOP you f-ing A-hole, because the next time you blow through right beside me like you’re racing the TdF and then have the balls to turn around and give me the stink eye like I have no business even being on the same street as you, the first thing I’m gonna do is door you, then I’m gonna get out of my steel cage of death and beat the living shi* out of you, load up your 5K bike and drive off…….and that goes for both of you punks.
With all the reported (and unreported) tension between motorist and cars don’t you think it’s your responsibility to at least pretend to obey the rules of the road? I followed you from Council Crest, down Vista and 23rd as both of you rolled through stop signs and red lights so you could stop and get your morning cup of java at Starbucks, cause did you really save anytime in getting your double mocha frapachino or did you simply piss of every motorist within eye shot of you; I’m not saying you need to be cycling’s ambassadors of love and good will, but you do need to pull your heads out of your asses!
Good job boys! You suck!
Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Paul
Filed under: General | 5 Comments »
From 7 tours, a couple of marathons and now this Leadville 100 I don’t care what you say about Lance, the guys a competitor and forget about Dave Weins, the guys won Leadville like 6 times in a row…..both these fellas are a couple of freaks! Hats off to both
BTW 3rd place finished something like a half hour behind these 2
Posted on August 10th, 2008 by Paul
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Last night was the Twilight Crit down in Portland’s north park blocks; it also marked the last ride of Portland’s native pro racer Doug Ollerenshaw. Doug was all smiles before the start of the race last night, but once the gun went off, Doug was all business, chasing every break that tried to form and helping to keep the pace incredibly high. (I think I heard that one of the laps had an average speed of over 34mph)
Good luck in Atlanta Doug, Portland and the local bike scene will miss you.
Posted on August 9th, 2008 by Paul
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During my pre-race course recon I noted a particularly sketchy gravel corner about four turns in from the start, in fact I think my exact thoughts were, “Dang this corner is gonna be sketchy!” Sure enough after pulling off a great start, four corners later, down I went, hard on my left knee. I was able to get up without: 1) getting run over by an adrenaline filled field and 2) not loose too many positions.
Last nights course was once again, well laid out and probably one of the longest and most technical/tricky to date, well deserving of the final race of the season; another huge thank you goes out to Kris and his crew for putting this series on as it saw huge turn outs at all six races, was well run and the awards and raffle giveaways last night were fantastic.
Only four points separated me from second place for the series at the start of last nights race, so after picking myself up off the gravel, I figured I would have my work cut out for me, but when I looked up I could see the leaders (and the guy who currently held the # 2 spot, Cody) not to far ahead of me. I was pretty jacked up after the crash and it seemed to take about 3/4 of a lap to get back into a rhythm and I felt like I was getting passed by a lot of guys. Slowly I started to find my groove and pick up spots, eventually passing Cody and hoping that he would continue to fade as I chased the lone leader. (I needed Cody to finish four spots behind me to move into second overall)
I never caught the leader although I gave it all I had, I just ran out of laps to do it, finishing second on the night was a great end to the season and having such a rocking cheering section of family, friends and teammates last night was awesome. I can’t wait for next year!
Photos courtesy of Oregon Velo:
Mid-race
Photos courtesy of jose brujo sandoval :
Post race
Now Playing: Race 6 HelmetCam from Scott Barker on Vimeo.”>
Posted on July 29th, 2008 by Paul
Filed under: Race Reports | 3 Comments »
“FOUR MINUTES TO START!”
These are the words that broke my thoughts, “Man, I don’t think I have it tonight, it’d sure be easier to sit at home and watch the Tour recap; Damn Jeff and Varner for showing up tonight!”
“ONE MINUTE TO START!”
“Crap, guess I better pull it together……wonder where Jeff and Varner are starting, they should be up here in the front row…..although maybe not as close to the ditch as I am, this doesn’t look like the best spot I could have picked.”
“30 SECONDS!”
“Oh well, to late now”
BBBUUUUWWWAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!
Just as the siren wailed and I smashed the pedal down, the guy next to me bobbled and gave me a nudge, a nudged that sent me down into the ditch that only seconds before I had noted as being a potential problem; both feet came out of the clips and I started to slide down the embankment only managing to just save dropping all the way to the bottom as half the field rocketed past. “Damn it! that is not the start I was looking for!”
According to Jeff, quite a few guys went down at the start, including Jeff not more than a lap or so later. Jeff went down hard when he clipped his bars at the transition between pavement and gravel, hard enough that he was done for the night and spent a little time with the medic getting cleaned up before heading to the nearest emergency for room for a possible stitch or two. Heal up quick Jeff!
Varner fared much better, this was another strong night for V; now that he isn’t working 1,000 hours per week he’s actually able to get out and ride a bit and his endurance is quickly improving while his confidence on the bike is building as well. (I’m guessing his marathon ride down in Oakridge has a lot to do with this)
I ended up riding strong for the remainder of the race, moving my way back up the field from my poor start, dueled with a few guys before managing to get a pass to stick then sprinting for the line just in front of another hard charging rider. (big air is fun)
We’ll see how things shake out with the results later in the week, I’m currently sitting in third for the series, but a good result on my part and a so, so result for #2 and I might be sitting pretty good for next weeks final.
Photos courtesy of Oregon Velo:
Varner
Paul
V-Man
2008 Short Track Series - RACE 5 from Scott Barker on Vimeo.”>
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Paul
Filed under: Race Reports | 1 Comment »
Not this year!
The Cobra tests positive
Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Paul
Filed under: General | 1 Comment »
Another great course for tonight’s short track race, I’ve got to hand it to the promoters of this event; even though I bitch about the slowness of the posted results, the races go off on time and the weekly layouts have been awesome. A big thank you again to the promoter!
Tonight they switched up the starting order by putting the 40+, then 50+ riders in front of us, what this meant was that within 1 lap we were already mixing in with the 50’s and pretty quickly after that the 40’s. I had a pretty decent start, but could see that Ron Babcock was once again strongly pulling away from the rest of the field; never saw the leaders after the start, but I could hear the announcer telling everyone how hard he was pulling the rest of the field.
It was extremely dusty tonight and I have no idea how I finished, but it felt like a good race…..maybe earned some more points for the team BAR.
2008 Short Track Series - RACE 4 from Scott Barker on Vimeo.”>
Posted on July 14th, 2008 by Paul
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