Too Hot
In a move a sheer brilliance, a rather large albeit stupid contingent of VRV-ers decided that Saturday would be a great day to ride out to Larch Mtn and back. Shortly before Troutdale we experienced a mechanical that sent Varner back to the stables and since Jeff wasn’t feeling well, he headed back too(we all should have turned around) Earl, Jason and I marshalled on.
We figured that it might cool off a bit the higher we rode…..it never did; in fact imagine riding your bike with an industrial hairdryer blowing on you and it’s stuck on the “Hotter than Hell” setting. By the time we got back into Troutdale and the “Marine Drive Headwind” the temps were in the 100′s.
Who’s ever idea it was to ride yesterday instead of sitting in the shade and drinking beer should be beaten with a rubber hose!!
PIR – STXC
First things first, a huge THANK YOU goes out to all the volunteers and medical staff who attended the down rider with full CPR until the ambulance arrived, without your quick response, I shudder to think of the outcome, THANK YOU AGAIN!!
Now to the racing, VRV had a very strong contingent of riders and support, first to the Sport boys we had Jeff, Laird and myself, with James rolling up to the start in his first Expert race. Along with the racers we had our cheering section of my wife, Sue, Earl fresh off his rockies ride and Heather; James also provided strong support while he waited for his race.
5 laps, twenty-something minutes, doesn’t seem like very long, but man-o-man, was that ever tough. Mass field start, riders bunching up then quickly stringing out, no idea how we all finished, but the end result was the same….tired!
Team BAR is starting to look pretty good for us!
Photos courtesy of Oregon Velo:
Jeff
James
Laird
Paul
2008 Short Track Series – RACE 1 from Scott Barker on Vimeo.”>
Rockies Riders
The boys, Jason and Earl, are back from their epic Rockies ride and after all that riding, they turned right around and made the 19 hour drive back home.
Welcome home guys, can’t wait to see the pictures and hear some of the stories.
CHARGE!!!
Dry, fast and zero climbing marked today’s Oregon Mountain Bike Series finale, Picketts Charge. The start was a blistering 2 mile sprint on gravel and double track road leading to the days first section of singletrack. The pack thinned out fairly quickly with a small group of 5 getting a small gap on the rest of the field with me hovering about 200 yards back. I managed to stay in this position for the next several miles until they slowly started to pull away. Meanwhile James was feeling the past weeks stomach bug that kept him down and out and started to make some new friends with the gray-hairs that started to catch him.
Heather’s race started much the same way as every other field, in a giant cloud of dust; unlike James and I, she moved to the front and never looked back.
This was a fantastic race on a great course, Heather pulled off another victory…(Uuuuuhhhh, Oooohhh looks like somebodies gonna have to move up!!) and I pulled down 6th, James finished strong, probably in the top 15. Once again, great Job to Vista Ridge Velo.
T.O.E. Cramps, Mechanicals & Podiums
Sunday marked the third annual Test of Endurance, a 50 mile mountain bike race in and around the hills of Blodget, Oregon; this race features about 7,500′ of climbing total, mostly on gravel roads, with connecting sections of singletrack. Race promoter, Mike Ripley has never had much cooperation from the weather, when I raced it in 2005 a wet suit and snorkel where more in order than a mountain bike, but yesterday’s weather was sunny and warm making for a fast race.
Vista Ridge had a strong contingent of riders, both Heather and James where present, hunting for more points to help move them up in the series totals, Jeff Brock was there and ready to break in his new Kona, Varner, looking to put himself to the test and myself. After the brief riders meeting everybody clipped in and like a thundering heard of buffalo, we were off.
The pace started out fairly fast as the field began jockeying for position before the first of the 6 climbs per lap, but I was able to move up into the top 1/4 of the field as we started heading up. Heather, James, Jeff and Varner were strung out behind me, it was at this point that I lost all contact with the rest of the team and wouldn’t see anyone again until the finish.
I continued to climb well, although it felt like I was loosing a lot of positions within the first few miles; somewhere during this time Heather had a flat that probably caused her 10-15 minutes overall and Varner would have the first of his two flats shortly afterwards.
As the race entered the first singletrack section, I was starting to get my groove on, really pushing the pace and picking off slower riders who just could seem to negotiate the tight trails with any speed, this really bolstered my confidence, but with 50 miles of racing I had to keep my wits about me and not start thinking to far ahead. Unlike a regular mountain bike race that’s only 20 or so miles long, during an endurance event, you have a lot of time to think, think about things like, “what am I doing here”, “Wow, my leg/lungs/whatever really hurts”, “what idiot talked me into this”, all of these thoughts seem to jumble around in your noggin throughout a race like this.
After Aide station 2 the field was completely strung out, which was a good thing because the course entered a section of tight “deer trail” singletrack and then a fast although rough downhill; it was here that something didn’t quite feel right with my bike. I slowed to let a few riders pass and hopped off to check things out, what I discovered was that my rear wheel was in the midst of its own negative thought process and was doing its best to self destruct, but since it was still attached to the bike I figured I would force it to behave and ride it until it exploded…..end of lap 1
Lap 2 started much the same as lap 1, with a long gravel road climb and some fantastic volunteers who offered me everything but a ride to the top, I was basically riding by myself at this point, no one ahead or behind, I put my head down and just started to grind it out, 25 miles to go.
Around mile 35 I felt my legs start to tighten, first my left hamstring, then my right, I think this was a cursed mile because James reported cramps around this time as well. With my legs seizing up, I could barely put any pressure on the pedals, I was just trying to survive, I had water, but no electrolytes, so I ate and drank what I could; Aide 2 was close and it became my sole focus, “get to Aide 2, eat a banana, find some electrolytes, go, go, go.”
Coming into Aide 2 I heard my name being called out, it was Varner, he had just finished his hour long walk through the woods after having another flat and no tube to fix it, he was waiting for a ride back to the finish. I got my banana and electrolytes and gave V my spare tube and as I was clipping back in Varner yells, “Hurry, up, you’re only an hour behind the leaders!!” this had me laughing for the next few miles, I was roughly 10 miles from the finish with another hour of racing to go and the leaders where done.
I put my head down and focused on the finish, turning the cranks over as best I could, worried about being caught, looking forward to ending my misery as quickly as possible, the miles slowly ticked by. I rolled across the line close to exhaustion, but happy to be done now I would cheer on the team. First was James, then Jeff, Varner had gotten a ride back down to the finish and we all waited for Heather who rolled in a short time later, now for the results.
VRV had an extremely successful day, Heather taking 1st in the Sport women’s field, James with 9th in the men’s Sport class and I took my first victory ever in the men’s Sport class; tremendous results for the team in what has got to be the toughest mountain bike race on the OBRA calendar. Terrific job team! Great results! Team Vista Ridge Velo is really starting to shape up into a strong overall contender, both on the road and the dirt.
Photo’s courtesy of Shane Young at Oregon Velo:
Heather
Paul
James
Jeff
Photo’s courtesy of Sue Hanna:
Varner
Paul
James
Jeff
Heather
Rockies Riders
Today Earl and Jason head out to beautiful Durango, Colorado for the start of the week long Ride the Rockies.
Good Luck Fellas, hope you guys have a fantastic trip and we’re looking forward to hearing all about it when you get back!
Firecracker 6-1-08 – Updated
Great course, well run, good times!
Jeff and I made the suprisingly short trip down to Falls City today for the Firecracker mountain bike race, put on by Half Fast Velo and can I say, what a sweet venue (although I came up about 4 miles short on the advertised mileage)
The course had equal amounts of climbing and descending with a few hike-a-bike sections during the climb and some fairly techinical sections of the descent, but you could really rail portions of the downhill making it very fast.
The race started with the Sports all lining up and heading off at the same time with a gravel fireroad ascent before jumping into the singletrack climbing. I had a mid-pack start and started to slowly pick off a few riders here and there while some of the early rabbits lost steam. Jeff started a bit further back and ended up topping out on the last section of climbing only about 5 spots behind me as we began our plunge back down towards the start. (this is where I lost contact with Jeff)
I chased and yo-yoed several riders including a Maters rider who made a very spectacular endo style crash while I was stopped to unstick my chain that had jumped over the outside of the big ring and wedged itself between the crank arm. I rode pretty much the rest of the race by myself finishing in around 1:47:00 with Jeff coming in a few minutes after that.
I felt pretty good considering it’s the first time I’ve raced my mtn bike since the Cream Puff in 2005, looking forward to the T.O.E. in a couple of weeks.
Official results: Paul Sullivan 7th, Jeff Brock 24th