VRV goes Round and Round for 24 Hours
Why anyone would want to ride, let alone race, their bike for 24 hours may not be explainable, but I can give some substance to the rumors you might have been hearing:
Heather did enter as a solo woman this year. She kicked butt for 165 miles to place 6th out of 11 women in her 24 hour solo debut. What an energizer bunny. Also, many thanks to Heather’s sister Shannon and her husband Dave for being an awsome pit crew.
James and honorary VRV Brian entered as a 2 person team. They rocked until Brian side-stepped the clutch and took out the derailleur, cassette and rear wheel on his bike. James soldiered on thru the night as a solo, riding some of the laps with Heather. Brian helped out as pit crew until the morning when he scorched off another couple laps. Even with the equipment problems, they were still not last in probably the most competitive class, 2 person open. A heck of an effort.
Dave went to the race with a five person coed team, Filth and Fury from Nike, but got traded to another team who were one man short. He barely managed to not die as his team hammered to a 4th place finish in the 4 person open. He mostly drafted, but managed a hot lap or two. Along the way he got to share the pit crew of 2008 World Champion Solo 24 hour racers Greg Martin and Rebecca Rusch.
I also want to insert a shameless plug. Brian Engelen who is a cyclo-crosser, mtb’er, and all around nice guy, loaned me one of the lights his company makes. This is the best light I have ever used. When you are tearing thru the forest at 2am, you really WANT 900 lumens. And he also makes a hub mounted dynolight for commuters. Check out his web site. http://lightonlights.com Thanks Brian!
Weekend update
So it would seem that this Memorial Day weekend is the weekend of long rides; three of our team are up in Spokane riding in the 24 hour Round the Mountain race with Heather racing 24 solo, James racing with teammate honorary, Brian as a two man team and Davide hooking up with standard size team. Good luck to all!
The rest of us headed out on a leg breaker of a ride today that saw us climb well over 6,5k on beautiful, little travelled roads outside, in and around Estacada.
Good times for all!
Mothers Day
What did you do for your mother/wife for Mothers Day? Flowers, brunch, have her stand on the side of a dusty trial and hand you bottles as you race past?? That was the gift I gave my wife and loving mother of our two kids yesterday at the Webcyclery Cascade Chainbreaker in Bend. With fantastic weather, buffed singletrack and the wicked fast layout this race was going to be a good one.
(Wearing the new kits)
As the fields lined up for the start I could see that some of the fastest guys from Bend decided to show up, namely Ryan Trebon and Carl Decker, with the 1.5 mile gravel road start I figured these two where going to shatter the field right from the start…..and they did; this left me to try and get into my rhythm as quick as possible before the singletrack started. 
(waiting for the start of the men’s Cat 1 field)
VRV teammate, Dave English had a similar start to his race with and all out sprint up the road. Dave said that he had been feeling good and got a fast start, which really helped him move through the tight singletrack until running into some trouble with a pinch flat that relegated him to the back of the field by the time he was able to get it swapped and going again.
(Men’s Cat 2 field)
My field had to run a total of three laps, which ended up being a little over 38 miles, this is the longest race at that high of a pace for me so far as a Cat 1 and my lap times while consistent, where consistently slower; lap #1 13.9avg mph, lap #2 12.3, lap #3 11.9, but it was hard to be too upset after having gotten to ride some of the sweetest singletrack around. I managed to not embarrass myself by finishing last and pulled out a 12th, nearly a full half hour behind the winner.
All in all, Dave and I had a great race and as usual the guys at Webcyclery did a terrific job with the course; it was well marked and in amazing shape, to all who volunteered a huge “Thank you” for all your hard work, without you and your efforts mountain biking in Oregon would not be as great as it is today!
And to my wife, you are the best pit crew ever!
Peanut Butter Mudslinger – Updated
Torrential rains, hurricane force winds (well, maybe not hurricane) hail, cats and dogs sleeping together……all hell breaking loose; that’s how the afternoon went on the day before the 21st edition of the Peak Sports Mudslinger. With that, Jeff and I loaded up the Extreme Team Vista Ridge Velo Xtera and headed south to the little town of Blodget so we could take our fair share of punishment as only Mike Ripley can dish out at his races. Sunday dawned cloudy and cool…..but no rain, in fact the rain would hold off all day and as usual Mike laid out a terrific course and I must say that there are very few promoters out there who manage to get the same type of community involvement that Mike does, not to mention the schwag and giveaways; super kudos to Mike and crew, his efforts do not go unnoticed.
The Cat 1′s lined up behind the Pro’s and left 2 minutes after the super big guns, the race started with a nice long gravel road climb before entering the first section of uber slickery singletrack, the climb was a great way to start the race because it really helped to string things out (me included), tempo, tempo, temp0 that’s all I could think as the likes of Tim Butler and wrecking crew shatter the field within the first 2 miles. It was after this that the race dropped into a familiar rhythm of passing guys and being passed back by the same guys on other section of the course. The singletrack was nasty slippery all over the place and the fire road/gravel climbs helped to clear out the mud………did I mention that the singletrack was nasty slippery. As the course dried out on the second lap the slippery mud became a lot like peanut butter, sticking to everything. (I ended up 10th on the day)
Jeff lined up with the 2′s and proceeded to tear them apart; starting at the back of the field (cause he said he wanted to take it easy) he used the early climb to move his way up through the stragglers and firmly ensconce himself with the lead group. Jeff indicated that he had a little difficulty handling some of the slippery descents, but it wasn’t enough to slow him down much; in fact his power climbing looks like it brought him into the top 10 (Jeff finished 5th)
The Mudslinger totally lived up to its name, mud truly ruled the day, next up, the Cascade Chainbreaker; from snow to mud to dust…..mountain biking in Oregon ROCKS!