Thursday night the sunset was gorgeous on the drive to Bend. Nefertiti and myself rolled over to fly Bridgetown Velo colors at the Cascade Classic.

RIVER CITY BICYCLES & Team Rose City presents
The 6th Annual Eric Kautzky Memorial Track Race
MAY 22, 2011 – Alpenrose Velodrome

Proceeds to benefit the Eric Kautzky Memorial Scholarship Fund at Tigard High School. Get ready to race the first omniums and points races of the season! It will also be a Men’s Pro/1/2 qualifying event for the 2011 Hellyer Testarossa Velodrome Challenge, July 1-2, 2011 in San Jose, CA.

View full flier for more details

I am getting excited for this. I hope to see some more blue and orange out at this one.

DON’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS…………but i’m going to.
so last two races i’ve started easy (ie:wrecking and wanking about) but tonight i got in a good position on the start and give it go. as we left the first bit of gravel i saw i was sitting around 10th and well i went for it. i have to say i have no idea where i finished with little light and a lot of SS’ers in the way (snap greg) but i think in the top ten fo’sho. as nobody passed me after the first up hill. what a great feeling. i felt great at the end and could have done a couple more laps.
not one to blow my own horn (ha) but my barriers rock. passed ten people over the barriers. got to say repetition works. six steps one before, two inbetween, and three after.

lot o BtV out there although not sure who you all are…….saw tigerly cat up, topcop getting 2nd?, lovemachine rockin in the ss, M&M soft middle race, hard shell running support, greginator and at least two more,??who ever you are.
nice job hard to say grinning from ear to ear but i had a ball. (although i prefer ball as funkadelic use it compared londoner 70′s socialite)

forgot Miss Arnold, lucky it be S&M as i can get behind that.

Last night was the first race in the Blind Date at the Dairy Wednesday night series – and it was a blast!  The field was a little bigger than Sunday’s, and there were some new faces lined up in the Women’s B field. The gun went off and I think I was about12th off the line. Oof – Got to work on those starts! My goal the first lap was just to keep moving a steady pace and stay upright in some of the loose gravel turns so as not to get tangled with anyone.

By the end of the first lap I think I had moved up to about 5th.  My friend, Lindsay, passed me at the beginning of the second lap – and she was setting a great pace on her SS – I just kept thinking to myself ‘stick with Lindsay, stick  with Lindsay’ – she is such a strong rider, and it’s so great to see her out racing and having fun after the past year.  She pinch flatted somewhere along the line though – so after that I spend the race reeling in the other two women that were left ahead of me.  I caught one of the during the 4th lap – which left a single Ironclad rider out in front – and holy cow was she strong!  I had no idea who she was, but she was setting a blistering pace on her SS, and I likely would not have caught her except she had a very unfortunate mechanical on the last lap.   I came up on her on the backside of the course fiddling with her front wheel, so I stopped and asked if she wanted me to wait for her to get her bike fixed.  Right as I was asking she was closing her quick release and yelled “NO!” over her shoulder as she started up the run up ahead of me.  I was still standing still straddling my bike – so I quickly dismounted and started up the runup after her – the chase was on!     There was a short, steep downhill after the run up, and I think she may have had trouble clipping in, or hit a bump funny, in any case – she swung wide into the left-hand turn at the bottom of the hill and I was just able to sneak the inside line on the corner and catch up with her.  From there on out we were neck in next going through the village and into the finishing field.  It was pretty fun going through the final set of barriers right next to someone!  I knew I couldn’t mess up at all going through the final set of  S-turns either.    As usual, I neglected to get out of my saddle for the final sprint (oops), but I ended up crossing the line in front anyways.    I think my favorite part of my race was Margi cheering her head off at the finish – it made me smile to see her running along the side of the course, and I think it made me corner better. =)

Overall I thought last night was a much harder race than Barlow because it was much faster with tighter corners. I was starting to figure out what line to take by the last couple of laps – but I did a lot of unnecessary braking on the first laps figuring it out!

I think Matt, Joe, Graz & Margi were also out there racing, but I didn’t get to see them because my ride was leaving early – maybe next week!

Photo Credit: Jose Sandoval

Coming into this past weekend I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to race or not.  I’d sold my San Jose a few weeks earlier so I’d have cash to put down on a new Cx bike, and as of Thursday I still didn’t have it!   Friday I got the call that the bike was built and I could swing by and pick it up – perfect!  I already had plans to mountain bike on Saturday, so Sunday pre-race was my first time on the bike – which caused a few problems during the day (slightly different frame geometry – which meant I kept sticking my hand into my spokes instead of through the frame when I tried to pick it up) – but overall it was a lot of fun to ride!

As Joe said – the course was perfect on Sunday. Muddy, muddy, muddy – and tough handling – which made for an exciting, fun race. I managed to line up in the front for the start – and was in about 5th place heading into the first off-camber section.  I was creeping up into third headed into the first set of barriers – which was the first time I stuck my hand into my wheel and almost dropped my bike. so pro! I dropped a couple spots in that fumble, but had caught back up to everyone by the time we were at the railroad tie run up.   I passed two or three girls going up the rail ties….and then never saw anyone from my race again. I didn’t like it!  It was very strange to be out riding by myself – and by the end of the first lap I was panicking a bit, so I slowed down until two of the master’s A riders caught up to me mid-way through my second lap.  They would have caught me eventually anyways (they’re both spectacular mtn.bikers) – but I felt much better once there were people ahead of me that I could ‘chase’ again.

The race was over before I knew it – It went by really quickly, and I had a great time. It was the perfect course for a single speed bike – because I think with all the sticky mud it would have been tough to shift cleanly anyways.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Jenn at all in her race (aside from the start) since we raced at the same time, but I did get to see Margi – who is always so fun to watch race because she has such a great smile. You can tell she’s having a blast out there!

http://www.obra.org/flyers/2010/cat_and_mouse.pdf