PIR 6/8/09

Excellent job everyone who raced last night, especially Juan with the win the Masters 4/5.
**I took a ton of photos and I'll try and get the rest on PhotoBucket and send you guys the link.
***CLICK THE PHOTOS AND THEY BECOME HUGE***

Wednesday Morning Ride

James Ralston and I rode from L.O. over to the Springwater Corridor and across the steel bridge to waterfront park and then went back the way we came except we rode up through Riverview Cemetery.

32 miles
16 mph avg

Some cell phone pics from the ride...

PIR Women's Race: June 1

Yah, so there was a bad crash in our field last night. Everyone knows about that, so I'll just post on the good stuff that happened during the race.

I only have 7-8 PIRs under my belt, but until the crash, this was by far the hardest, and most entertaining, women's PIR race that I've been involved in. Why?

Veloforma showed up.

VF had Tina, Laura and Stephanie. We had Beth, LK, Anna and Mindy. Perfect ingredients for a Monday night throwdown.

Beth attacked in the first lap and it was on from there. VF attacks, HV chases. HV attacks, VF chases. Ironclad and Dawn Riddle from Gentle Lovers also helped mix it up a bit.

Damn, those gals are fun to race with. Very few lulls in the action and when we weren't attacking, there was some good cooperation in keeping the overall pace high.

VF killed all of the prime laps and the final sprint, but we will have our revenge.

PIR - 6/1/09

Well, it was a strange night out at PIR on Monday night starting with the Philadelphia-style-cheese-steak-slime-humidity. Thanks, but no thanks.

Jon rocked it in the novice5's, placing a strong fourth after a strategic race.
I picked up the win on the first hot spot for $10 and got nipped at the line for third on another by Joe Martin (of Veloce, who is quickly becoming my new nemesis). I got placed third overall for the night based on points, which was really a formality since our finish was scrubbed because of the horrible crash in the women's race. Kristin of Ironclad is pretty banged up, but apparently showing good signs. We are all thinking about her, and sending out healing thoughts.

I was pretty thankful and happy that my own teamates escaped severe physical injury last night. It's always scary when you hear the bikes hit the ground and shattering of plastic that inevitiably comes with it. Seems like just about every night I'm at PIR someone goes down, sometimes pretty close by. Its a dangerous sport, cycling. Anyway, I mostly wanted to give a huge shoutout to my teamates who were there at the scene when things went bad. I was blown away by how compassionate, caring, worried, helpful, and supportive to one another you all were. It made me very proud to call you all teammates.

Rubber side down.

Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'

Fast Twit [sic] Friday 5/29/06 Racy racy!

Bit redundant to LK's report-squirrelly junior and all...but read here for a little dash of George Lucas' wisdom mixed in with my own homespun wisery...The pain will bring us closer together.

Team Time Trial: Senior Women

Fast Twitch Friday: May 29

Cramps, German and I wandered out to Alpenrose on Friday night to try out some track racing. It was Dave and I's first time track racing, and Cramps' first time since he was 19 (so, say, first time since 1974).

For novice riders, Friday night racing is held in an omnium format: three races, the overall "winner" being the rider that accumulates the most points at the end of the night.

Juan was there when I arrived and Dave, in typical Dave fashion, didn't get to warm-up because he showed up 10 minute before racing started. Juan and I did get some good warm-up laps in, and he helped diagnose, and partially alleviate, the rattling coming from my chain.

Here is my race report, I'll let the boys add theirs in later...

Race One: Alpenrose Mile. 6 lap scratch race. I spent the first four laps trying to get out from being stuck behind a very squirelly BBC junior. On the back stretch on the fifth lap, I was able to get around her and move toward the front. Attacked at the start of the bell lap and was able to hold on for the win.

Unfortunately, a rider that was trying to catch me on the front stretch ran into my calf with her front wheel when she stood up to sprint. I stayed upright, she went down pretty hard, but was able to get cleaned and bandaged up to race in the third race. Her tire left a second degree burn on the back of my calf, bruised my ankle bone and destroyed the buckle on my right shoe.


Race Two: Ten Lap Tempo Race. Points given each lap, 2 for first, 1 for second. I basically hung out for the first three laps, then went high, moved out front, accelerated and stayed out front for the final six. Hard work, especially into the wind, but I'm a bit undergeared (48x16) and was spinning out frequently-- so I didn't feeling like I was working any harder than about 80%.

(Pre-Tempo Race. Credit: Jose Brujo Sandoval)

Race Three: Unknown Distance-ride until the bell ring, then sprint like hell. At this point, I've won the omnium and decide to just sit in and work on getting comfortable in the pack. I start out in the front and fade to the back once Elena Larsen and Kristin McCarthy attack the field. Got to watch the sprint from the back...good learning.

At the end of the night, both Juan and I won the omnium for our groups. I think German's rental bike left him undergeared for most of the races and he'll be able to be more competitive with a different gear ratio.