Emptying the match book - Matt's account of BB#1

After being pampered with a late start at Cherry Pie two weeks ago, 5am was a cruel return to the racing I knew from Washington. I nearly shelved my racing today 3 times....

1.) at 5:01am

2.) as I started to fall asleep again while driving at 5:30 (yes, I got there waaaay too early)

3.) when I saw the course covered in ice upon arrival

Well, of course when I was putting my trainer away after the warm-up at 8:55 I heard that we had a 30 min ice delay. Crap... so I rode around for the next 30 min visiting the restroom to hold off the hypothermia. It was great to see some of the Hammer women warming up, and it was good to have some company and great job Christina, 4th place!

Lap one started with lots of futile attacks, I covered a few but tried to stay out of the wind as best I could. Wow, its hard when you have no idea who to watch and I was second guessing every move and whether I should go cover the attack. After the first lap, I sat in and tried to hover around top 5, when people went off I tried to watch their body language to see if they might be a threat and act accordingly.

On lap two some guy from Bike Racing Attorney launched a huge attack. The way he moved (upper body bobbing like crazy) I thought "no way buddy" and kind of let him go. Well, he stayed away for about a lap before we caught him.

Lap 3 I got in a 10 man break after the dam, I thought we might stay away but it wasn't to be... and we got caught.

Lap 4... crazy Bike Racing Attorney dude didn't get enough pain from lap one so he went off again. This time he took two other guys with him, one from Team Oregon... and I was not paying attention, sipping a latte in the back. S***! These three quickly make a sizable gap, and I knew this was a very dangerous move. Team Oregon and BRA went straight to the front and in the most subtle way went 4 abreast put their arms out and slowed down. I immediately did my best Bryan Smith impersonation trying to rally a few troops to chase. 
 
No dice... everyone sat around happy to be on a Sunday stroll. I was just about to take out my water bottle and bean the one TO guy in the back of the head with it when I saw a little opening and gunned it. I took 3 guys with me, heads down, and we just buried it in the red. We were not making much ground though and I saw my book of matches burning up like crazy... we had a few other chasers join us and help the effort.
 
Slowly we started whittling away the breaks' lead but I was so far in the red I was concerned that I would have nothing to finish with. We caught the break inside 1K and and I was sitting 3rd wheel coming up on 200M... as soon as I hit the 200M mark I gave it everything I had, figuring that I could maybe catch a few people off guard make some space and then see what happens.
 
What happened?
 
I could nearly taste victory when I heard a rider coming up on my left he had a super kick and left me and my empty match book to take 2nd place.

Some Thoughts of 2010 Season

Well Hammer Velo had our best finish yet in overall OBRA Team Bar points, finishing in a solid 2nd place for the 2010 Season. It's been a great year for the team, I think we ended up having 8 state championships for the year, 1 being for me, the highlite of my season and my main goal for the season was to win the Masters State Crit Championships, which I did do. Thanks to Christy (BBOH) for going out every Thursday morning at 7AM, 7 or 8 weeks prior to this race and doing hard sprint workouts with me, we both had some great workouts and it was the key to winning this race....Plus Christy used these workouts and the speed she gained by finishing on the podium at the Ironclad Street Sprints, I was so happy for her....Other highlites for me this year was at the Raven TT series, I ended up 2nd overall after the 3 race series in the Masters. But the second week I really needed to have a good race, got a good start and about 1.5 miles in I was sweeping through a big right hand bend slightly downhill and down on the bars flying, and BANG!!!! I hit a nail or something that rolled up and sliced the sidewall of the tubular on my rear disc....I have no idea how I held it upright as it pitched the whole bike sideways and I was heading across the road into the other lane of traffic heading for the ditch at 30 + mph....somehow I got out of my aero bars and got to the brakes and then stayed upright....Whew...I thought wow, I guess being a good bike handler pays off sometimes even if it's just a natural action to hang on and hopefully not crash....So I popped my shoes off and started walking back to the start area...My day was over....Well I thought it was, Rich the Neighbor had gone by me in his race while I was walking, so when he finished he jumped in his car and drove back and picked me up, then I get back to the start area and ask, can I restart??? They say sure you have about 5 minutes and we will let you go last in line....So back to the truck, I had to swap cassettes from my 10 speed wheel over to my 9 speed off my disc....I made it to the start and I put a foot down and away I went....Ended up finishing 2nd that day after all that and then I had to just finish well the next week and I had 2nd place overall in the series in hand which I did....Other great memories for me were some of the long rides we did as a team this year, Bridge of the Gods 100 milers, we did this 3 times this year with good sized groups, very fun and some great times with team mates. And then the low of maybe my cycling career and for sure in 2010 was letting my team mates down at the Rapha race....It was 100 + degrees about 70 miles into the 125 mile race and I had to bail, the heat really got to me, something that had never happened to me before, but once it did I was done, as my team mates had to leave me in Scappose and I was waiting for a ride, ( Thanks MO!!!! : ) I was tired, emotional and hot and I kinda had a melt down as I watched them ride away....I felt terrible that I could not go on and I was a huge dis-appointment to myself and them...But Mo took care of me, took me back to her place, got me some food and a cool shower and then I started coming back to life....It took me weeks to get over that. But I did and moved on and I was so proud of the other 5 for going on in the conditions and making it through the 125 miles of hell...We have some great and tough cyclists on this team and that is my most important thought of 2010...Looking forward to 2011 with a few new folks on our team and another great season to come....The new design of the Hammer Velo Kit will be out after the first of the year, we are really excited about that, it is very cool....So it was great being involved in OBRA again this year and congrats to all the HV peeps for a great season. Onward and upward for the future. See ya...........Jeff

US Cyclocross Nationals half-lap report....

Read about Wombat's less than stellar outing at the Cyclocross Nationals here.

Psycho Cross race report - Wombat

Wombat's account of the weekend's racing in Eugene is here.

Hillsboro race reports - Wombat's take

His two rather silly Hillsboro race reports can be found here.

First 'cross win - Angela

Racing has been great but what lingers more than anything is the support and company of our teammates. This past weekend Jeff had the team site all set up. The tents were up, trainers ready and Jeff’s new toolbox got more use than ever. It is so nice to have a place to go to and know I will find my teammates. Bryan Smith was supporting riders all day and then once again was all over helping to get things taken down and packed up. For this I am extremely thankful! Sallyanne and Julie made sure our podium girl theme was all that it could be. Again, I enjoyed seeing my teammates out at the fairgrounds in Astoria just as I had seen many mates at PIR. However I missed the race and the party on Saturday, but I heard about some good times.

Now about racing. I warmed up for the women’s race using my trainer and downing some Hammer gel Anna provided me. The sound of my wheels spinning was impressive but only because they are carbon. I am racing in the 45+ group which has been the epitome of good feminine competition. With my 1st place finish on Sunday, the top 5 now all have a 1st place finish and a fair share of the various top 5 finishes. A crazy thing happened in the women’s race on Sunday, we had to restart after everyone was at least ½ to a whole lap into the race. I had a great start both times and only saw other 45+ racers when I lapped them. I was riding hard, climbing strong and going through the muddy descents aggressiveley.

On my last lap my lovely green sprinters dress got caught on my saddle after I went down in some slick, swift mud just before the bleachers and the descending turns through the trees. I finally had to leap off my bike to get untangled. When the race was over I was stunned by my lead. At the time I did not feel like I had worked all that hard. However, after the trick or treaters were asleep and I had a few hours of sleepful rest in my body, I began to feel the most significant soreness of the season. Throughout the day on Monday, my body informed that I had indeed pushed it very hard on Sunday.

Hugh pulled off a 9th place finish on Saturday and a 7th on Sunday, which puts him at 15th for the series. Jamie Bradley did great too and is sitting at 3rd in the series I think. It was impressive to see Jeff cruise around on the course showing off his ripped muscles along with Cristina and her flowered SS, Kristin sporting some obnoxious outer underwear and her amber colored rims as well as German on his sweet prize from last year! Lisa looked good, really good on her SS. There’s so much more to share, but that’s enough from me. I look forward seeing many of you and racing again next Sunday so close to home at Washington CO fair grounds.

Cat's NinKrossi race report

They said it was "fast and flat", perfect for beginners. Just three days before, at Blind Date (my very firstest cross race ever!) I was hooked on 'cross bad, so Ninkrossi sounded like a perfect next fix. Umm...yeah, it was a perfect fix of Pain! And Suffering! And I don't remember flats anywhere. Although there was the fast, the careening down bumpy terrain with only a micron of control over the bike. Terrifyingly transcendental.

Before the beginner women's race, Karleta, Hans, Jeffy and I watched "thumbs up" German, and "meat pants" John Lin and Rich the Neighbor and Killer Kristin tear it up in the SS race. They looked like they were hurting but they were going freakin fast. German did well, but his glory was shadowed by getting passed by a girl so he lost out on a beer from Tedder. John held second place solidly (maybe he was wearing the meat undies?), Neighbor kept motoring and stuck out his tongue a lot, in defiance, as if to say: take that, Ninkrossi! and KK rocked it, even after recently battling the Revenge of the Crepe.

Then it's our turn, Karleta and I. I almost missed the start when I take too long on the pre ride. Huh, must have been those pesky climbs! We're off and it hurts, immediately, but I remember something about it being fun, and how I PAID to do this, and cross is rad. Right.

I managed three laps (Three, really? Coulda sworn it was seventeen) and then it was over, thank all the gods and stars and heavens above, it was OVER! There were some harrowing moments, like getting passed by some chick (too close!) and eating it, and navigating the Ninkasi N, boy that was thrilling, but overall I actually stayed on the bike and didn't die. Yay!



Cat enjoying kicking butt at NinKrossi (photo: R. Rosko)

  

It was very extremely unspeakably wonderful to see teammates (and Hanser!) cheering us on throughout the race. Encouragement from friends and loved ones is a beacon through the haze of pain. Thanks, guys :) And being out there with Karleta was fantastic--it felt great to have a teammate out there with me, bonding through extreme physical trial.

Despite the bitching and moaning about this race, I hafta say there is something beautiful in it. Pain is purifying. Know what else is purifying? Goddess Nectar.

P.S. Julie Carter, thank you a million times for letting me use your bike! She rocks! And she's very forgiving.

P.P.S. Great job everyone on this weekend-yeow!!