The Other Side of the Clipboard

I’ve been racing in OBRA events since 2009, primarily at the Cross Crusade series. I know all about pre-registration, waivers, and race rules. I know the pre-race announcements by heart; I recognize the course marshals. Racers in Oregon are lucky – OBRA is a well-oiled machine that consistently puts on well-organized, fun events. We show up, warm up, race our races, and go home to prepare for next time.

Officials training requires proper nutrition taken seriously

A few weeks ago, several Tensegrity members attended the OBRA officials training in Salem. We are starting a new short-track mountain bike series here in Eugene this summer so we decided to get involved in the officiating end of racing. Additionally, there is a dearth of OBRA officials in the Eugene area; Tensegrity wants to contribute to the local events like the Eugene Roubaix, Twilight Crits, and PsychoCross. So Taylor, Julie, Spencer, and I spent a (sunny, beautiful) Saturday getting trained to be assistant judges and assistant referees.

I learned how little I actually know about what goes on behind the scenes at an OBRA race. There are approximately one million moving parts that make up the machine of a cycling race. From registration to equipment to results posting, it is a TON of coordinated work from a host of talented individuals.

We each chose between getting trained as an assistant judge (AJ) or assistant referee (AR). I went the route of AJ since I like numbers, organization, and detail. AJs are the folks at the finish line writing down your finishing order. We also note rule violations like crossing the centerline in the final sprint, public urination (Really guys? Right by the finish line?), and other things you should know better than to do.

Sounds easy enough, right? I put my newfound skills to the test at the Cherry Pie last weekend and found out just how hard seeing and recording thirty numbers simultaneously can be. Luckily, it’s 2012 and we can score every racer with a combination of technology and our handwritten notes. But it takes a lot of focus, which means I don’t register the people associated with the numbers. Several friends said they talked me as they rode by but I didn’t hear a word. I hope that means I was doing it right.

At the Cherry Pie finish line

(photo courtesy of Denny Rowe)

Next time you’re at an OBRA race, be sure to thank your officials. They are up pre-dawn checking the course, setting up equipment, making sure your number is pinned right side up, keeping the race fair, and cleaning up everything after you’ve left. They coordinate so that you don’t have to. Let them know how much you appreciate them! I look forward to seeing everyone out there this season, either on the bike or behind the clipboard.

Sun and Fun at the Cherry Pie

The Cherry Pie Road Race is my white whale.  This is my third time attending the race and let’s just says the previous two attempts resulted in less than stellar results. Mechanicals or lack of fitness have contributed to me being dropped by the peloton. Suddenly I go from racing to being on a solo training ride.  This year was going to be different.  The bike was prepped and the fitness was good.

We are racing!

The neutral start was jovial.  As the peloton rolled along we discussed post race plans and lack of early season fitness.  The sun was shining and everyone felt like they had a chance to win.

As the group rolled through the first few miles, the pace lifted and all the jitters of the first race of the year become apparent.  Uneasy bike handling, uneven pace, and jockeying for position was the norm.  I sat in the middle of the pack and relaxed, feeling good.  I was focused on staying out of the wind and on the wheel in front of me.

I am very aware of where the first set of rollers are on the course because this is the place I have been dropped in the past.  Looking around I find myself at the back of the pack.  We hit the first roller and I bury myself to stay on the wheel in front of me, however, when I look up from my effort, I realize the person in front of me is getting dropped.  I swing out and really start driving up the hill, but the front of the race had pulled away as I rolled past those who were spit out the back.

I pass an unfortunate racer who dropped his chain on the second roller.  He is OK and I drive on.  As I clear the first set of rollers I see the front of the race and they are a ways away.  At this point I have two choices, stop racing and enjoy the day on the bike, or keep fighting in the hopes the peloton slows and I can get back into the group.  I choose the latter and keep pushing.

Then something unexpected happens.  The guy who dropped his chain in the first set of rollers passes me.  I get on his wheel.  He is definitely motoring, but I am able to stay in his draft and somewhat recover.  I continued to sit on his wheel and we rolled into the second half of the race.

Eventually, a small group forms and one strong rider is pulling six of us along.  However, we are slowing as the “engine” of our small group is getting tired.  He needs a rest.  I pull out of the pace line and move to the front of the group.  The pace lifts and we continue along.

I figure, if our group works together we can get back into the race.  I begin to tire and swing out to let the next racer pull through.  As the next racer does a pull he stays on the front to long, the group slows and results in the main “engine” of our group to pull out of the line and push to the front.  This is not efficient, but it is all we have.

Our group pulls it together

We continue to motor along and eventually pass the juniors who started five minutes before our race.  With two miles left in the race I spot the peloton.  They are within reach.  With one last effort we reach the back of the main group.  The racer who did most of the work rolls past me and tells me to follow him.  Unfortunately I do not have anything left.  I sit on the back of the peloton as we enter the final climb. 

In the end, I finished at the back of the main group.  Although it is not the best outcome, I was happy the effort got me back to the main group. Road racing targets my greatest weakness on the bike, which is a lack of sustained power.  One race into the season I feel like I have a good base from which to build. 

Cherry Pie Race Report: A Missive

...And so it begins!

2012 starts not with the mountain bike race I thought it would, but rather, a road race I thought I'd never do again: the Cherry Pie road race. I did this race a long, long time ago and swore I would never road race again. Especially since it takes place in February, a time of year in Oregon not known for its blue skies and butterflies. Frankly I've always thought road racing to be mind-numbingly boring and not something I was likely to ever pursue.

Last year was good year of racing for me. As a Cat2 in the XC mountain bike series, I managed to make it to the podium 4 times; twice on the top step, securing 2nd place for the overall series. With this I earned myself an upgrade to Category 1 for 2012. As a Cat B in cyclocross, I started the season in early September with 11 top-ten finishes. I started the Cross Crusade series at Alpenrose Dairy by taking 2nd place and only nearly missing the win in the last minute and a half. After this, I was awarded with an automatic upgrade to Cat A status. It did not take long to realize I had a long way to go before I would be anywhere near the top-ten again! It was at this point that I revisited the idea of road racing again.

What would it take to be able to compete with these guys? They are fast, I mean, stupid fast. With most of my racing background in the off-road disciplines, I generally had no trouble competing with these guys through the more technical sections of a race; it was my fitness that slapped me right in my face.

Criteriums! This is where the fitness will be built. They are similar in nature, in that it requires and all-out effort for 45-60 minutes with little or no time to recover. I decided that for 2012, I needed to do as many crits as possible and I need to do them as a category 3 road racer.

The simple problem is that one cannot just arbitrarily upgrade from a cat4 to a cat3. In road racing you must earn your stripes.

"One does not simply walk into being a Cat3. Its black gates are guarded by more than just OBRA officials. There is evil there that does not sleep. Kenji's eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with high vO2 max, high LTs, and broken spirits. The very GU you eat is a poisonous gel. Not with ten thousand water bottles could you do this. It is folly."

Road racing: a necessary evil for the betterment of my cyclocross racing! And so, the friday before the Cherry Pie, I was informed by my roommate that I was racing on Sunday and that I didn't have a choice in the matter. Once the weather reports confirmed that I was indeed racing, I started readying my soul.

Race day! Bags packed, bike tuned, oatmeal eaten, coffee drank, nutella/jam sammy made, numbers pinned, legs warmed up, nutella/jam sammy eaten, ~2 mile neutral roll out and we were off! The race started fast. Although immediately up to 30 mph, I was quite comfortable sitting in the middle of the pack. This was my strategy: hide in the pack, do no work, go home a winner...this almost worked out.

From the beginning, one solo rider got away from the group and took an impressive 2 minute lead then about 10 miles into the race, another 2 riders got away. In an attempt to catch the second breakaway, a couple of guys moved to the front of the pack and pretended to do some work. However, after sitting in the middle of the pack for nearly 20 miles, the last 2 or 3 of which trickled by at a mere 18.5 mph, I started getting antsy. I didn't necessarily need to catch the breakaway, but I wanted to do something other than decide which wheel was the best wheel to suck. I was feeling too fresh for my own good. I decided I would put in just enough work to get the party started and then drift back into oblivion. To the front! I pulled us up to about 22 mph, where I still felt strong, but wasn't spending too many watts! I only stayed there for a couple minutes and that was enough. The real chase began and before we knew it, we had the 2 riders in sight and soon enough, we had them in our grip.

We hit the final climb of the first lap at balls-out speed and I immediately went into the red. Knowing this is where a split in the field could happen I was committed to staying with the front of the group. Once over the climb, we had a small split, though it came back together within just a couple miles. It was at this point we finally caught the solo rider who had been off the front from the beginning. Ready for round two!

Early into the second lap another two riders broke off the front, got 40 seconds on us, and stayed at 40 seconds nearly the whole time. Midway through the lap, with about 12 miles to go, we decided it was time to start the chase. Again...sitting in the middle of the pack had rendered me impatient and I felt like I needed to open my legs up a bit. 5 or 6 of us finally started working together and formed a nice tight pace line for a few miles and brought the gap down to about 10 seconds. With the final climb/sprint rapidly approaching, and satisfied with my efforts I went back to mid-pack and continued my trash-talking and started singing Lady Gaga.

As we approached the final right-hand turn to the finish climb, I knew I needed to be no further back than 10th wheel so I made my move and made the hard right. My big fear was that I would be so jacked up with energy that I would make the mistake of trying to fully sprint the 1K climb up the 7% gradient. But, I kept my head and picked a nice low gear and started the slow grind up the hill. As what felt like the entirety of the field came screaming past me I briefly questioned my tactics. That is, right up until I actually saw their tiny little heads explode one by one and I continued right on by the bloody stumps of their shatters legs. I spun the pedals, dropped a gear, spun that one up, one more gear, spun that one up too, dropped one more, 200 meters to go, passed a few guys, then a couple more, one more gear, heart beating in my ears, tunnel vision beginning, passed another guy, one more gear, 50 meters to go, finish line in sight, people screaming.....

11th place! (Which actually ended up being 10th because one guy was later disqualified for a tainted blood sample or for crossing the centerline during the sprint or something like that!)

Though I missed any upgrade points by just one placing, I am confident that with a little commitment to this road racing business, I will be racing the crits this summer as a Cat 3 and well on my way to peeing with the big dogs of cyclocross this year!

Tense-N-Grity! New Short Track MTB series to be hosted by Tensegrity PT Cycling

Bloomberg Course Details are not finalized and will be approved by Eugene Parks and EWEB

Tensegrity PT Cycling is proud to be bringing a new short track mountain bike race series to Eugene this summer. Plans are in the works for a 4 race series on Thursday nights July 12th-Aug 2nd. The course details are still being worked out but the location will be at Bloomberg Park near Lane Community College.

The course will be most likely 0.7 miles to 1.5 miles long with a mix of new singletrack, grass, and gravel road climbs with approximately 100-160 feet of climbing per lap. Tensegrity PT Cycling will be working closely with the Disciples of Dirt a non-profit chapter of the International Mountain Bike Association. The DOD are expert trail builders and will be helping in the design and maintenance of the new trails. The DOD would like to see Bloomberg park be kept as a year around training site for short track mountain bike races and cyclocross races with permanent barriers put in place.

More to come in following months. Stay tuned and keep on riding folks.

Now accepting 2012 Sponsors

Tensegrity PT Cycling is coming back for 2012 and looking to bring on new sponsors for 2012. We had some great results in 2011 including 2 State Championships in cyclocross, and an overall win in the High Cascades 4 man 24 hour race.

If interested in being a sponsor please contact:

Taylor Bushnell, DPT
Tensegrity Physical Therapy
541-338-7088

First REAL cross race

During the cyclocross season this year I was racing on Spencer's Santa Cruz Superlight (full suspension), which for a mountain bike is somewhat light and responsive. However, it is like riding a sloth when compared to a bike designed specifically for cross racing. For the last race of the season, I was able to borrow one of Spencer's cross bikes (he raced single speed while I raced geared). It was an entirely different experience, the bike was rigid!

While racing, I was able to start off strong and stay right behind Spencer for the first half lap. After that I slowly lost steam and got passed by 6 people (or so). On the second lap, I took a turn too tight, and smacked my arm into the light post that defined the inner boundaries. Undeterred, I pushed onward. I stayed back until the final straightaway on the second to last lap. The last person to pass me was still close, and I was able to draft off of him until the corner, where I passed him on the barriers. I pushed it to make a gap and ended catching up to a few of the people who had passed me before. I ended up passing a couple of them, with not much time left I was within catching distance of the racer in front of me. As I approached the final corner I kicked it into gear and by the barriers I was right behind him. I dismounted, took a leap over the first barrier, and slipped. Fortunately there was a very large gap between me and the people behind me, but I had lost my chance to pass one more person in a pretty awesome way. After a quick recovery, I ran across the finish line breathing hard and with an urge to unleash the contents of my stomach back into the world.

Overall, it was a good race for me. There was a lot of passing for such a small race, and I got to use a cross bike. I ended up getting 3rd place out of 7, which is better than I have done before. Next year I plan to actually have my own bike, and participate in more races. For now I just have to train.

The end of a successful Cross season: Men's B State Champion, and 3rd in the Cross Crusades

Taylor soloing to victory in the Men's B OBRA State Championships
Photo from Jon Muyskins 

So this season I had many goals. Of them was to come in the top 5 in the cross crusades. This happened. Another goal was to win a major race and I won the OBRA state championships which also helped my secure the Eugene Psycho cross race series before being forced up with the big boys.

The Tensegrity pain train, call the fire department. Ryan Garner and Taylor Bushnell.
Photo from Lee Ordonez

In the end it comes down to this: Cross is hard, you get better at cross then you race harder people. My 2012 season is now over with racing 2 crits, 1 road race, 11 mountain bike races and 15 cyclocross races. In that time I reached the podium 5 times(twice in mountain and 3 times in cyclocross) Next year the podiums will only be harder to find as I know race cross with the Elite guys, and mountain is always a tough battle for me.

Photo from Lee Ordonez

I want to give a special thanks to our 2011 sponsors: Tensegrity Physical Therapy, Biota Sciences, Urban Farm Massage, and a special thanks to both Collin's Bike shop and Ninkasi brewery. There local support is unheard of in this area and I would hands down recommend them for any future needs.

Now its time to ride trainers, bike in the rain, lift weights, have too much holiday food and beer, and ski. 

Much more to come Tensegrity PT Cycling in 2012.

Cross Crusade 5 and 6: A costume party on bikes

So for this double header race report I am writing about the most entertaining cyclocross weekend in the Northwest. This year it was made extra special with the Oregon Handmade Bike Show also occurring in Bend at the same time. Needless to say racing and fun were to be had by all ages, with Deschutes Brewery selling pints for 4 dollars a piece, while we sat with a beautiful Ninkasi Keg of Sleigh'r and gave it out for free.

Julie Berkbuegler using her Ninkasi Slayer Recovery Drink. 

Photo from pdxcross. You notice I am hammering with my Hammer on my bike

Onto the races:

Cross Crusade 5 (Saturday)
For the first race I was feeling good with my chances of winning. The Bend course is a bike handlers course and suits me well as a mountain biker. I pre-rode the course and knew right away I was gonna be fighting at the front. So the race starts in a flash as we head into the dusty upper start and I quickly move upto 2nd place. I ride half a lap holding this position before I bobble a turn and fall back to 4th place. That was the last time in the race that I saw the race leader Stephen Glass. He ended up putting a minute and a half on me. I stayed in 4th with no one close to catching me.

Thor ahead of most of the Men's B field. Photo Compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

Steve Prefontaine (S. Ardt) ran his first lap before switching to his bike and got 33rd in the C's.
Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

Dave Bisers riding over the fly over. Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

Cross Crusade 6 (Sunday)
Ready for round two after a night of little sleep, many hours in a hot tube with too many dudes and too few ladies with lots of beer. Lots of tasty Ninkasi beer also was added into my Sunday pre-ride of the course. For my costume I chose to be Thor, I thought it would be a good and intimidating costume(more likely a 80 big hair tribute look) and I think it worked. I lined up at the start of the men's B field and gave a Norse god yell out "to Vahalla"! I took off like a guy knowing what I was doing as for this race there was a prize for being the first over the flyover a quarter of the way through the course. After this moment was a scary point for me as this was the first time I was leading a race for a considerable distance until again I was pushing the bike a little too hard coming into a set of barriers. I laid my bike down on my elbow(which I sometimes need at work as a Physical Therapist). By the time I get back into a rhythym I was in 4th place again. I chased hard and closed a 20 plus second gap down to 4 seconds at one point to finishing 8 seconds back from the podium.

Angry Bird Ryan Garner chasing a Douche. Ryan rallied after a spectacular wreck over the fly over on Sat.
Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

Why the course and Bend was so awesome or just watch and see why:

1) Flyover was the entrance to the beer garden

2) You could catch air over the fly over and look cool, especially if you clip your back wheel(sorry Ryan)

3) Eating so much dust and dirt made Deschutes beer taste alright
4) A guy made a full size scoot bike to push around the course (you cost me winning the best costume, my hat off to you)
5) An awesome croud with too many drinks and too little inhibition to prevent amazing heckling

Julie Berkbuegler sent me her race reports to add in as well. 

So it got a little rough and tumble again. I am doing a quick recap on my Washington Fairgrounds race and then I will dive into Halloween weekend. For some reason I found it necessary to do a super man before I even got to the barrier, my bike was literally my cape and my left foot strapped into its pedal and I landed flat chested into the dirt. It is probably a good thing that I am not at all busty. Most people would keep that to themselves, but I on the other hand like to tell all about my foolishness, faultiness and bumps and bruises. Isn't it a part of the fun too! In the last post I said I wanted to be in the top 15....well it was close but still not my goal. I ranked 16th and rode the same number of laps as the leaders, I was super excited about this. But To tell you the truth it was a little painful to add a fifth lap onto my usual 4. 

Batgirl rocking to a 10th place. Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

 Last weekend was a fun one, I had the pleasure of two races in one weekend, and I am happy to say there are no bruises. Saturday I just wasn't really feeling it, the whole time I was riding I thought I might be in the top 30's but it turned out....I ranked 16th again. It was music to my ears and plenty of dust in my lungs. Sunday I wasn't feeling so hot and no it wasn't because I partied to hard the night before, so I figured I would do the best that I could. I dressed as bat girl and my nemeses was also bat girl(but I looked way better as bat girl). I battled with her for a bit and then I just couldn't  hold on any longer and she dropped me. This time I thought I was in the top 18 and it turned out.....I finally reached my goal and then some. 10th baby!  Now I regret not riding until I barfed. 

Bruises and a 10th ranking I am still pretty happy with the way this season is going. Next goal a top 5!

Super Deirick Ritter racing hard in the B's. Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

The Singlespeed Hulk(Dave Bisers) "Hulk Mash Pedals!"
Photo compliments of Jon Muyskins (Tensegrity PT Cycling)

Cross Crusade #3 and 4: Broken bikes and Aggressive Riding

To recap on my last two recent races I had great results on road racer friendly courses under dry conditions and long road sections. Not my style of course.

Looking tough makes you fast right? Photo from pdxflint

At PIR I was sitting in 6th place in the B's and had a explosive failure of my carbon seatpost upon remounting. Luckily I kept the bike upright and had not impaled myself. But trying to maintain my position was another matter. I had to ride through tight turns and off cambers and an uphill section all out of the saddle as I no longer had a saddle. This lead to a fade of 4 spots as I fought and sprinted to keep 10th. Not bad considering no saddle and I didn't let my bike try to mate with me.

Washington County Fairgrounds last weekend was another dry course with long straight aways. I attacked myself into a hole right off the gun going from 4th on the first lap and fading a  position or two a few laps in.  By the last lap I was in 8th place and being over taken going into the barriers when I forgot how to unclip. Luckily the guy right behind me was wearing a helmet camera and caught my stupidity. (I am still looking for that video.) I decided that I was going to let camera man from Trusty Switchblade beat me so I chased hard coming into the twisty 180 degree switchback section of the course. Here I used my body and bike handling to squeeze around camera man. This lead him into a fence but he was ready for this game and push right back sending me towards a tree at the next corner. We traded very physical barbs through another 5 or 6 turns and fought all the way to the line. In the end I prevailed over camera man and he conceded for 9th place. We shook hands afterwards and I invited him over to our team tent to have a Ninkasi Beer (compliments of Ninkasi). I am still looking for him to post that video but I think it will be entertaining.

My last part of this write up is about breaking bike parts and learning to dial in my own bike. I do bike fitting as a physical therapist but often stop my adjustments at fit. Also its hard to be precise and bike fit yourself. That being said I had to put on a new saddle and seatpost after PIR and was reminded why you need to play with your fit. I rode around with my saddle too low and felt the good old quad burn. I have to be careful as this was a symptom of knee pain for me in the past so know your bike position feel, and if its not right have someone who knows the human body take a look.

Tensegrity Physical Therapy, my work in Eugene has been a great host to the team and the Tensegrity principles often apply to the bike as well as people. For instance after finishing my race, I like a donkey drove over my Mavic training wheelset. (I was sure they were done for). But this was a great lesson for me, I learned to tru my wheels. Truing wheels is like fixing people, you need to add or decrease tension in certain areas to make the wheel roll straight, or make a person function optimally.

P.S. Keep an eye out for us race 5 and 6 in Bend, we will have another tasty Ninkasi Keg there for all you non Deschutes people.

The tails of a true beginner; PIR cross race and beyond.

I should start off by telling you all a little bit about myself. I am a runner, always have been, I run a lot, I don’t bike and going into my first race on a bike I had about 6hrs of ridding bikes under my belt for the entire year. I am scared of single track and going down hill fast. I was roped into biking by my great friend Taylor (the superb P.T. from the wonderful Tensegrity Physical Therapy Clinic). I really started doing it because I liked the indoor (short) trainer rides and abb workouts we did last winter, but when Mt. biking season started I pretty much stopped all form of team training. I was training for the Eugene and Portland marathons so biking got in the way of my running. I kept saying wait until I’ve run the Portland then I’ll change gears. True to my word I’m doing cross. I think it’s the best for me anyway. I don’t have to worry about too much down hill or super fast crits to get bunched up in. I can just ride hard, crank out the miles and race.

So I raced my first race in Eugene, one of those Tuesday night races, long story short I road into loose dirt and ate shit lost my chain, a wonderful reverse breakaway every time I hit single track, followed by the second to last lap ridding too fast into loose gravel eating shit loosing my chain and a good amount of skin. I finished about 8^th out of 15 with a DNF or two or so people, but UN deterred.

Second race ever, now with 7 hrs of ridding under my belt (including the 30 min commute out there on my bike and the 30 min race the week before). I felt good road hard, and flatted on the second to last lap. I ran into the pit but had no spare wheel waiting so I DNFed.

Third race, I decided to just go for it, I had got a tubeless set up through the team bike shop (lovely Collins off of 11^th in Eugene, wonderful place) so I was feeling good about everything. I took off from the start staying ahead of everyone into the first turn, and then just held it from there. Other than a pile up when I started to run into the back of the C’s, where a fellow rider who will remain nameless flipped over his handle bars and head butted me in the ass, the race was pretty un eventful. I worked my way up about halfway into the C’s before the race was over. Good job me, look out Portland beginners.

I didn’t ride for the next 2 weeks, week one coming before the Portland marathon (PR and broke 3 hrs), then having a week break. So PIR was my first race back I was excited to kick some ass, with a bigger field, maybe some more competition to battle for first place. Spencer Bushnell promptly informed me, that you get no props for winning a beginner race even if it is only your 4^th race ever…

So there I was getting ready to ride, stuck in (almost) the back of the pack (if I had been in the back I would have gotten a coupon for a free six pack), waiting for the start of my first C race, in a field of about 160 other C’s, not really knowing what to expect. I quickly learned that you have to be aggressive if you want to move up the ladder. I finally got to a point where I could cruse a little bit by the time I got around for my second lap. Sadly ridding so slow the first lap didn’t really give me any idea of what the course was like, plus not getting a preride at all let alone with Wes to tell my how to ride every corner and obstacle, made it challenging. I learned as I went, never really getting the hang of most of the turns or corners, but I kept passing people and working my way up in the standings. I did however get very down trodden when I was passed by a group of 3 fast guys on lap 5 of my eventual 6 laps, I thought I was being lapped, but it turned out that it was just the Clydesdales who had started a min after us.

Long story short I got 40^th and I’m excited for my next race, and think I’m going to have to invest in a ss bike so I can race in two races a day, because one is just not enough for me, and while I may be lacking the skills, I’m not lacking the cardio, so the more time racing in the saddle the better for me.

Cross Crusade #2: My Revenge On Rainer

There is nothing worse than feeling great in a race and being near the front to have mechanicals keep you from finishing. Last year I was sitting in the top 10 and flatted, running to the pits to only have failure. This was my first and only DNF in a bike race.

Fast forward a year and I was vibrating at the start line ready to make up for my past mistakes. This year I came armed with Reynolds Carbon Tubulars with Grifos filled with Stans tubeless sealant. This is a mean, green, non flatting machine. Also I had a spare set of wheels in the pits.

This is what you need to not flat. They work :)

Having finished 3rd at Alpenrose in the B's I had a nice front row start. I knew I was gonna need it with the climb at Rainer. If you haven't raced Rainer it is the hilliest cross race in Oregon, and once you fall back in the pack its hard to move up. I attacked off the gun and was the first to the top of the climb. This caused a little bit of a reverse break away for me as I slid back into about 15th by the second lap. I grinded up that climb 4 more times for a total of 6 laps. Amazed at how long 45 minutes really is. I had one mishap and lost my chain but only lost a spot or two. In the end I had fought my way back to 12th. Its not a victory but it was a good race, with a solid finish.

Taylor through the barriers: photo from Dave Roth 

Ryan Garner raced his first race as an A. To be honest it made me glad to have a few more races in the B's. Ryan is fast but so are all the rest of the A's. He rode for 60 minutes instead of 45 minutes and they rode faster for the whole time. My hats off to Ryan and soon I will be in pain chasing your wheel again.

Ryan Garner: photo from Oregon Cycling Action

Julie Berkbuegler raced her second cross race and rode hard, making 3 laps and finishing 34th. She looked sore but was all smiles post race. She repeatedly said that she needs to ride her bike more and I think this race will give her that inspiration. Climbing that hill is no joke.

Julie ripping down hill. Look at the determination.

The Beginning of a Cyclo Cross Junkie

TENSE and GRITY girls (Meaghan Bull and Julie Berkbuegler)

I spent the last three years watching my good friend Lindsay Jones (AKA the GOAT) race and I always knew I wanted to get out there play in the dirt and scrap some knees on bikes. Finishing grad school opened up that space for me to race cyclocross and I LOVE THIS SPORT!

I feel the old athlete that I was return to my blood. But to tell you the truth I need to be on my bike more then once a week(at the races) and if I want to take this a little more serious I will be. Currently I like this phase of my new racing career, it almost feels like the beginning of a long lasting relationship(We are on our 5th or 6th date).

I am writing my first race report for cyclocross after the third Cross Crusade, which had quite a few members on the Tensegrity PT cycling team ready to rumble. Alexander Jole(AKA Ken doll) raced his first big race in the beginner men's peddling his long legs and showing some love for the sport. From what I understand he is just as excited about cross as I am. Alexanders older cousin Spencer Ardt and marathon runner raced his first cross crusade, racing in the Men's C's he passed 93 men to rank 40th out of 133.

Deireck Ritter also came out and raced his first crusade race jumping head first into the B's and killing it finishing 40th! Taylor Bushnell rode an impressive 10th place...hard enough to snap his seat post off his bike. He finished 10th only losing 4 spots to the mechanical(he won the coveted prize of having not spearing himself with his seatpost). Ryan Garner was looking good racing his second week as a A. Life is hard playing with the big boys but he is doing well with it. John Muyskins was riding hard until he split his groin. That pulled him back a few spots and now he is sitting in recovery. Dave Bisers was charging in the top 30 in SS and showing off some of his skills by bunny hoping over the concrete barrier, only to flat on the last lap(Next time Dave).

At the moment I have been either sitting at the middle of the pack or in the top third of the beginner women's field. I finished 21st this week after finishing in the 30's the first two weeks. My goal is to move up from 21st to 15th next week, so there are five ladies I want to take down!....I plan on riding my bike a little more this week. Megan Bull also hammered it in the women's race and moved up showing her serious grit though her girlness!

So stay in touch as I followup on my new relationship with cyclocross racing. Like I said it will be a hot steamy, full of ups and downs, and occasional bruises.

Cross Crusade: Alpenrose Dairy - Good Cross, Bad Stink

That is Mike Rosenberg yelling at me to stop being slow
Photo from Oregon Cycling Action

So in Oregon when it come to cyclocross its all about the Cross Crusades. The opening race is always the biggest with tons of vendors and cyclocross carnage everywhere. For me its the start of the Holy season from Cross Crusade #1, thru USGP's in Decemeber. For the devout dirty man every sunday involves some combination of blood, sweat, mud and tears.

I wanted to take a different approach on this season from last year, as I peaked at the first race and went downhill every race after Alpenrose. So this year I have been working slowly into the season racing less in September. My goal was to get a call up in the mens B's. Last year I got 7th without a call up and bad lineup position, so I expected to do worse than last year.

Trying to stay near the front of the race, dont I look like Im having fun
Photo from Jens Voigt's Army

I lined up 7th row of 9 rows(86 finishers), with my teammate and friend Ryan Garner lined up front row with a call up. I was wondering if I could even get close to him in the race. The race started in blaze as I attacked up the left side jumping up 3-4 rows in the first lap. As I settled in during the second lap I was already pushing my way through the top 15. By lap 3, I was in 2nd place with only my teammate Ryan infront of me. For the next 2 laps I chased down Ryan, having his best race ever.

Ryan looking at an empty course as he leads the race
Photo from Jens Voigt's Army

At one point I got the gap down to 10 seconds but that is the closest I could get. In the closing lap I was trying to gain on Ryan when I realized I had a guy charging hard behind me. I picked it up as much as I could and then started throwing in all the blocks I could. But when the course climbed back up he powered past me. I yelled at Ryan to watch out but this guy just kept gaining time on Ryan. In the end the other guy won, Ryan got 2nd(2 seconds down) and I got 3rd(16 seconds down).

Now I have my call up for the season and my best finish ever, but if I keep riding this good its time to go up to the A's and race for mid pack finishes.

Other Tensegrity PT racers did awesome as well, with Dave Bisers getting 15th in SS and Jon Muyskens getting 93 in SS. Dave got his call up in one of the most competitive fields in Oregon. Julie Berkbuegler raced her first Crusade in the women's beginner race and finished 30th(Julie's awesome photo), and Meagan Bull finished 60th, both having a blast and looking faster and smoother with their technical skills.

Bisers climbing like a madman

Jon winding thru the dairy

Meagan Bull (NOT IN HER TEAM KIT) Good race but get your kit on!

High Cascades 24 HR Race: 272 Miles of Smiles, and a Win!

Smile for the camera. Dirt taste good.

Originally I wasn't planning on racing the new 24 hour race that Mike Ripley was putting on, but I had a call from a teammate two weeks before the race offering me a free spot on a 4 man team. So without mountain bike racing or riding my mountain bike hard in almost 2 months I quickly said yes.

Winners: 1st place Open 4-man team 17 laps = 272 miles

The 4 man team was compliments of Jake Rosenfeld and his Fry Shack. My teammate Dave Bisers and I, were riding with two other friends of Jake's named Brian Gerow and Jon McCoy. First off I never had even met these two guys but I can tell you they rock. Brian is a legit singlespeeder in mountain and cross, and Jon is killer cat 2 road racer.

So we had our newly formed team (Team Fry Shack). Of course Ninkasi came through and gave us a Keg of Believer Red Ale for the race. Also Collin's Cycle Shop hooked me up with all the pre-race essentials before hand.

Time to race, but who was going to do the first leg of the race? That was quickly decided once we found out that we had to do Lemond Start running 800 meters on a dirt road. I was chosen as I had been on a run a few weeks prior. That made me the only person on the team to go on a run this year. At 11 AM Mike Ripley shot off his starter gun and the fun began.

I rocked the first lap in 95 degree heat in 1 hour and 20 minutes including the run and 16 miles of mountain biking. The other crappy thing about starting the race beside running is that all the riders were bunched up making the Wonaga Trails in Bend super dusty. I came back looking like miner covered head to toe in brown dust and coughing like a pack a day smoker.

We quickly moved up from 15th, to 8th, to 5th, to 4th overall. We were cruising with 3 teams in front of us, but none were in the open 4 man category. This became a even greater challenge as night set in. Also I surprised that many racers wouldn't visit our keg. They were too into the racing for some, but as the night wore on we started getting more visitors.

Brian Gerow being fast and cool

Dave Charging it at Night

Dave Charging during the day

I look tired, this is lap 5 going for 80 miles

The best recovery food for racing is French Fries and beer, cause that stuff kept us rocking all night.  Brian kept the fastest laps through out the day and night with both him and I putting in 1 hour and 15 minutes, Dave did the best job not fading his times in the dark. Jon a veteran roadie who hadn't ridden a mountain bike in years was rocking 1:20 to 1:35. In total we put in 17 laps for 272 miles. That was 5 laps for me for 80 miles, and 4 laps for 64 miles for the other three Fry Shack studs.

High Cascades 100ish MTB race: A testament to pain and suffering

Attempting to find a reason for living 60 miles into the race

It is a well known fact on the west coast that Mike Ripley of Mudslinger events puts on the best mountain bike races. But sometimes I personally forget that his races tend to be the most brutal and punishing physical and mental races around. This last weekend I did my final mountain bike race of the season in Bend, Oregon at the High Cascades 100. The race began at 5:30 am at the Wanoga trail complex half up towards Mount Bachelor, and was a balmy 34 degrees. By the time it was all said and done it had gotten all the way up to 85+ Degrees.

The High Cascades 100 MTB Map, 106 miles with over 12,000 ft of climbing

Now I have done a few other endurance events in the past the Cascade Cream Puff 100 on a singlespeed, one 12 hour solo race, and two 24 hour solo races, plus three of Mike's Test of Endurance 50 mile races. I expected that this race would roll smoothly, considering all my previous suffering. But unfortunately that is not how these races work. Each one hurts just as much after enough hours. But that being said I would have to put my suffering at the High Cascades as my all time hardest experience on a bike.

Errors from a race ego made the suffering and race time even worse for myself. I overcooked myself 3 weeks before the race and was completely overtrained, leading me to have to take time off the bike. So I came into the race with 4-5 rides in three weeks. At this point I should have changed my goal time, as I was hoping to finish between 9 and 10 hours. Instead I went out hard from the start, like I was in perfect shape and rode the first 35 miles in 3 hours sitting in the top 30. I felt great at that point. But the euphoria quickly vanished in the next 10 miles or so.

Me jumping my bike and feeling like hot stuff with ONLY 80 + miles left to ride

The race went through three different loops with some overlap. The aide stations were awesome and well run with good food and water. Another lesson I learned is I hate Hammer Nutrition products. I was given a bottle of perpetuem 60 miles in, and it destroyed my stomach. I also had to full gel flasks of Huckleberry Hammer Gel. I dont plan on eating either of those products for atleast a year.

Photo from Thom Parsons from Cycling Dirt. Read his highly entertaining commentary on his blog. I especially like his helmet-less biker story.
The Aide Stations were so good, a cyclist aka fat kid dream foods

Leaving the Aide station at mile 87 was rough. The guys running the station did what they were supposed to and gave false hope that there was only 3 more miles of climbing left. In reality we had 19 miles left to ride and most of that was uphill. I rode really hard for the first three miles so that I could be done with the mythical end of the climbing. I turned myself inside out to reach the ridge line but this was far from the end of the climbing. At this point I had to have a few talks with bicycle. The two of us had a huge argument in the woods and almost broke up.

Climbing the mythical last 3 mile climb to finish

Quickly realizing that I was fading hard I was Ok, I am going to finish the race is 10 hours, then I readjusted, I will finish in 11 hours......Crap can I finish in under 12 hours? The answer was yes but not by much. I came in 11 hours and 47 minutes demoralized, beat, cramped head to toe but atleast I finished. My friends also raced Doug Turnbull, Jeff Standish and my brother Spencer Bushnell. Each having there own crazy adventures. Doug and my brother finished in 10:40 to 10:50 respectively. Jeff was around 12:30.

So mountain bike racing is over for the year. It is time to relax, ride for fun and drink a few Ninkasi beers. Stay tuned for some other cycling posts and the coming Cyclocross race season.