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.

Test of Endurance 50, and test of bringing gear for Ryan, plus Cramps of DOOM!

The 6th Annual Test of Endurance 50 mile MTB race was a perfect mix of climbing and technical single track this year. Leave it to Mike Ripley to put on and run the best mountain bike races in the Northwest, if not the whole country.

Lucky number 100. Hmm maybe this is a sign of good things to come in the High Cascades 100 MTB race next month

 Before I go into my own race adventure my fellow teammate had a pre race adventure. A question to all the folks out there. How many times have you forgotten your helmet, or your gloves, or your shoes for a race. Inevitably this may happen at some point. But how many of you have left your helmet, gloves, jersey and bibs, and shoes for a race? Probably not many. What if this was your second time this season forgetting your race stuff.

Well this is exactly what good Ole Ryan Garner did. After a 6 am departure from my apartment we roll up at 7:30 for the race to realize Ryan forgot everything minus his bike. I am still confused at how this happened(for a second time this season). Anyways I kept it cool as Ryan was about to loose it. We started asking for extra gear from people and within 30 minutes we had a Helmet, shoes, pedals, a Trinity bike race kit and gloves all from different people. This is where I would like to thank Ninkasi for being such a great sponsor. Normally we handout beer to people under our team tent, but at this race we used the beer to make Ryan race ready. In the end it worked out well as Ryan got 2nd in the TOE for Cat 2, finishing his first endurance race in 5 hours and 12 minutes in all borrowed gear. I am proud of Ryan, but hell at this point I am surprised he didn't get lost and up in Canada.

Ryan on the podium with the only clothes he brought to the race. "Hey guys do you have some sorta clean bibs for me to wear?" 

My race was a blast. I have raced here two other times in 2006 and 2007. Finishing in 6 hour 35 minutes, and then 5 hours and 12 minutes in 07. This time I came into this race in the best shape I have been in as a cyclist. I planned on gunning it hard at the start and let my legs dictate my pace. This meant starting out at the front with Shannon Babcock and Erik Tonkin and all the other pros. The pace was similar to racing a 20-30 mile race.

I quickly realized about 30 minutes into the race that my legs would not tolerate riding with the top pros as the course shot straight up. Did I forget to mention the course had between 8,200-8,500 ft of climbing in 50 miles. Take a look.

After settling in at a pace that was painful but doable a fellow racer and nemesis Shane Johnson of Trinity Cycling, came up to me and asked how I was feeling. I did what any racer would do that understands the game. I told him that I was feeling great, but in reality I was ready to start riding easier. So I put on the burners to create a gap on Shane that has dogged me so many times this season and broke him. With Shane down, my next goal was to catch Doug Turnbull. Doug is a stellar rider. He exudes watts like chi energy and rips the legs off mere mortals in time trials. This season I have yet to catch him, but I have a glimmer of hope as Doug has an Achilles heel, and that is descending. That being said he shamed me and put 8 minutes on me to finish 2nd in Cat 1. For that he earned a Ninkasi beer.

Nice Bronto shirt Doug. Bronto bikes are super fine, and Ninkasi goes well with them. 

With that in mind I attacked hard from Aide Station 1 to try and make up some of the difference. This would have been fine if my water bottle didn't bounce out in the descent. I was left with half a bottle of water to drink over the next 15 or so miles. This came back to haunt me, as I had to ride easy the last 45 minutes of the race because of serious cramps coming on in muscles that I had forgotten that I had. The physical therapist in me was like oh that is my Adductor Magnus cramping(oouch). Ok get out of the saddle and my quads mostly my VMO and my gastroc in my calves ripped me back to the saddle with knife bending cramps.

Missing bottles = cramps of doom

So I grinded away in constant cramping closing in on the finish. I crossed the line in 4 hours and 39 minutes and 36 seconds. Cutting 33 minutes off my previous best time. Not too bad, but leaving me with room for improvement for next year. My goal for next year is to rock under 4 hours and 20 minutes with mullet. I think the mullet will drop atleast 5-10 minutes for me.

Dave Bisers also raced in singlespeed and rode his butt off for showing up right before the race, and having to leave directly after. Dave is the man, rides up and registers races, rolls across the finish drinks a beer, then drives back upto Portland to deal with his landlord. I am stocked for Dave as he is contemplating racing the Shenandoah 100 MTB race in Virginia in September.

Dave looking good on his custom Huckleberry 29er, made by Jake Rosenfeld

Return of the Jedi: Tensegrity rocks the Raffle and Podium Finishes to match.

Check out the bling!











Yes, if you couldn't read the branding on the chunks of log Ryan and Taylor are holding that's a 1st and 2nd respectively.

Let me start at the beginning ... Sunday morning Taylor Bushnell and Ryan Garner showed up at my (Dave Bisers) house at a quarter to five in the morning to take a trip down to the Return on the Jedi race put on by the Pistis team which is about 25 miles NW of Grant's Pass. After a few hours on I-5 cresting that pass and looking onto the Siskiyou's never gets old. After getting off I-5 and stopping for gas (and a special treat for Taylor; read further) our path continued along the beautiful Rogue river and then onto a forest service road to the race course.

After registration and a little warm-up with the 32:18 I wussed out and switched to a 20 tooth cog right before the start. After a litlle sprinkling at the start line Taylor and the rest of the Cat-1 field went off first with a lap around Saturday's short track loop (those who raced on Saturday could have also done a Super-D; I'm definetly am planning on making a whole weekend of it some future year) and took off on their 30 mile ride.

Ryan (Cat 2) and I (SS) started our 23 mile race off with a 4ish mile climb. From what I hear Ryan took the lead and swapped that position a few times during the climb but ultimatley crested the top in the lead and never gave it up. I personally witnissed what seemed like the entire SS and Cat 2 fields passing me shortly after the start as I attempted to spin my tiny little gear as fast as I could; there's something very absurd about singlespeeders racing on flat pavement. We climbed pavement for a while and then entered a short singletrack section where I proceeded to blindly cut the inside of corner trying to pass a slower ride only to discover 2 logs that I at crap on. After this section I climbed for another half hour or so. An aside: I started the graduate program at University of Oregon for Architecture last June. I was in pretty good shape that June and retained alot of that fitness through the cyclocross season but by the time the 2011 XC season started the hours in the studio and not riding had really taken its toll. This season I've been towards the back of the singlespeed field that in previous years I had gotten used to riding near the front of. Settling into a good rythm of sitting and standing on this first long climb and reeling in many of the Cat 2 racers was a good feeling. Its a signal that I'm really getting some of that old fitness back. I've got 3 months till the Shenandoah 100 and want to be in the best 100 miler shape I've ever been in for that race.

Then the fun stuff started. The climb tipped over into a screaming fast, loose, abandoned fire road descent which then turned into some slightly sketchy, ripping singletrack. That singletrack section was my favorite part of the course. I excel at the tech stuff, the loosier and sketchier a race course is the better my results. I got to bring back quite a few riders on this section. We bottomed out at a creek, probably the lowest part of this course, and settled in for a long and shallow (almost false flat) climb and got to actually look around appreciate the scenery this part of Oregon has to offer. The Rogue valley in the summer is more arid than us in the Williamette valley are used to and quite a nice change from all the rain we've had. After finishing this second long climb we were treated to the namesake of this race; the Jedi Trail. Three miles of rolling singletrack that required me to stay on the gas the whole time. When I hit the final bit of road back to the finish I had a smile on my face. For me the point of biking up a hill is so you can go down. Singletrack like that is what I live for.

Pistis put on a race that really exemplifies mountain biking. In addtion to providing a fantastic race course that they had a great barbeque. Ryan and I waited for Taylor to finish while eating some burgers and drinking some Ninkasi Oatmeal Stout and hanging out with Andrew and Maire who are also from Eugene.

Awards treated the team well where Taylor got 2nd place in the Cat 1 19-34, his first podium in that class in the season, and Ryan took the win in the Cat 2 19-34. He's well on his way to clinching the series title. We also got to see Maire get her 2nd place



and another great rider, Cosmic Miller, get his award.



This guy's the real deal. He's been traveling from Everett, WA to the entire OBRA XC series to contest the Cat 2 55+ category. I first met him racing the Sierra Tahoe 100 down in California and have seen him all over the Pacific Northwest since then.

Then the real event of the day started. The raffle. Ryan, Taylor, myself and the other 6 (?) people sitting at our picnic table each won something at that raffle. I've never seen such a dominant showing in my racing career. On the drive home we stopped at the same gas station on the way out where Taylor finally found what he's been looking for a long time.



This is how they roll in the Rogue Valley.



We cruised into Eugene around 5:30. Team Tensegrity laid waste to southern Oregon and was back home all in just over 12 hours. Great race and great showing by everyone involved. Now if we can just remember how to steer our road bikes in tomorrow's crit race.

Sisters Stampede with cowboys and all

Ahh, there is nothing like camping and bike racing on Memorial Day weekend. Just think, no work for 3 full days, a few cases of Ninkasi Beer, a new team tent(from Biota Sciences), and a teammates birthday. What more could someone ask for? This would be the sentiment for the weekend had the weather cooperated. Saturday night was accompanied with 2-3 hours of nonstop hail that looked like Mordor from the Lord Of the Rings and got down to the low 30s. And the weekend had lots of rain and wind(which may or may not have damaged the new team tent, which I promise to fix)

Race day I have the routine down for my energy needs. I Drank a protein shake 3-4 hour pre-race, followed by eggs, bacon, toast and hashbrowns and 4 cups of coffee. Decidedly a lite breakfast for me. The bike gods did listen to our weather concerns and cleared the skies during our race but left us with strong winds and 50 Deg temps for racing.

This was my first Sisters Stampede and I can say that it was a blast but not designed with me in mind. The cat 1 race was 27 miles only a mile further than the cat 2 race. But that mile was the best part of the race and the only mile that was suited to my riding style.

The race started as a flash with Chris Sheppard and Carl Decker leading the charge behind a cowboy on a horse shooting a gun in the air. I was hanging on for dear life with my 1 x 10 gearing on the flat jeep roads for 5 miles before hitting the singletrack and did an amazing reverse breakaway. If you aren't familiar with a reverse breakaway it is an amazing race tactic in which you ride as hard as you can, but everyone rides away from you like you are standing still.

So after reaching the singletrack 5 miles into the race, I finally got to do what I do best most of the time. Railing turns and dropping people in the rocky sections. I worked my way up through the field passing whenever I got the chance. The Peterson Ridge trail network is super fun, flowy, with lots of twists and turns and is really flat. In my case too flat. That being said I had a good loss of judgment after passing a group right before a small descent and washed out my front tire during a full speed descent. I laid there and with my left knee bloody and tried to stand up. But whenever I did my whole calf cramped up into a ball.

I finally got back up with my whole body hurting and my ego a little bruised. That wreck cost me atleast 2-3 minutes and a bike seat as my rails twisted(So I am in need of a new seat). I starting ramping up my speed again this time a little more reserved but found that I was able to catch every single person who had passed me while I was on the ground. Then we came into my favorite mile of the course the "cat 1/pro only" hill. It is a sweet section of the trail that is all tight rocky switch back climbs that are rideable if everyone infront of you doesnt stop, which they did. That was frustrating so I decided to do a little early cyclocross practice and shouldered the bike and ran past a bunch of guys that were walking uphill. I powered through that section and just tucked my head and dug deep all the way to the finish passing another cat 1 a few hundred meters from the finish.

Don't I look happy to be running uphill

I finished the 27 mile race in 1hr 59 min and 33 sec finishing 12th with a big wreck. Not too bad, maybe I will actually place well if I keep the rubber side down. To add to my strong finish, Loren Mason-Gere from Hood River whom I had beat in the last two races in the last mile or two confronted me. He told me that I crushed his soul coming by so quickly and dropping him at the end. For his great compliment he earned a Ninkasi beer from the team.

Loren Mason-Gere Ninkasi recipient(victim)

Lindsay raced and got 14th in the cat 1 women and Ryan got 9th in the Cat 2 men. Ryan also had to give a Ninkasi beer as a an offering to a local bike shop mechanic in Sisters. Ryan was sitting at breakfast before the race to realize he left his shoes in Eugene. He rushed off to the local bike shop and was ready to drop 100 dollars on shoes and cleats when one of the mechanics offered his own shoes, pedals and cleats for him to use. So that goes to show, you treat Tensegrity riders well, and beer will come your way.

Duck Bill Thrill 5-21-2011

All week we there had been reports of the water Temperature being a balmy 55, which in hindsight it would have been better had they just not told us what the temperature was because the water was warmer than the air at the starting point in the day.

I approached this race with some reservations, I am training for Ironman Coeur D’Alene so this was a workout in my plan, but one where I would have competition and thus really push myself.

As the largest showing of the Duckbill kicked off the water experience was not desirable. The large amount of people had made it a very crowded mass start in a course requiring two laps. When my face first hit the water it literally took my breath away because of the temperature, this was in addition to how eerily dark the water was with the cloud coverage.

After a few initial strokes I found my groove and really started to surge, so much so I questioned my pace due to many swimmers I was overtaking. I reminded myself that I had started at the back so it was bound to happen, telling myself “just race my own race” don’t pay attention to those around me. This lead to big PR on the swim with a time of 26:18, which amusingly was followed by a terrible transition time of 2:43, yes as in nearly 3 minutes putting on my helmet bike shoes and sunglasses….whoops

Fortunate for me I had no idea how terrible my transition was so I tore off on my new specialized Transition bike (compliments of Collins bike shop), this was the first race I where I had a chance to really get after it with some people to chase down. As I started to dial my speed up I was blown away by how easily I cruised past 23 mph with not nearly as much effort as I had been accustomed to. I finally found a pace where I was very uncomfortable but it was manageable and decided come hell or high-water I would race at this for the remainder. It took awhile for me pass enough of the field to find people who were racing at my pace for me to chase.

Throughout the bike leg I worked on pulling in two riders who were a quarter mile or more ahead of me and were keeping a difficult pace. At the half way mark I decided in my mind that I had made progress in gaining on them and my goal was to catch and pass them by the end of the bike assuming I could stay within my racing boundaries and not blow up. I did exactly this and managed to find myself strangely alone with less than 3 miles left on the bike course. When I came into T2 and finished my 1:05 40K there were not many bikes on the racks, which is when it finally occurred to me that I was actually close to the top 30.

With a 1:37 transition I kept my slow transitions streak alive and started out the process of regaining feeling in my feet. The first few miles I was negative splitting down from an initial 6:50 mile pace. At the half way point in the 10k, the uphill portion finally ended much to my delight and I pushed the pace. I got myself down to 6:30 and felt great, I hit the 1 mile sign as I crossed back over the Dam and enjoyed the beautiful Oregon view. Unfortunately the run ends with a fairly significant hill which pushed my pace back to finish me with a run time of 43:48.

Overall I finished with a 2:20:48 in 17^th place within a rather competitive field that featured people like Jesse Thomas who just won wildflower. I would say it was defiantly one of my best performances to date and it was clear that the new bike from Collins bike shop made a huge difference in my ability to hammer on those bike times. Turned out to be a gorgeous day and a great race, with lots of confidence coming off of this going into IMCDA I will hopefully have a positive race report post Ironman!

Team BBQ...brought to you by Ninkasi Brewing

This has been a fun filled evening of grilled faux-meats and delicious beer provided by our ever-generous sponsor Ninkasi Brewing Company. It has been a time of reminiscing a myriad of painful races and favorite rides. The essence of the Tensegrity Physical Therapy cycling team has been summed up in the totality of this evening; good times, good people, good beer, and good bikes.

Informal race reports, playful trash-talking the competition, and drinking some of the most delicious beer in the region; this is our way. All we desire is to bring good times and good vibes to our community of fellow cyclists.

Please tune in for further, more specific race reports, from many of our members. We have passed through the half-way point of the cross country mountain bike race season. Taylor has been killin it among the Cat I men, slowly working his way towards the top. Lindsey has been keeping herself very consistent in finishing strong among some of the strongest Cat I women in the area. Dave has been doing some serious work in the single speed category, reppin' a handbuilt Huckleberry frame out of Forest Grove, OR. Alexander competed in his first ever mountain bike race a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. I have been consistently doing better and better among the Category II men, bringing in my first ever win a couple of weeks ago.

Sitting here among teammates and talking about our goals and challenges, we wish to thank our sponsors. Thanks to Tensegrity Physical Therapy, Ninkasi Brewing Company, Collins Cycle Shop, Urban Farm Massage, and Biota Sciences. We are looking forward to working with many more local companies and continuing our racing efforts and bolstering the local racing community.

Spring Thaw, a race, an adventure, and good times thanks to Ninkasi

So after dealing with a sprained wrist all week, I decided that going to Ashland and racing was still in order, but made sure to tape my wrist up good. Historically I have always hated Spring Thaw. The race promoters always charge more money then the rest of the races. The race also was boring. It had a 7 mile gravel road climb followed by a 12 mile flat gravel road across the Ashland watershed followed by a fun but short single track descent.

This year the race promoters did awesome and changed the course. They removed the upper sections which get snowed out too often anyways and made the race a two lap 21 mile race with 5400 feet of climbing. Now I don't know how many of you have climbed that much over a short milage but it hurts a lot.

The race began with the weather slightly cool so I way over dressed with a compression base layer on top and knee warmers on. This was in response to being underdressed the previous week in Bend and getting snowed on in the race.   The race started out by going up, up and more up. Right after the race started, the sun decided to shine and I started to heat up too quickly. So 10 minutes into the race I tried a maneuver that I wouldn't recommend. I tried unsuccessfully to remove my knee warmers while climbing. This led to me falling over on the gravel road climb and having both knee warmers get stuck on my shoes, costing me atleast a minute of frustration. I finally remounted and spent another 15-20 minutes climbing hard to pass all the people who rode past me while I lay on the ground.

Finally reaching the top of the climb I was so happy for what came next. A fun flowy single track from the 4 courners trailhead. The descent is also used for the Spring Thaw downhill race, which I have raced in the past. It is like riding a roller coaster, and one that I know well. I passed 15 people while descending and didn't have one of those people catch me again. Lap 2 climbing was less eventful but I did have to turn around cause I dropped my fogged sunglasses climbing. rrrrrrrr. Descent 2 was what made the race worth it, I had finally opened up enough space on people that I wasn't having to slow down waiting to pass people. I was railing every burm and catching a little more air than I wanted sometimes.

After descending off the singletrack you have to ride 1 mile on road down into Lythia park, as I hit the cement another Cat 1 racer, Trevor Pratt had caught me. I looked at his gearing and knew that I was had. I race on a 1 x 10 with a 36 tooth in the front. There was no way I could drop this guy so I sat up and got right on his wheel. He rode hard all to the line and I jumped with 200 meters to go and spun upto 150-170rpm with my little ring and passed him by a bike length. In the end it worked out for the fellow as I gave him a 22oz of Ninkasi Spring Reign for what happened at the finish. In the end he seemed happy.

Trevor Pratt Enjoying his Ninkasi prize for pulling me to the line. Good things come to those whom I snake.

In the end I got 9th finishing the 21 miles in 2 hours and 15 sec. Edging closer to my friend Doug every week. Doug Turnbull got 5th finishing 2 minutes ahead of me. Last week he beat me by 7 minutes.

Dave Bisers had a blast in the single speed race and is having his form come along. He did have a an issue with his sliding dropouts that made him have to stop but other than that a great race. Lindsay Jones also raced well in the Cat 1 women's race finishing 5th. She was happy with that considering she has been in grad school lock down mode until this last weekend. Another team friend and soon to be possible teammate, Dax Turner, had a more unfortunate race. He was given the wrong number for singlespeed and they directed him onto the shorter Cat 2 course. He was bummed but got a free shirt, pint glass and free entry into the race next year. Also he won an ice cream cake afterwords, which was delicious.

After the race, was good times with food and lots of raffle prizes. I walked around and handed out 22 oz of Ninkasi to racers, compliments of my sponsor. I also gave a case of beers from Ninkasi for the race promoter to hand out. This brought a lot of smiles to everyone. Personally the raffle worked out great for me, I one a Thompson seatpost, grips and chain lube.

A racer receiving his Ninkasi Beer

Also adding to the fun was are super top secret camping spot that Dave on our team has used for 4 years. Take at look at our prerace home.

Dax at the ghetto camp

Chainbreaker MTB Race aka Wrist Sprainer

The 2011 Chainbreaker in Bend Oregon was a trying race for the Tensegrity crew. First off, a congrats and shout out to Alexander Jole. He raced his first mountain bike race as a Cat 3 and spent his time learning to judge his speed in corners and in the rocks.

Ryan Garner claimed his second consecutive podium spot finishing second, after winning at Bear Springs in Cat 2.

Dave Bisers rode to a 18th place finish in the singlespeed Cat with some guys pushing gear ratios as high as 36 x 16(Luke Demoe).

As for my race in Cat 1 it was rough but I am happy with the animal inside of me that I found. I finished 11th riding 38miles in 3 hr 2 min and 42 sec. I showed up to the race with 25 minutes to spare and found myself ill prepared with my warm up. It was 42 degrees when the race started and was sunny for a few minutes. Sun turned to snow, snow turn to rain, rain to hail, and hail back to snow and sun. So it was cold, really cold, and I forgot my base layer.

My race started with a big explosion out the back of the pack as I couldn't get my legs up to speed. What that meant was that I got stuck in the back on all the single track sections. Being nice I made sure to allow the leaders of the masters and the singlespeeders to pass, and let a few guys in my own race pass cause I just couldn't wind up the legs.

Then on the second lap I caught up to another guy in my Cat 1 race and asked to pass him on the descent as he was going slow in these sections. His response was this is a race and you have to get around on your own. Ok, jack A##, I tried for 2-3 minutes to get around him and he kept blocking me. This is when I remembered how to race my bike and I rode up his wheel and took control of the single track. In doing so, he may have fallen down, but I insist I did not take my hands off the bars. Remember this is a race. So I dug deep from there realizing that I better well beat that guy by a lot after our headbutting.

I rode hard, really hard. I was in a trance and starting picking off Cat 1 racers that I hadn't seen since the start of the race. I would come into the few technical sections at full speed and not let off at all. For me the tech sections are my strength. In doing so with about 20-30 minutes left to race my right wrist started hurting. I rode through the discomfort thinking nothing of it. I pushed all the way up to the finish line passing a guy in the last 200-300 meters, and missing 10th by another 13 sec.

Here is photo of me trying to not vomit while racing, although I did get some air. So now I am resting this week with a sprained wrist, which I kind of need to use at work as a PT. But who knows if it feels better I should be hitting it up in Ashland this weekend for Spring Thaw, with Ninakasi Beer to give out to other riders.

New Kits for a new team

Photo compliments of Jacobpace.com photography

So here is a look at the 2011 Tensegrity PT Cycling team minus Dave Bisers, Ryan Garner and Meaghan Bull. Julie Berkbuegler designed the jerseys and our friends at Pactimo did a great job getting us our jerseys in a short time. Personally I love the skinsuits. I feel like a superhero when I am wearing it.

Eugene Roubaix and Bear Springs Trap

It is a known fact that I am not a big fan of road racing these days. My heart fell away from it a few years ago. Regardless with the Eugene Roubaix right here is town, I thought that I should go out and represent especially in my new Tensegrity PT Cycling skinsuit.

Now I haven't been riding as much as I would like for this time of year, but I thought hey I am racing in Cat 4 and I have rarely had trouble staying in the peloton. I mean this is a flat race, almost pancake flat except a 200 ft climb each lap. So the race got going and it was your usual cat 4 race, with people being squirrely and doing dumb things left and right.

Now the old road me would have been attacking and trying to make a break stick. But the older more out of shape me knew better and sat in the top 3rd for the first lap, never pulling and just avoiding the bad handling. So coming into the less than scary climb at the start of lap 2, I thought I would be fine, but felt myself drift all the way back of the group. Then one, two, three bike lengths behind the group. Sad to say but I knew I was done right then with still roughly 25 miles left to race.

So dropped from the peloton I kept riding hard hoping the group would slow down. That never happened but I found some other unlucky fellows who popped out the back and we rode as hard as we could the rest of the race.

So coming into the finish I looked back at my group and decided that I atleast needed to beat them. So coming off the gravel with about 300 meters to go I gave it my all sprinting like a mutant cheetah/tortoise combo and triumphed with my victory in the back. Hey I paid for the race and need to work on my lack of sprinting skills. So in the end 21st out of 30.


Here is the fun stuff. Finished the road race, stuffed the face with lots of food, jumped in a car and drove 4 hours up by ski bowl near Mount Hood for the Bear Springs Trap MTB XC race. Now mountain bike racing in May in Oregon in the mountains most definitely can have adverse weather. But for the most part the weather was perfect 65 Deg and sunny by race time.

The course was shortened due to too much snow at the top of the course. So the Pro/Cat 1/Singlespeed was shortend from 30+ miles to 23 miles. Now I had never raced this race and had no idea what to expect. It was a perfect mountain bike race with a little bit of everything. Some spots of the trail still had 2 feet of snow but was nicely shoveled off to expose a narrow singletrack. Then the trail dropped down into some of the coolest rooty and rocky technical sections that I have seen in a race anywhere in the country. Burms were to be had on many high speed turns as well as two creek crossings on logs by holding onto a rope.

This race was also a single lap race so every turn was foreign and kept you on your toes, and twice on my head through a beautiful boulder field trail that Mike Wissell(from Boston) would have loved to ride. This race was not good for the road racing converts, no this was a real mountain bike race that favored technical skills at threshold. So in the end even with my lacking fitness I finished 7th in Cat 1 in 2hr 26 min.

Dave Bisers raced singlespeed but gave himself an unfortunate handicap as he missed the start by a minute or so while warming up. He also took a wrong turn adding on a little bonus milage but still rode as hard as he could.

Ryan Garner had his best mountain bike finish ever and won the Cat 2 mens race soloing from the start. Not bad for his first podium finish. He now has a good chance for the River City series overall as he has two 5th place finishes as well. I imagine Ryan will add to this report as he should.

So in the end I think Bear Springs Trap is my new favorite mountain bike race. Next up is Pickets Charge in Bend, OR 37 miles, then Spring Thaw in Ashland, OR 26 miles.

Mudslinger 2011: An reparation for broken legs and shattered souls

rep·a·ra·tion

 

[rep-uh-rey-shuhn]

–noun

1.

the making of amends for wrong or injury done: reparation for an injustice.

The 23d annual Peak Sports Mudslinger was one of great atonement for me. After last year's painful 12th place finish, I was determined to give a better performance this year. Last year I was far too focused on the direct competition between myself and one of my buddies and with that conflagration further fueled by another buddy, the chances of my ultimate success were set ablaze. After an all-out attack up the first first 3-mile ascent, I went deep into the pain cave, far too deep. There was no recovering from that, in fact, I didn't feel back to normal until well into the next week.

With all of that on my mind, the goal for this year was to pace myself. From the gun, I decided to simply race my own race. And this time, having a better understanding of what was to come, I felt it better to taper my efforts slowly over the nearly 4000 feet of climbing in just over 22 miles.

In theory, this was the best option for me, however, I found that it was shockingly hard to slow myself down. Knowing what a too-much-too-soon kind of effort can do to my fragile soul, I endured the agony of watching other riders speed ahead of me up all those god-forsaken hills. However, I remained true to my strategy; and by keeping this slightly truncated pace, I was able to prevent the imminent plunge into the darkest nether regions of the pain cave (scenes of Lord of the Rings come to mind here).

Ever so slowly, I started pulling away from some of the riders closest to me; one by one. Though at this point I just put my head down and raced my own race. I kept myself at an 8 or 9 for nearly all of the race. Only once did I approach 10 or 11. This was about mid race, when there was one guy from my category that just would not let up. He would attack and I had to follow. I attacked and he matched me; this went on for nearly 2 or 3 miles. Finally, on one particularly devilish climb, as my heart rate neared it's critical mass, I capitulated. I decided it wasn't worth feeling how I felt the previous year. Although I was ready to give up the place in the standings, somewhere deep inside I new it wasn't over between him and me. Having experienced the pain of riding up a hill like that at someone else's pace, I had a feeling I would see him again soon. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, while climbing on some single track, I kindly asked him if I could get by when he had a chance. And there it was, boom, he was shattered and I never saw him again.

And now I'll fast forward to the last 2 miles. After roughly 20 miles of grueling climbs and descents, there is a light at the end of my tunnel vision: the gravel road back to the school. It's mostly downhill and relatively straight...and I am all alone. Not the situation you want to be in when you are trying to stave off the impending attack of the other racers. I entomb myself into time trial mode and suffer the fact that the tunnel vision will only become more claustrophobic. With only about a mile to go, I hazard a glance behind me only to see 3 racers quickly approaching (seriously, who pace lines on a mountain bike). As they caught me, I was able to glance at their number plates and see that none of them were in my category. Whew! I jumped onto the back of their pace line and let them pull me home.

Last year I finished in 12th place at a little over 11 minutes behind the winner. This year saw a great improvement at 5th place and only 5 minutes behind the winner. The key for me was to race smarter, not harder. If I can keep this up, I feel I may have my first podium finish under my belt before the year is over!

Hornings Hustle complete with a Trail of Tears

Wow,

2011 Mountain bike racing has begun in earnest. A quick recap of Echo Red to Red, which was the first mountain bike race of the season in Oregon. Tensegrity racers Ryan Garner and Lindsay Jones drove the 4 plus hours to race in Eastern Oregon. Ryan had a great opener and finished 5th in Cat 2-19-39. Lindsay pulled in a 12th place finish in the Cat 1 women.

Yesterday was the second mountain bike race in the River City Cup series Hornings Hustle and it was great spring Oregon weather, 40-50 Deg and raining the whole time. The race was super chaotic, first it started a half hour late, then as we started racing over ones number plates fell apart. So we had to yell our race number every lap for them to record us. Which led to a lot of missed lap counts. In the end it led to no good results, as it didn't have the top 3 finishers scored in the top 3 positions. In the confusion I may have finished anywhere between 2nd and 5th place, but who knows if they will get it sorted out.

As for the course 1400 ft of climbing every 5 miles in the rain was rough. There was no such thing as a good mud tire, and a part of the trail was named Trail of Tears cause the single track was too muddy and steep to ride, so it led to 20-30 person pile ups, attempting to walk in the most slippery mud I have seen outside of the Cross Crusades.

The first three laps going up the monster climb that was ride able hurt in ways I had long forgotten. But on the fourth lap climbing up I was trying to remember why I mountain bike race as both my quads, and my right hamstring and calf where all cramping at the same time. In the end I gutted it out and sprinted another Cat 1 at the line to beat him by a wheel length. It felt good to beat someone in a sprint as that is not my strong suit by any means.

Ryan Garner raced in Cat 2 19-39 and had a rough race, it wasn't in his legs as he put it. So when he watched another racer take a really bad fall in front of him he stopped and manged the racers injuries until the medics came up to him. In the end Ryan finished, and just goes to show the type of racers that are on this team. Ryan was determined to finish and helped a person along the way.

Dave Bisers raced in the singlespeeds with his new custom built Huckleberry bike and rode hard, digging deep into his brief case of courage. Yet we do not know how he placed again because of the wacky results with no plates.

So in recap Ryan, Dave and myself rode into painful places that most people would like to avoid, and we all survived. In the end it worked out alright as Hopworks had two kegs at the finish and some good mashed potatoes.

Cross season is over, time to play and regroup

So I realize I stopped putting up race reports in the middle of cross season. No excuses I just didn't get them up. Cross season was a blast, we had a good showing with the friends of Tensegrity. Ryan, Wes, and Lindsay had strong seasons. Mine was fun, but I peaked in October, which is a little early. Andrew, Luke, and Lindsay all raced at nationals in Bend, and had strong showings.

Now is the off season and most of us have been good spending time off the bikes having fun. I have been running, lifting weights, and back country skiing, and snowshoeing. So many reminders of why the Northwest is amazing besides riding bikes.

So as we start hitting the trainers and suffering into shape in 2011, lets remember why we do this. Cause its fun, with friends, it keeps us healthy and makes food and beer that much better.

Rainer's Wrath and Sherwood Forest Fun Crusades 2 and 3

So I am just getting caught up on writing race reports over the last few weeks. After my momentum and energy of getting 7th at the first cross crusade.

CROSS CRUSADE #2 RAINER

Rainer was a rough half race for me. I had the nice front row start and rode in the top 10-15 riders for the the first half of the race, through thick peanut butter style mud.

Cross Crusade Race #2 Rainier High School from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

You can see me at 2:53 seconds in the white super hero shades

I was feeling good and finding it much faster to ride on the edge to gain more traction. I wondered why more people weren't doing that. Good ole blackberry thorns. I flatted and ran to the pits. I got in for a wheel change with the Shimano neutral wheel support but the rims where to wide, so my brakes had to be taken apart. As the guy is trying to do this I watch as the whole field rides past me. I got back on finally minutes later and my chain sucked up into the cassette before I even got out of the pits. At this point I decided my race was over.

So this race was not my best but many Tensegrity future racers did well. First off my hat goes off to my good friend Eric Taylor who moved upto Category B racing. He finished 80th in a super tough, muddy hill filled course. Ryan Garner also had a great race and came in 14th improving on his finish from Alpenrose. Luke Demoe came in 9th in the singlespeeds and then raced in the A's to finish 41st. If you think racing a cross race is hard, try doing it twice in one day with lots of climbing. You rock Luke. Andrew Bennett came in 19th looking dog tired after attacking so many times up the big climb. In the women's race Lindsey Jones to 15th without a jersey, something I don't think she will forget next time.

PSYCHO CROSS #2

A much smaller series here in Eugene is the Psycho cross. I missed the first race due to work but came out and put on the afterburners on the local course with Ryan Garner and this fellow from Portland Steve Glass. I rode myself into the ground trying to drop the two and instead I dropped myself, falling a good 45 seconds back into 3rd. Ryan ended up getting second which is fun for the two of us. We have a good friendly rivalry going between the two of us. Eric Taylor finished 10th. Luke got 1st and Andrew 2nd in singlespeed.

CROSS CRUSADE #3 SHERWOOD

You couldn't ask for better fall weather as it was dry and 65 degrees, although this course would have softened up the chatter bumps caused by the horses here with a little rain. Andy Jones raced here last year and was so shook up that he lost fillings in his mouth. The Crusades folks listened to the complaints and tried to smooth it out. Which scares me since I was told how much better it was this year and my grundle starting thinking my seat was a cheese grader.

Cross Crusade Race #3 Sherwood Forest from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

The overhead shots where taken with a remote control helicopter with a camera on it.

In the B's I retained my call up even with the DNF. At the start I was next to Ryan and the guy Steve who had dropped me the day before. I was determined to not let that happen again. I took off like a bat out of hell and by the time I was at the top of the run up a third of the way through the first lap I was sitting in 5th place. I decided that I should try to sit in here, which turned out to be a hard spot, to sit in at. I rode 3 laps in 5th place, but the gut wrenching wall climb right after a barrier at the bottom wasn't nice to me on my last 3 laps as I rode backwards through the pack. Also not helping me was dropping my chain not once, but twice on the final lap. 3 more guys passed me at that point and I only got back around 1 of them. In the end I ended up finishing 16th, Steve got 19th and Ryan got 21st. So I got a little redemption in beating both guys who pounded me the day before.

In the singlespeed race Luke Demoe put down and impressive 3rd place finish moving him upto 3rd overall in the points standings for singlespeeds. Although not a Eugene or Tensegrity racer I must give a shout out to my older brother Spencer Bushnell. He raced to 10th in singlespeed after not riding for two weeks from straining his MCL crashing into the barriers at Alpenrose. Now he has a call up, and is gunning for a podium at PIR this next week. Also Andrew Bennett got 43 in the A's with Ryan Trebon and Chris Sheppard leading that A race.

The Crusades have begun (Alpenrose)

In the Pacific Northwest when it comes to cyclocross it is all about the Cross Crusades in the Portland Area. The first race at the Alpenrose Dairy was dry and twisty. Overall there were 1506 racers, and in my race the Category B men there was 117 racers.

I started 6 rows deep, which meant I had to work way harder than I wanted to just get around most of the folks in front of me. While moving up it became impossible to tell who was leading the race as we overtook most of the singlespeed field that they had sent out 3 minutes before us. The course suited me well as I am pretty good at turning and making attacks off of turns. Besides a few close calls with some over zealous single speeders that I was passing the race went smoothly for me, although we never got a bell lap to let us know we only had one more lap so all of the sudden people were stopping in front of me and guy was waving a checkered flag. In the end I found out that I got 7th which is great for this next week as I now get a call up and get to start in the front row. Hopefully I can make something of this. Other friends did well in the B's with Ryan Garner finishing 16th and getting a call up and Wes Ciprioti coming in at 51st.

In the singlespeed race Luke Demoe moved up pretty well and finished 10th earning him a call up for the next race. In the Men's A race Andrew Bennett finished 30th. In the Women's A race Lindsey Jones finished 18th. In the Men's C race Eric Taylor finished 34th.

September Cylcocross

Well, the team is in the process of being created and most of the members are racing for other teams through the end of cyclocross season as we have no team kits and are looking for more sponsors. I personally am finishing my season still racing for my team from Boston, MA which I just moved from in August. B2C2 you guys took good care of me and I am making sure you get some West coast results through me.

The group of riders that we are finding are first of all great people to hangout with, and secondly awesome riders. Tonight at the Hutches Twilight Cyclocross race Luke won the singlespeed race, Andrew got third in the A's and I won my first cyclocross race ever in the B field. Jason and Eric both put up great rides in the C race as well, and we may have found our first female rider for next year in a mutual friend Lindsay.

Cross is my favorite time of year, as it unites all types of cyclist to ride bikes with crappy brakes and poor handling through mud, dirt, grass, cement and over barriers. Who could ask for a better way to spend the fall, especially when the rain comes.

Welcome to the Tensegrity Cycling blog

Hello fellow cyclists, sponsors and the greater Eugene cycling community. We are just getting things started with this new team and are looking for sponsors to support our efforts. Please contact Taylor Bushnell if you have any interest in supporting our team.

Taylor Bushnell

541-344-7088