Month: September 2009

Cross Makes Us Tougher…

I don’t know exactly where this cross thing is going, but I’m pretty sure that it will change me as a bike rider.  I think if I survive it that it will be a change for the better. 

First, I would like to thank the medic in the First Aid tent – he was a really nice guy and spent all the time necessary to pick the many blackberry thorns out of my arms, legs and face.  While he was doing that I had an opportunity to explain to the audience of fascinated young onlookers how important bicycle helmets are – yes, I used up another one this day. 

The race was called the “Battle at Barlow” – Cross races have names, just like the 24 Hours of Lemons races do, that give the impression something magnificent or spectacular will occur, so they must not be missed.  Like almost all of the other races this year will be, it was a first for me.  The unique feature at Barlow is the “run-up” which is a series of maybe ten 2 foot high steps of rail road ties.  I’ll talk about the ride down into the gully that you climb up out of later. 

These guys make it look easier than it seemed at the time…

There was a smaller than usual contingent of the Mt View team at Barlow, but still a group of at least 10 riders.  I had a chance to watch the Masters C race that included teammates Tony Dirks, Eric Moody, and Gregg Leion and then to pre-ride the course (I didn’t pre-ride Double Cross #1 and it cost me – note to self…).  My pre-race preparations had gone precisely to plan – If you’ve heard one of my ridiculous lectures to driving teammates or students about planning, you know how important this is to me… 

Also, this time I didn’t let all of the line-cutters barge their way past me and I successfully secured a front row start position – SWEET!!!  That’s another item off the checklist – now I just need to ride the bike.  Easier said than done…

The first couple of laps went pretty well – I was just riding along battling with a few of my newly found 50+ nemeses and having a grand ole time…  As we worked our way into the back of the Masters B’s passing was uneventful, as most of the course was pretty wide… most. 

Battle at Barlow Photos

To climb out of a ravine, first you must ride into it.  There is a trail that runs downhill along a fence to get us there.  Near the bottom there is a barrier to force us off the bikes so we won’t try to ride down the steepest little bit and into the creek that separates the “down” part from the “up” part.  This is where I had my problem – “battle” if you prefer…

I had passed all but two of a group of 6 riders in a safe area between the start line and the beginning of the drop toward the railroad ties.  This was a trail that follows a fence line to the right and a hill on the left that is easily ride-able in many parts.  The second of the two riders passed the first and I followed (with a voice warning).  I would have preferred the uphill side but the other racer went along the fence line, so it made sense to simply do the same.  As I got to the slower rider he started moving me toward the fence, I was quickly running out of room even though I had given him the “easy” side of the trail.   I was desperately wishing I was over in that comparatively huge space to his left…

On the fast laps I was going 20 mph in this area – I was going 17 when I hit the fence.  Well, really the first thing I hit was a tall wooden pole (think telephone).  Thankfully, I was able to scrub off some speed with my head because the next thing to hit it was my previously separated shoulder, the arm that’s attached to it, my right hand, face, leg, bike, spin around 180 degrees, get the other side scraped up some, and land in a twisted, tangled mess of my bike and “Mr. Bike Skills” in the middle of the trail.  THIS IS FRIGGIN’ AWESOME!!! 

So, after I had led with my head into the pole, the blackberry bushes and chain link had grabbed my bike and a bunch of my skin before letting gravity finish me off by throwing me backward into the same fence and then to the ground.  The up-side is that none of the guys behind us ran me over.  They just yelled that we should get out of the way…  Really..?  Thanks for the tip.

I looked around and saw that the other fellow had his eyes open (WIDE OPEN) and I asked if he was okay…  I simply got a blank stare – similar, I believe, to what I would have seen just before he made contact with me.  I said “on your right” one last time, picked up my stuff and rode toward the railroad tie run-up. 

sometimes bike races are lonely...
sometimes bike races are lonely...

As I climbed the hill the spectators were screaming at me to go harder “IT’S A BIKE RACE NOT A NATURE WALK!!!”  Hey, shut the F*** up, I’m having a moment…   Apparently they hadn’t noticed that the right side of my body looked just like I’d been attacked by a pack of angry elves armed with cheese graters – well, spectators need beer too.

post crash - working back through the field
post crash - working back through the field

I just kept pedaling the bike and focused on staying upright.  As I was able to identify others in my class, I would gain motivation and make progress.  I could see the two guys that had been just behind me when I crashed and put some effort into reaching them.  With one lap to go I was close so I pushed, with success.  As we approached an open area before the long power pulls to the finish I could see another (tuned out to be a lapper) and cleared him with enough of a gap to take some care in the fast pavement sweeper leading into the finish line complex.  I had made it back to 5th – All was well. 

My crash partner was leaving the First Aid tent as I got there.  The medic was sending him to the hospital with a suspected broken collar bone.  I’m not particularly happy about that, but better him than me…  I’ll evaluate how I’ve been choosing my passing zones and maybe make some changes in the future.  I’m torn between the ideas of getting potential problems behind me as quickly as possible and being extra careful.  I’ve seen the “extra careful” thing backfire too many times. 

Hopefully, as I gain experience, the proper balance will come into focus.  On to Alpenrose and the Crusade…

Hood River Double Cross

Cyclocross has been a big deal to some of the guys I ride with in Hood River for a long time.  I’ve never completely figured it out, because sometimes it looks like it’s just a way for hopelessly insufferable, wannabe bikey hipsters from Portland to endear themselves to the cycling community…  Thankfully, that’s mostly untrue – many of the guys (and girls) are bad fast and it has always looked like everybody has loads of fun.  So, for years it seems, I would plan to acquire a bike – nothing fancy, just something that would work better than a mountain bike or converted road beater. 

Double Cross Photos

In "cross" time is spent carrying the bike and tripping over obstacles
In "cross" time is spent carrying the bike and tripping over obstacles

Last year, I finally pulled the trigger – which means that I had a bike by the time the season was about half over.  This is a “cross” tradition born either from the reality that bike shops don’t want to stock a bunch of “weird” bike stuff that will be useless by the time Christmas rolls around (and until September of the next year), or a massive conspiracy to prove “you’re not cool enough”.  Your bike will be here next week, er September, I mean mid October… 

Anyway, the bike showed up and I figured that since the guys I ride on the road with are racing in the Masters B category (the equivalent of Cat 3 on the road), that I should do the same.  WRONG.  First, if you start at the back (there is another conspiracy to guarantee this), you will likely stay there.  The courses can be quite technical which is problematic for a guy that doesn’t spend much time on a mountain bike anymore – that means passing is hard.  I struggled to get into the middle third of the pack.  I sucked. 

It seems there were always 100 guys in the races.  And, the line-up is done by lottery based on the last digit of your race number – my number was never in the top half of the guys that started at the back half of the race.  I have come to believe that this is because I was new and cyclocross has another special math based conspiracy to determine these things.  I was definitely going to need a new plan for this year. 

Each cross event has about 90 different races split up by different combinations of age, experience and sex (there are no fewer than three of those, as near as I can tell).  There is always somebody (something) to race with and I would like to do well, but I really don’t want to be a sandbagger (those that race a category easier so they can win the beer prizes which are based on more “randomly” generated combinations of numbers).  

This year, even though I’m 49, I can race as a 50 year old (another tricky numbers thing – but it says so on my racing license).  They have a geezer class in cross that starts at 50.  Surely, there would be fewer age 50 plus riders, so starting at the back wouldn’t be as far back, and since its age based – no sandbagging… The only problem is that, like road racing, there exists the possibility of x-pros in the field (or guys that are just plain fast).  But hey, if I can be the “new kid”, I’m going to check it out – and how many fast guys that age could there be, anyway..? 

"Team Dirks" debrief
"Team Dirks" debrief

Double Cross in Hood River is when the Mountain View team starts it’s cross season.  Pretty much everybody gets involved, including the kids which is super fun.  This would be my first time doing these races, which is hard to believe given how long I’ve been riding bicycles.  Day one would be at the High School and day two would be at the Hood River County Fairgrounds in Odell. 

“Masters 50” races along with “Masters B” (age 35+, where I raced last year), so comparisons between the two would be easy and I would still kind of get to race with my buddies.  We started one minute behind the B’s (about 35 of them, 25 of us) and it was clear while waiting for the start that a few of the old guys were going to make it through a lot of the B field.  The High School course is kind of wide and / or grassy in a lot of places, so passing wouldn’t be a huge issue and the start was easier than I expected. 

I settled into a top 10 position early and just rode my heart rate for the first couple of laps.  Now, I have issues running in the red zone – I don’t like it.  It’s probably that I’m lazy – I just don’t have a very high “suffering index”.  In cross, however, red zone is what it’s all about – go till you blow.  I ended up in a race with two other guys (two of us chasing the other with a gap that varied between about 1 and 10 seconds). 

I had backed off a bit with 3 laps to go with the idea that I could deliver a big, demoralizing and crushing blow to the others at the beginning of the last lap.  My heart rate was low in zone 5 and if the other guys were redlined (like I expected they were), I would win the mini “race within a race”.  As we crossed start / finish at the beginning of the last lap, the scorer shouted out “you’re done” – WTF?  I had made a stupid rookie mistake and didn’t see that the lap board had gone from 2 to zero as we approached the line – the guy that had been following me for two laps did see it and put a wheel on me at the finish.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t make that kind of mistake – well, except this time…  F*** me.  I was ninth. 

racing round the rabbit barn
racing round the rabbit barn

I figured the Fairgrounds course wouldn’t suit me because it was less technical.  As it turns out, even though my bike handling skills are in the toilet lately, I am blessed with good line selection capabilities so that even when my bike doesn’t go exactly where I wanted it to it is still close to being “on line”.   Being on line makes it possible to start pedaling earlier when exiting corners (the same principal that applies to cars) – this is important on a “non-technical” course like Sunday’s because it had lots of “easy” turns. 

As we were staging for the race there was a line of guys in the front row and I parked my bike behind them.  Minutes passed and occasionally somebody would push through to the front – a couple of guys simply went around and backed into the front of the line-up.  I thought these guys are being awfully aggressive for a bunch of old f***ers – some of them are going to beat me, but not all of them.  There is something about the protocol that I don’t get.

Then as we rolled up to stage I found myself in the back row – I’m really not very good at this.  Several of the guys were suggesting that we take it easy until we get to the grass – we’re all here “to have fun” I think is how it goes…  I had already made one rookie mistake this weekend so screw that.  Besides, I think it would be more “fun” to be nearer the pointy end.  The way I see it these guys had started racing when they forced their way to the front – once we “switch on”, it’s on…

I was able to make it around most of the line barging hipsters by the end of the long start straight and a few more as we went through the first barriers.  When things settled down I was in the top 10 which I was comfortable with.  My decent late corner acceleration was making it possible for me to stay close to the fast guys at the start of the race.  I was worried that my legs would be tired from Saturday’s 45 minute effort in the red zone, but I felt better than expected.  I don’t think cross’ effect on the body is as much like road racing’s non-stop prolonged efforts as I expected it would be.  But still, I need to do a lot of work before I can stay with those top 4 or 5 guys.

Eric Moody (E2) blasting up the inside
Eric Moody (E2) blasting up the inside

Like Saturday, I had a really fun race with a few other guys on Sunday.  There were always three of us within a few seconds.  Mid-way through the race I felt the rear tire briefly roll off the rim (I’m still riding clinchers which do that at the lower pressures used in cross).  I was convinced I wouldn’t make it to the end of the race as it felt like the tire was going flat.  I checked it a couple of times and it seemed that it hadn’t lost all of its air so I was able to ride carefully to a sixth place finish.  At the finish line it was totally flat – better lucky than good.

Cross is fun and it has been good for my fitness – its forcing me to run in the red zone for prolonged periods which is exactly the kind of training I’ve been missing (that laziness thing again).  I’ve also successfully kept the bike from hitting the ground after loosing traction several times which is good for my bike handling confidence.  Afterward everybody gets beer and French fries.  How cool is that? 

This cross thing is growing on me.

p.s. Cross races are also fun to watch on fall weekends – that’s how I originally got suckered in.  In Portland, Cross Crusade is the big deal.

Death of a Clunker

Yesterday I was at a Toyota dealership doing some work and I heard a noise that sounded something like somebody trying to set the advance timing on a Club Spec Miata. Well, it wasn’t a Miata but a Nissan pickup truck that had been traded as a “clunker”. 20 seconds later it sounded like one of the pistons had become detached from a connecting rod. Then, mercifully, it stopped.

This is what happens when the Feds finally get around to paying a dealer for a “cash for clunkers” transaction. I think the substance that went into the crank case shortly before the Nissan’s demise is called sodium silicate – its use was prescribed in the 100 plus page description of how the program would work (or not, in some cases). I believe we are about 20 days removed from the end of the program and there are more vehicles waiting for destruction after this one… 10 days, my ass.

Anyway, when the automotive equivalent of Jack Kevorkian showed up with a second Nissan (a Pathfinder) I took out my phone to make a little video.

I think that this has some potential as a 24 Hours of Lemons “penalty”…

Un-banned

The situation with Conference has been resolved after a long conversation with the ICSCC License Director.

My first impression regarding the License Director was absolutely correct – he’s a good guy and I suspect that he is very highly respected amongst his racing peers. He has a tough job, and we simply have a disagreement about how far is too far – we’ve both agreed to accept that.

He sincerely wants people that love the sport to participate (and does a lot of work to help them) and I think that’s pretty cool.

Conference Takes a Mulligan

Note: Before I was “un-banned” I wrote a post that, while it included an important part of the story, was unusually sarcastic (I must have been in a grumpy mood when I wrote it…).  As I believe that this post contributed to the eventual resolution, I wanted to republish it in a more appropriate version – basically, I just took some stuff out. 

I’ve had time now to edit it in a way that still maintains the original meaning without being unnecessarily demeaning…  This is the edited version.   

 

Conference Takes a Mulligan

I finally received an email late this afternoon.  The gist is that now I have been fined per a different “Conference Regulation”.  I suppose the up-side is that I am no longer “banned”. 

Here is the content of that email: 

After consulting with the parties articulated below, as of September 7, 2009 you have been fined for unsportsmanlike conduct per C/R 609. This is the extent of your penalty. You are welcome to appeal according to the procedure outlined in the Competition Regulations, but be advised that the while the fine is outstanding, you are automatically disqualified from participating in all Conference races and events. You will also be receiving, or have already received this info in writing in the mail. 

So, after deducing that my challenge of their use of “E 404” (the rule that grants the License Director ultimate authority)  to require an apology was indeed well founded, they have switched to a fine based on C/R 609.  Well, at least we can agree about something… 

Still, these guys can’t even be bothered to read their own rules.  According to C/R 102 the Competition Regulations (C/R’s) “apply to every ICSCC sanctioned event.”  The issue we’re discussing didn’t happen at an ICSCC event – as previously documented, it happened on this blog. 

Do you guys want to take another Mulligan..?

Still, No Word From Conference…

I had a little bit of time this morning and wanted to fill in some of the details of how the ICSCC officers have handled the disagreement they have with me.  My race weekend with them has been reasonably well documented and most of you know the story.  I had a good time and wrote about the experience – it was a pretty good story.  This explanation is so that members of Conference can have a better understanding of how their club works. 

First, I have many very good friends that race in Conference.  I like most of the people there, and in some cases the feeling is mutual.  The people that do most of the work that make the racing possible are awesome.  As a matter of fact, I went into the last race weekend with a favorable attitude regarding the current crop of upper level Conference Officials, as well.  That attitude would be short lived, however.  The problem still is that some people that aspire to the “top of the club” act like a bunch of 8th grade bullies once they get there. 

The analogy is that at a middle school the 8th graders are the “big kids” and there are always a few that have to show the new kids who is boss.  It’s just the way life is, I suppose – some kids are just mean and pick on the smaller kids.  Sometimes they grow out of it…  Sometimes they become Conference Stewards.

My original story about my experience racing Conference included a description of a Conference Official that, in my view, is likely a serial bully.  That description is what the Conference License Director took offense to, and is the original source of Conference’s problem with me.  A problem that the License Director believed warranted a removal of my racing privileges.  I was “banned” for writing a story. 

This is the passage from an email I received from the I.C.S.C.C. License Director dated August 19 that explains his position: 

Per E 404., all non-ICSCC licensed entries are subject to my approval as License Director. There are no qualifiers on this approval. Sportsmanship is one of the criteria that I apply when making approval decisions. I find both your conduct, and demeanor, to be unsportsmanlike, and therefore I do not approve of your entry, in any future ICSCC sanctioned event. 

There was a phone call and several emails that went back and forth related to this passage, but that is the important paragraph.  There was a demand that I apologize without an offer of an apology for the way I had been treated by their bully – WTF, is this some kind of a joke..?  I did ask for a clarification regarding specifically what the issue was and I received this – an excerpt from my story: 

 “Captain Rule Book” then rode away on his motorcycle (sans helmet) his shirt flapping around his over the shoulder walkie-talkie holster like a moo-moo worn by a Hawaiian grandmother on a breezy Maui evening.  I wonder if Adolf knows that Portland is a city park and is therefore not exempt from the Oregon motorcycle helmet law..?  This guy is serious Mall Cop material. 

From my perspective, this is what the issues are: 

  • I was “banned” from racing with Conference until I apologized to a bully (not going to happen). 
  • The License Director had quoted the ICSCC rule book to affirm his position that he has the final say. 
  • Most importantly, the banishment was for an issue that may fall under “freedom of press” protections.

My response was to suggest that the License Director (and Conference) get his story straight and engage in some CYA (cover your ass). 

“Power corrupts”, but usually there is a place within a racing organization to air grievances.  An example is that I was racing in an SCCA Pro Racing series where the Series Steward often behaved like an unreasonable jerk.  He had the “final say”, but there was a series sponsor (with a representative) that was interested in resolving differences – we could go to him.  The jerk was eventually replaced.  In Conference, Per E 404 (see above) there is no higher authority.  I went to the rule book and the License Director is correct – he has the final say should he choose to use it.  And he did – “absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” 

I continue to believe that ridicule is a useful tool when dealing with bullies.  I also believe that what happens away from the track (provided it is within the law) should have no bearing on the approval of things like racing licenses.  To this day, I have not received an apology or a retraction of the License Directors invocation of ICSCC Rule E 404.  I have submitted an entry for the ICSCC race that takes place this weekend, and the registrar indicated that a resolution would be forthcoming (to save me the trouble of preparing a car and making the tow for nothing). 

I believe this really is the case of one bad apple spoiling the bunch.  I think that the License Director is probably a pretty good guy that has simply been immersed in a culture that protects its own – no matter the reason…  The 8th graders are going to show me who is boss.  They know that E 404 was a lame call, but now they won’t do the right thing and correct the mistake.  I wonder what’s going to happen walking home from school on Friday… 

I will continue to push back on this – because I do have friends that race in Conference and I think it is time for somebody to finally call BS on this crap.  There is also Oregon case law that makes clear the responsibilities of organizations that conduct events on public property (like PIR for example).  Conference doesn’t care about little guys like me, but they (and the clubs that make them up) are on the wrong side of that law – maybe they care about that…

Oregon Raceway Park

There are not words sufficient to describe how cool it is that a bunch of guys that like racing were able to pull something like this off.  Seriously, they are 99.9 percent of the way to a functioning racing facility.

Oregon Raceway Park
Oregon Raceway Park

Oregon Raceway Park Website

Being from Hood River it seems that we are among the closest active racing residents to this new facility – that makes it even cooler for us.  So Sunday, Garth Levin, Jonny Davies and I visited Oregon Raceway Park for the first time since we had attended a tour in November of 2006, shortly after they had cut the original path through the fields that now contain the race track. 

This is going to be a challenging place to race.  It seems that first they will run races in the clockwise direction, but the track was conceived with the notion that it could be run counter clockwise, as well.  I think it looks much better clockwise than counter.  My biggest concern is turn 1 in the counter direction – it will be fast and scary, and it doesn’t get really scary until you leave the track.  There is a nice place to land the medivac helicopter near where the cars will finally finish crashing, though.  I think it will be a while before this track races in that direction.  Everything else I’m worried about looks like it could be handled by mid-week.

Jonny Davies was the driver on Sunday – he is one of the finest amateur race drivers in the country.  I was in attendance to collect data and help with the car – the same car that I’ve been racing this year and was used in the 12 Hours of the Cascades and 25 Hours of Thunderhill last fall.  Garth came along to fix anything I broke while working on the car.

We use the AiM data acquisition system in all of the cars and I also gathered some video, and for one session taped a small Garmin GPS device to the dash.  Here are some interesting factoids from his second session in the clockwise direction:

Top speed (clockwise) – 98.8 mph

Best Lap Time (clockwise) – 2:04.671

Elevation Gain / Loss – approx 400 ft

To put things into perspective, Pacific Raceways, the track with the most elevation gain and loss in the Northwest, has about 140 ft change per lap.  According to our little GPS unit (with a slow sampling rate), ORP is somewhere around 400 ft in just over the same distance!!!

It is a shame that there will not be a race at ORP this year.  It was on the ICSCC schedule up until last week, and then it seems a new interpretation of some rules ended the fun.  For sure, there are still some safety issues to work out.  But, in racing anything is possible as long as everybody pulls in the same direction – for some reason they aren’t.

Again, I can’t say how impressed I am by this group of people that did what many thought was impossible.  This is an awesome accomplishment and the sooner ORP is raced on the quicker the issues of amenities and safety will be addressed, and the facility expanded.

Bravo!!!