Category: BIKES

Enough of PIR

Last night, I “raced” a bicycle at PIR for the second time this year.  What a freakin’ cluster…

I’m a Cat 4, and I get what that means.  But, for God’s sake, is it so hard to pedal a bike around a 60 ft wide race track without running into stuff..?  PIR is quite wide, but not without obstacles – some care and planning are warranted.  It’s not like everybody doesn’t know what is possible…

Turn 7 was re-profiled for 2008 and it took a while to figure it out in the car (2nd gear, third gear, early turn in and throttle, rotate the car, etc…) – but everybody did.  The bikes nearly came to a stop there once last night and half the field never did work out that the track narrows at exit.  WTF?

Team mate E1 and I tooled around at the back of the field after the 2nd prime – both of us having concluded that we wanted to reduce our exposure.  The field was crawling and at times became 10 riders wide at the front (blunt end).  Every time I queued up to get into a rotation the third guy would sit up…  That’s fine – I had helped to organize the chase last week and this time my plan was to let others do some work to see if I had any sort of sprint (I don’t).  Maybe everybody else had the same plan… again. 

But, we’re Cat 3’s and 4’s – and this isn’t the friggin’ Tour de France…  It isn’t necessary to force your way between the barrier and the field in a sprint for a possible 10th place finish!!!  If you F***ed up the last lap and started the sprint 30th – you can give it a go again next week…

Somebody is going to get hurt, and I don’t really feel like I need that right now.  Racing is always a calculated risk – and the calculation says to stay away from PIR for a while.  But, I need to race something, somewhere…  I’m not much of a climber, but maybe the Tabor series will be more sensible – everybody has to work or get shelled there…  Maybe stick to the Cat4 40+ races and the harder road races or mountain bikes.  Maybe I should focus some more time on making sure a fast car is available for Rose Cup…  aaah, the warm, friendly and happy security of a roll cage…

On the up side, Wes ended up 3rd on the night – pretty good for a Cat4 in a 100 plus rider Cat3/4 field.  Well done.

But, In the end, E1 ended up on the ground on the second to last lap after riding us back to the front with 2 laps to go.  It sounded like somebody had steered him into the barrier on the finish straight – why go straight when you could be having so much fun turning..?  One of the teenagers elbowed his way between me and the barrier (using his body as first notice that he was coming through) and sprinted into the back of two guys who had sat-up after mis-timing their final efforts.  Brilliant!!!

I feel like I dodged one (or eight) last night.

Hood River and East

Pretty much as close as you can get to a flat ride around here.  The ride starts next to one brew pub and ends next to one that has outdoor seating (there are coffee shops near by, as well).

The route follows old Hwy 30 out to The Dalles and continues east to an 18 mile loop that starts by following 15 mile creek on lightly traveled rural roads.

This is a ride that friends have used as a training ride for newer riders preparing for long (100 mile plus) organized rides.

There are plenty of amenities (including food, drink and a bike shop) available in The Dalles, so it is an easy ride to do unsupported.

77 Miles and 4,200 feet of climbing.

Mapbrian-mosier

Orchards and Desert

Most of the rides from Hood River cover roads to the south (up the Hood River Valley), or to the east (including The Dalles).  This ride does a little of both and covers one of the epic Gorge climbs (7 Mile Road).

This ride never exceedes 2,000 ft in elevation, which makes it a good early season option for avoiding poor road conditions and colder temperatures.  In the summer months The Dalles can get very warm and this ride is best done on a cooler day or with an early start.

This ride starts at Egg Harbor (a good place for breakfast, and you’ll need it) and ends in front of 3 Rivers Grill (a good place to sit on the deck and have a frosty cold beverage).

From Hood River you work up the West Side of town  The roads are light with traffic and pass through orchards and one of the town’s golf courses.  You then cross the Hood River and up a short hill toward the town of Odell before crossing The Valley to the east for the ride back down East Side Road.

Now, back in Hood River, travel east on old Hwy 30.  Hwy 30 from Hood River to Mosier is now a very wide bicycle trail (beware of loose dogs, unatended children and bewildered tourists – travel cautiously).  From Mosier keep riding east on lightly traveled roads through more orchards, with views of Mt. Adams and the Columbia River.  This portion of the trip includes a twisty 2 mile decent from Rowena Crest that is so beautiful that many car and motorcycle manufactures choose to film advertisements there.

Once in The Dalles, work your way over to 10th Street and continue east to Cherry Heights Road (near the center of town).  Cherry Heights gains about 1,000 ft before the first little decent and then rolls before beginning a decent back toward the west end The Dalles and the start of the 7 Mile Road climb.

Here you can turn left and tackle the 1,500 ft climb (it’s kind of a shortcut) that will then decend to Mosier.  Or, you can continue another mile or so back to Hwy 30 and return to Hood River over the same route on which you came.  The climb is worth the trouble, however.  There are spectacular views any time you choose to look for one and the decent will permit you to reach speeds that you have believed are myths told by comentators of bicycle races on television

If your goal is to see it all in The Gorge, this is a good start..

72 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing.

Map

Lyle to Goldendale Loop

 

renault-centerville

This ride starts at the Lyle Cafe (small town diner) and immediately climbs 5 miles to a plateau filled with ranch land. 

Wind your way toward Goldendale, then return down the Klickitat river which has some of the most scenic road you’ll find anywhere.

64 Miles with 3200 feet of climbing.  Possibility of windy conditions.

Map

Cherry Blossom Classic

Columbia Gorge Road Race

Last weekend was the first edition of the Cherry Blossom Classic stage race in The Dalles, Oregon. This race is basically an early edition of the Mount Hood Cycling Classic using stages that are all east of Hood River to take advantage of more reliable spring weather.

3 days, 4 stages and a boat load of climbing.

I was invited to ride with what turned out to be the biggest single category team ever to race out of a bicycle shop in Hood River – Mountain View Cycles. We were mostly a bunch of old guys racing in Cat 4. It was an impressive showing with some great support and I am very optimistic that it will grow into a good team with some nice results.

Day one was a 38 mile circuit race of two laps with a lot of wind. Day two was an 8 mile time trial in the morning and a criterium in downtown The Dalles Saturday afternoon and a 55 mile 5200 feet of climbing road race on Sunday (map above).

I finished mid-pac, which is better than I would have done a year ago. I must earn redemption!!! – at least I’m headed in the right direction…

I shall return.

BT

Mosier to Rowena

This ride starts in Mosier (5 miles east of Hood River) and travels 9 more miles east to Rowena, by way of the “Rowena Loops”.  At the finish point for this ride you can cross under the freeway to Mayer State Park on the Columbia River.

The Loops are a 600 ft decent (and climb back) on a 2 mile stretch of road that is very popular amongst car manufacturers for use in advertisements.

The round trip is 18 miles and has 1,500 feet of climbing.

Map

Twin Tunnels

This is the ride you can take anybody on. It’s an out-and-back that ends next to a couple of places to get coffee and / or ice cream. The trail is heavily used – often by people that have no idea that anybody else might also be trying to use the trail. So, stay to the right and look around before stopping and starting.

There is a viewpoint just short of 3 miles from the parking lot that is a good place to turn around with smaller children or anybody that doesn’t want to pedal up a hill.

Map

Motathlon

As this is all about cars and bikes, I figure I should relate the story about the only time I know of that people used both of them in the same race.

 

For the Mazda Grand Prix of Portland last July the promoter had hatched the brilliant idea that you could do a race like a triathlon, but using race cars instead of swimming. There were some problems, though. First, that’s the kind of race I could actually win, even if it sounded kind of dicey – but, I had “retired” from car racing at the end of 2007. Second, I thought they would change their minds after they thought about it for more than a minute.

 

I was wrong, of course, and on Sunday morning we were called together for a meeting about how the race would work, and how hopefully nobody would be killed and how it was worth the risk because the winner would get $400. It did seem likely that I’d risked my life for less than that before…

 

I had, the day before, un-retired from car racing and finished 7th in the first Spec Miata race of the weekend which had taken place Saturday afternoon. I had also hatched a brilliant plan to race the Motathlon then drive up to Vancouver, Washington to race a Criterium (bicycle’s, twisty, crowded, and in reality more dicey than the Motathlon) and then return very quickly to Portland to take part in the feature race of the Mazda Grand Prix in the Miatacage.com Miata. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

How often will the chance to do a real bike race and real car race on the same day present itself, anyway?

 

There were about 10 of us dumb enough to show up on the Motathlon grid and most of us were in Spec Miatas. We drew for starting position and would do four laps of PIR in the car, about one mile on the bike and then run about 300 yards to the finish (where Playboy bunnies would be waiting for the winner – yes, those Playboy bunnies).

 

Will Schrader took off on the car leg and had gapped the field led by Bruce Wilson and Alec Osenback. My excuse for being fourth is that my plan was simply to avoid the bad things that might happen during the car part and win it from the bike. I think most of us were using nearly all of our regular safety equipment except the HANS (head and neck restraint). I had decided to do the entire race without changing or removing any gear!!!

 

Motathlon and Mazda GP Spec Miata
Motathlon and Mazda GP Spec Miata

That was Will’s biggest mistake. The time he took to switch helmets completely erased the gap he had made for himself. Bruce and Alec were banging on each other entering the “transition area” (I’m told that’s what the triathlon people call it) and frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t wreck themselves – but 400 bucks is 400 bucks and Bruce was pretty well spun up about the bunnies.

So, I hopped out of the car and was handed my bicycle by my friend (and hairdresser), Fenn Bourland, who is an experienced triathlete who uses words like “transition” and “area”. It was pretty much over, save the sweating, at that point. Alec was in the lead and I could hear the muffled obscenities as I blew by him and continued to stretch out a 45 second advantage by the time the run started. That part was pretty cool because Alec is young and all kind of spry looking and I’m kind of old… Anyway, a sprint in full race driving gear down the straightaway and the bunnies and $400 would be mine!!!