I’m lucky to have many “hobbies” of the type that just one would make me happy. For the past 5 years, or so, there has been an ebb and flow between my bike hobby and my car hobby.
Mt View Team
I wouldn’t be able to do the car racing without help from friends and sponsors, and because of the relationships I’ve developed over time in the sport, I have an opportunity to race at the Rose Cup Races at Portland again this June.
The problem is balancing the time required to prepare for bicycle races such as the Mount Hood Cycling Classic June 4-7 and Rose Cup which begins with testing on the 11th. The car I am to drive for Rose Cup is the same car Chuck Hall, Will Schrader, Jonny Davies and I won the 12 Hours of the Cascades with last November and that Jonny and I drove with Ken Sutherland and Bruce Wilson at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill (leading until all of the oil fell out through 4 big holes in the block). Until last week, it was largely in the same state that it rolled (was towed) off the track in December.
12 Hours of the Cascades Winner
The balancing process is hard (in a good way). Yesterday, I rode my bicycle for a couple of hours before going to the race car shop to work on putting the car back together (new engine, transmission, differential, shocks, brakes, repair light body damage, etc). Sean Hedrick of Miatacage.com has made the task possible by providing the big components in a mostly complete state.
Enduro / Rose Cup Spec Miata
This morning I will go to Silverton (near Salem) for a bicycle race with my Mt View Cycling team mates. I’ll work for a couple of days (sneaking some cycling miles in) and collecting more of the parts needed for the enduro / Rose Cup car, with the goal of installing the drive train late next week.
I came across this while searching through Oregon Bicycle Law looking for the possible justification for the aggressive action taken by a motorist I encountered yesterday (I didn’t find it, by the way).
What I did find was this article at Oregon Cycling Magazine that suggests an idea that may (or may not) help relieve some of the tension that exists, particularly it seems in Portland, between cyclists and motorists.
I disagree with the logic of the “since most cyclists already do it, it should be made legal” argument. But, I have always believed that spending as little time exposed to traffic is a good idea for cyclists, and this type of law would help bicycle riders reduce the amount of time spent in multi-use roadways – I call this place the “Danger Zone”. And, as I also can’t find any law specifically prohibiting running over bicycles, I will personally continue to ride as I see prudent…
So, here’s the article and I say write your congressman – this is a sensible idea.
Would Oregon benefit from a law, similar to the one in Idaho, allowing bicyclists to slow down, yield to traffic and then travel through stop signs without coming to a complete stop or to stop, yield and then travel (when safe) through red lights? Many if not most cyclists tend to behave this way at stop signs already and some, though fewer do the same at red lights. Does it make sense to punish cyclists for slowly and safely riding through a stop sign when no cross traffic or pedestrians are approaching? Would cooperation and good will between cyclists, motorists and law-enforcement improve if these common sense bicycling practices were made legal? To answer these questions, it might help to consider the reasons bicyclists often choose not to stop fully at stop signs or to wait all the way through certain red lights.
These races have taken place on Thursdays in April for the past 5 years, or so, and each year the turnout gets a little bit better. There’s another story sometime about how the series started. My recollection is that the first attempts were made by my good friend and former neighbor, that got me into road cycling 8 years ago, Julio Paredes.
Anyway, as near as I can tell there are now no fewer than 5 cycling “teams” in the gorge – two of them are basically bike shop teams formed for the purpose of increasing the visibility of those shops (selling shit). The others are the result of guys not wanting to spend their money to help other guys sell their shit. We all ride together anyway, and since the cycling community here is relatively small, I have always thought it would make sense for there to be just one team. But, not to be. I’m wondering what I should call the sixth team – for a while I was puting “Team Julio” on my race entry forms, hmmmm…
Again, I wander. Discover Bicycles, the shop who’s kit I wore (for no good reason) was sold last year and the new owner has made no effort to maintain the “club”. My options were to wear the kit of the guys I ride with in Orange County, California (which would give the same race support (none), access to a coach and better equipment support than I ever got here), or to accept the invitation to ride with the other local shop.
The owners of the other shop, Mountain View Cycles, ride and race, grew up here and have had the shop forever. The cyclocross team that they have been building is awesome. I had been asked to join them for the Cherry Blossom Classic stage race and we had a team of 8 Cat 4 guys show up!!! Seems like a no-brainer.
Moon with Sunset
The problem is that the kit is the saddest excuse for a road racing uniform that I recall ever seing. This is a small problem given that most everything else is in order – BUT WHYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!? At least they have agreed to go to a manufacturer (Castelli) that makes high quality clothing. And it turns out that their graphic design guy fixed the two most obvious problems on his own for the first proof… It still looks like an early 90’s mountain biking reject kit, but at least my ass won’t hurt.
The crit series was 4 races and we had a guy, Andrew,”the big kid”, in 3rd place and within 4 points of the leader. The leader was my friend, Andy, who is new to road biking and I personally encouraged him to race the series. He is wearing the jersey of another small repair shop that one of his buddies owns – as such, he must be defeated!!!
We had totally buggered up the week before – pretty much hammered around in circles and led out the rest of the field. We’re Cat 4’s and we’re not very smart about a lot of stuff – we aren’t supposed to be, really. But, Andrew wanted to win and the guys wanted to help.
This will seem totally obvious to anybody that thought for more than 3 seconds about it, but the plan was to launch a series of attacks – everybody had a job. Andrews job was to do nothing until two laps to go and then follow Tony and whoever else could help to the front and win the sprint.
Sure as the sun rising in the east, Andy and the 2nd place guy had to chase the 2nd and 3rd attacks. They didn’t really have to, but they’re Cat 4’s too (Andy a 5, actually) and just as dumb as us. But, they did have to beat each other – it was the perfect tactical situation for us. We had to do only one thing – beat them. They had more to do and nobody to help them do it.
Just after 4 laps to go was my turn to attack and they both came with me. After getting clear I let the top two take turns beating the hell out of each other for a couple of laps. Then, on cue, here comes Andrew doing his thing – the big kid is tough for short distances… He sprinted well, won the race and the other two finished in an order that allowed him to win the series – well done.
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!!!
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..
This is a nice 34 mile ride from Troutdale. We got kind of lost and had to ride in the dark a bit, but this is a great scenic route with lots of little climbs.
Close to town with relatively little traffic once you’re off the main road.
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…
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.
