North River had a small showing for the ITT. Allen, Larry, Steve, Joe Cipale, and myself all showed up for the event. Weather was very nice in the high 60’s, sunny, and wind North at 9-12mph. The outleg going south was very nice, the headwind after the turnaround wasn’t.
Allen (58:35)was the medal bearer with a Silver in the 45-49 age group. Likewise, Steve (59:42)was the silver winner in the 55-59 group.
Larry (1:03:12)was trying out his new (to him) Cervelo P3C. Not having much time to ride it, we were still changing his fit right before he started. Though usually known as a bad idea, Larry said it did help some.
Joe Cipale (1:08:42) rounded out the results.
I had hopes of breaking an hour but despite feeling good, the headwind really made me pay at the end. 1:02:49 isn’t terrible for a near-senior citizen but “it is what it is”.
Official results are here:
http://list.obra.org/events/15764/results
Allen Kraft, Joe Cipale, John O’Brien and myself carpooled to McMinnville for the 3rd TT of the series. Thanks to Allen for supplying the transportation. Weather was very cool in the early morning, near freezing but soon warmed up to an absolutely perfect day. Temps in the mid 50’s, sunny and NO WIND.
We drove the course beforehand with John O giving the play by play since he’d done the first 2 of the series. I had been pouring over the profile I plotted on ridewithgps.com for most of the previous week. It is always so different to actually be there than look at gps data. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/27973#
The course is demanding but in different ways. They slam you with a 1/2 mile climb 300′ from the start line. It’s virtually never flat with a constant series of ups/down, turns, changes in pavement quality etc so you really can’t get into a steady effort like a flat TT. You also get to reclimb that just before the finish. The downhill finish was fun, hitting 44mph while in the aerobars. The second picture below was taken at that speed. There’s around 700′ of climbing for a 12 mile course.
I didn’t have high hopes as my legs were a bit sore from earlier in the week and climbing isn’t my forte’ (understatement). I had considered using my road bike as climbing on the TT bike is less than optimal for me usually. That would have been a mistake because there are some fast sections that would have eaten more time than I might have saved on the climbs.
I finished in 32:03, good enough for 9th in the 50+ category and the top 1/3 overall. Congrats to John O for winning the series in the Masters 50+.
Poor Allen had a sudden, severe neck pain and had to sit up on the return.
Here’s a few pictures from a local photographer.
I arrived at 7:30 and set up the tent with Allen. Man it was cold! It had been below freezing that night so the sun was a welcome thing. We set up on the very south end of the Port building which turned out to be a good quiet area. Weather looked as good at it gets in February around here.
Allen and I were joined by Ronny and Steve on the trainers. Dean and Joe Kline showed up to show support and help out as needed. “Mr. President”, Jon was out taking pictures on the hairpin. Thanks very much. Joe Cipale, Larry and Georgann were in attendance but in a different spot.
The Race officials got a late start for some reason, delaying all starts by 15 minutes. That created some understandable confusion with riders checking in constantly at their correct time only to find out they had 15 mintues more.
The start had one small piece of entertainment. Another rider, just out for a sunday ride on his bike, went past the start tent exactly as I left the tent. Now I have a rider directly in front of me (with officials just behind me of course….drafting penality?), a car coming behind and nowhere to go. That passed pretty quickly so very little time lost there but made me a bit anxious for moment.
The race was “below expectations” but no excuses. Weather was good, not much wind, position felt good, no real impediments on the course (unlike some contending with all the traffic), been doing the training etc. My quads just didn’t like it at all yet my heartrate was 5-6 bpm below LT and never came back up.
I do prefer having the start in the original location by the park. The congestion, traffic etc at the new start was messy plus having to ride back after the event, adding more bikes on the road.
I had a good time otherwise. Hanging around with the team was great. Next race for me is Piece of Cake.
edit: Here are some pictures that Jon took:
The rain may have came & went but the mud was there to stay!Saturday’s race…Saturdays race unknowingly started Friday … or I should say that my Friday festivities played a part as to why I showed up late for my race on Saturday …. Good time as any to cat up to Master B’s. I had a good race, started in the middle of the pack & held my own. LOVE my new Vittoria Cross XM Pro 700 x 32 tires!(please forward endorsement check to my PO box)And to top it off … I caught the “White Night” and won a new pair of KEEN shoes! (Please see endorsement note above) If you don’t know about the White Night … come out to a cross race.Sunday’s race …Master C’s I’m back! Today was the costume day, let me be the first to warn you that wearing a button on your NRR gear that reads “Alcohol Monitor” does not qualify as a costume in the eyes of the cross crusade clan. Lesson learned. I actually pulled off a good start and found myself in first place half way thru the third lap … this is when about 8 spectators in orange jumpsuits positioned themselves in the course like the barriers they were portraying and persuaded (threatened) me to dismount and jump over them (punishment for not having a real costume)… I did what was asked of me, happily! Unfortunately I lost the lead and fell into third at this point … I’ll take it, my best finish to date!
Next race … PIR Sunday November 8th
We had a decent showing of NRR folks at Estacada. I had high hopes of a “good” time but it didn’t turn out all that “good” in the end.
Weather was sunny and reasonably warm but the wind was gusty with a headwind on the out leg. I originally had my 90mm HED front wheel but after nearly getting blown off the road while warming up, I quickly changed to a 46mm which was a good move. The wind wasn’t as gusty on the course thankfully.
I’m new to the HRM thing, having just used PE in the past. This is the first race I’ve tried staying right at or below LT (159-160 for me) and got pretty close, average 156. While I may have been able to improve the pace slightly based on the HR, I felt like I gave it my best.
I had an approximate time of 26:30 so I went home really bummed about my performance. The actual results were slightly better, showing a 25:51. Still, I’ve got more work to do. Pacing and guaging effort in TT’s is an ongoing learning experience.
Estacada TT has been put on for some years I believe but will say that the organization was rather sloppy. The biggest error was the turnaround being placed at 10 miles out instead of 5 miles for many of the earlier starters, including young juniors. That must have really been a surprise/confusion to the riders. I realize that promoters are volunteer and do many of these races out of love for the sport but still….
Results were very late in coming due a mixup on where the printouts were. Then there were multiple errors in placing etc. Hopefully, it’s better next time.
Another tough battle ensued last night at PIR with hot weather and a huge field. Racing tonight was Jeff Harwood, Dean Anderson, and Scott Goodrich.
The goal tonight was to get into a break or start one and if everything was together at the end…keep the pace high and do a good lead-out for either Harwood or Goodrich…whoever was in good position.
Both Jeff and Scott attacked the field at least 15 times between the two of them…but the field was not going to allow a break to go tonight. Every time an attempt was made Dean did a great job of coming to the front to block. We would slow down to 20 mph, launch an attack up to 35 mph, only to quickly get brought back…pretty frustrating to say the least. Jeff was able to manage a few hotspot points.
For the final bell lap, both Dean and Scott came to the front and drilled it. Dean did an outstanding job pouring every bit of energy he had into keeping the pace high. Scott continued the effort through the sharp corner and down the back stretch. The effort was tough enough that we actually created a gap on the field with Jeff and a Fred Meyer guy in perfect position. Scott thought he was done coming into the final corner, but was able to hang on into the final straight latching onto Jeff’s wheel. Jeff did a monster pull with Scott in tow…dropping the Fred Meyer guy. With 10 ft to the line, Scott had nothing left to come around Jeff, and the duo got beat by several at the line.
Final placing…Jeff 2nd, Scott 6th, and Dean in 53rd. See ya next week…
I survived.
I decided to get a quick race in and get home, so the 4/5 race was the ticket. It started out simple enough and I just kind of hung out near the frontish of the pack. The second lap was a hot lap, so I moved up closer to the front. A group of four guys got off the front on the back straight, so I bridged up to them. Once we got around the last turn, the pack wasn’t too far behind and the 4 guys in front started snaking all over the track trying to break the other guys off. It was some pretty drastic swerving and I got a bit unnerved by it and let ‘em go. On retrospect, that was a bad plan as I was in a pretty good position for the points sprint. Well, lesson learned and that won’t happen again. So, we all group back up and come around on the third lap and right in front of the finish line, I hear that bad bikes-hitting-each-other sound and the guy ahead of me hits the brakes, so I slam on the binders and start evasive maneuvers. All of a sudden the second person ahead of me is flying/rolling/grinding towards the inside barrier. We all make it by. Then I heard another crash to my left, when I look back, I see two guys hitting the pavement. Hmmm, one of them looked like Colby… I tried to take a quick look around the group and I didn’t see him still in it. Crap. I decided that I needed to be further up, so off I went. On the next lap, I was chatting with a guy while going around one of the corners and someone got pinched on the inside of the turn. Another near miss, so I headed up to the front again. I stayed there this time and was in 3rd position heading out of the final turn. I was feeling pretty good until the guys ahead of me started slowing down. I was trying to decide what to do when a line started sweeping by on the left. There wasn’t any way for me to get over there so I decided to swing around and see what I could do. I don’t have a quarter mile sprint in me. I managed to stop everyone from flowing around me, but couldn’t get back into it… So, I managed an 11th place.
The worst news of the night was that Colby did go down and broke his collar bone. He said he’d be back at it after a 2 week layoff to heal… So, send the healing vibes his way!!
This was easily the scariest race I’ve been in. Two crashes, innumerable near misses… HOLD YOUR LINE!!! Especially around the corners. And why do we hit the brakes while going down the main straight?
Dean
Ya, I know Scott, I should have been riding in the 3/4’s…. 
So I spent all last week fishing, camping, eating, and generally treating my body poorly. I figured it would be good to get out and race the toxins out of my system. On Monday I showed up at PIR and generally put myself into a lot of pain. My hamstrings hurt so bad I could barely walk around the house afterwards. Wednesday found me sitting watching TV after work wondering if I should race Tabor or not. My legs didn’t really hurt anymore, but they felt really tired. My wife got home and asked me if I was going to race, I told her I wasn’t sure. She promptly called me a wuss and the decision was made. I went up, changed into my kit and piled the gear into the car. 30 minutes later found me at Mt Tabor where I paid my money before I could talk myself out it. I watched Colby kick booty in the Cat 5 race for a few laps (great job Colby!!) and then made my way up the hill to do some warm up laps around the top. After a few laps my legs actually started to feel better. I eventually went back down the hill and circled around until it was time to line up. I knew I wanted to be in the front to try and keep a repeat of the first week from happening where a bunch of guys broke right away. The whistle blew and I clipped in and shot off up the hill, there was one guy ahead of me and I quickly reeled him in on the first downhill. Ahhhh, there I was blowing down the hill at the front of the pack, an unimpeded view of the road, the wind in my hair… what’s left of it…. Then I thought, “hey, I don’t want to pull all these guys…” so I backed off and forced some of them around me. The first half of the race was going pretty good, the legs were holding up and I was hanging with the pack, then on the hill after the start/finish line on the 5th lap my legs started to rebel. I just couldn’t keep up and got gapped. I couldn’t quite get back on going down the hill and the gap got bigger when we started up back up. I finished the last 2 laps with another guy who was dropped and crossed the line with a nice bike throw to call it a day. All in all I felt pretty okay with the race. I hung in there for 5 laps after a week and a half off and a race on Monday… The plan is to at least finish with the pack by the last race. It sure was a good time. Afterwards I hung out and cheered on Stephen to his ninth place finish. Great job Stephen!!
