Dean, Joe, and myself made it out to Tuesday PIR this week, and we had a good ‘ol time mixing it up. Dean rode strong and consistent near the front and provided some strategic pulls and windbreaks from which to launch attacks. The peleton wasn’t having any breakaways this week, so none of my attempts to go off the front were successful, but at least they were fun. On the first sprint lap I managed to snag 3rd and get a point or two, and on the second Dean and I both put in good efforts, but didn’t come away with any points. In the final sprint I was right up there with all the dudes going all out, but just when I thought it couldn’t get any faster, two or three guys took it up and notch and rocketed away from the rest of us. I need to work on my sprinting. All in all I finished the sprint somewhere around 8th or 9th, but with my sprint points from earlier eeked out an 8th on the night. Dean also put in a strong showing in 21st, which is double-strong considering he’s a 4 racing against a bunch of 3s. Go Dean!

Here’s a picture taken by those sharp-shooters over at Ironclad Cycling, who put in a great 5th place on the night also. Thanks for letting us borrow your picture!… and video…:)

heres a vid of the finish from Ironclad also:

  8   579    Fitzgerald           Stephen        North River Racing

 21   1027   Anderson             Dean           North River Racing

The Mt. Doom… er… Mt. Tabor series starts next week, which was the highlight of my year last year in terms of fun. Be sure to check that series out and bring family and friends because it is by far the the most exciting and spectator race series on the calendar.

cheers!

Stephen here with a mini Cat 3 race report from the OBRA Rehersal Race.

Rain was forecast but the sun broke through for a spectacular and beautiful day of racing. Of the NRR crew Cat. 3 Allen Kraft, John O’Brien, Steve Long, Dave Monning, and Me Fitzgerald showed up. Our strategy was “so how do you feel today?”, and we stuck to it pretty well the entire race. Dave and I hadn’t done a Cat 3 road race yet, so we were nervous, while the others were ready to rumble. The course was a series of nice short climbs with some rollers here and there. There wasn’t anything intense enough to decimate the pack, and there weren’t a huge number of serious breakaway attempts. All in all the race stayed pretty mellow with all our guys looking strong and trading pulls and sessions at the front. Nothing very interesting happened until lap 3 when 3-4 guys escaped from the front. New to the category, I didn’t know what to think, but the peleton didn’t seem too concerned, so nobody chased them down. They slowly gained distance for half a lap, and then it sped up a little. I moved up towards the middle of the lap to help a little, and they were eventually reeled into to about 150 feet up the road. Satisfied that we’d caught them, the pack sat up. The guys in front hadn’t gotten the memo that their breakaway was doomed, so two of them soldiered on ahead. Strangely, their gap grew again…. and grew… and grew. The pack sped up quite a bit in the final miles, and the break was always just up the road a little. Towards the last two miles I spent a lot of effort trying to stay up front, and Dave was up there also in the top 10. About a mile out it was clear that the break had played their cards well, and weren’t coming back. Another guy launched into oblivion within the last mile and I thought it was a stupid move… but he was never seen again either. Ha! shows you what I know. Going into the last 1k climb I didn’t know where John, Allen, and Steve were, but was worried that they may have been caught up in an earlier crash. It turns out Allen had a bit of bad luck but Steve and John were right there too on the climb. Dave was 5-10 riders up on me, so I was happy that he had a good position. I kicked all I could up the final climb, but my legs declared independence and ignored my suggestions to move faster. I sputtered up the hill with a 72/30 split of willpower and fumes. When we crossed the line I thought we’d squeaked into the top 20, and Dave did, but I missed it a little. Regardless, I think we had a good race as a team; we showed up in good numbers, we stayed active in most breaks except of course the one that mattered, and we put in a decent showing. Here are the team results in the 3s. We’ll be back for more!:

 20   1321   Monnig               David          North River Racing

 23   579    Fitzgerald           Stephen        North River Racing

 35   707    Long                 Steve          North River Racing

 37   601    O’Brien              John           North River Racing

Flat Tire Of Doom:   466    Kraft                Allen          North River Racing

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D Boswell Photography  was kind enough to take some great pictures of the race, and

has let us post a few here. Thanks Dina! Be sure to check her site out.

Click the pictures below and they will pop up large.

Here is The Blue Tide hanging out to the right of The Red Tide (theraputic).

Moi and David leading the peleton into Lap 2. Maybe we should have sat in instead of posing?

Well, the first lap went as planned…… It was a tough day for the Deanster, but everything started out okay, as I remembered my sunscreen. No ‘tiger stripes’ on my head….. They split the 4/5 group and we got started pretty much on time. I managed to stay in the front 15 or so for the first lap, but I could tell that my legs weren’t with me today. I got dropped on the finish line hill on that first lap…… A bunch of other people did as well, so I stayed with them for a while, but eventually dropped back as we climbed. When I hit the downhill, I was alone. I couldn’t see anyone ahead or behind me, so I figured I was DFL. I managed a decent speed down the hill and eventually passed a guy who said he’d been dropped from the 5’s. The 5’s certainly hadn’t passed me, so he either started with the 4’s or I lapped him…. I’m thinking I lapped him….. Anyway, I crawled painfully up to the starting line and decided to call it a day. I stopped, layed the bike down, took my helmet off and layed down on the ground next to my wife mumbling something about being too fat for this sport. I sat there for a few minutes and then people started coming across the finish line who I recognized from my race….. After the 6th person came by, I decided to stop being a wuss and I put my helmet back on and jumped back into the race. I eventually passed all six of them and finished 46 out of 52 and 4 DNFs. So, at least I finished and I wasn’t last……. I definitely need to hit the PIR and Mt Tabor races in June to build up some strength. I just haven’t been racing enough. So, on the way home we stopped at a fine Mexican restaurant in Woodland. They have tasty enchiladas and tamales, but most importantly, the Cadillac margaritas are most excellent. :)  I would recommend the place to anyone hungry or thirsty in Woodland….. I’m going to go rest now, my legs hurt……

 Dean

Somebody else was supposed to post this, but he’s probably resting for Saturday…

NRR had a good showing in the 3/4s at the Tuesday PIR race. By good I mean three of us showed up ready to knock heads. I got there a lap late and joined in the already-started race (with permission!). When I got up to speed I saw that Scott and Dave were both hanging out at the front. The pace was faster than last week, as evidenced by me almost getting dropped…every time we went around the hairpin. Breaks went, breaks were reeled in, and breaks went again. David was super-aggressive, launching attack after attack, which was nice to see. Scott joined in also, but at some point drifted back to strategorize his future plans. With three laps to go a group of two had gotten away off the front, and no progress was made chasing them down - probably due to being neutralized by the 1/2/3s. That said, they stayed away for 5-7 laps total so they were very strong. Going into the last lap they were still gone. As we crossed the line with 1 to go, all of a sudden Scott shot out of the pack literally like a bullet. It was pretty amazing to see, and I’m sure a foolish move to everyone else in the peleton. What they didn’t know was that El Presidente happens to be our breakaway specialist, and he can go and go and go. And go he did! The pack just watched and chased half-heartedly probably thinking that he couldn’t last a full lap let alone the surge in speed of the last lap. Long story short, I just sat back and watched as Scott maintained his lead and actually increased it all the way to soloing across the line a few hundred feet behind the early breakaway duo. Kudos to the breakaway for grabbing 1-2, but BIG props to Scott for going it alone and grabbing 3rd in fantastic style.  The season sure is getting interesting!

Next up: OBRA Rehersal Race on Saturday. I think there is going to be a pretty good NRR turn out in the 3s, and we’ve got a bunch of guys coming right into form, so we’re hoping for some good fireworks.

-sf

Howdy all. Stephen here with a Tuesday PIR race report.

The North River Racing team has been very active so far this season in the road races, time trials, and recently restarted PIR series, but I’ve been on the sidelines except for Piece of Cake. The stars aligned on Tuesday though and I managed to get out to the good ‘ol Tuesday night PIR 3/4 race.

Dave Monning also showed up so it was the two of us flying the macaroni colors of NRR for the evening. For the first few laps not much happened. We started slow and Portland Velo controlled things with their superior numbers. Dave hung out near the front and I hung out wherever I could - I was feeling the effects of my first PIR.On the second sprint lap I sat in the peleton and decided not to try for points. After the sprint crossed the line and slowed down I felt pretty spry, so I went to the front and unintentionally ended up building a small gap by myself. I didn’t think much of it because I knew I wouldn’t last long. Then I heard a guy behind me yelling something like “push push push keep it going!”. I thought “yeah, sure, I’ll pull you around the track!”. Then the guy pulled up beside be and it turned out to be David. Cool! We rode for about a half mile and I started feeling tired, so we had a little conversation something like this”

me: I don’t think I’m going to last long

david: what?

me: I don’t think I can go for long

david: What?You want to go for it?

me: No I just don’t think I have the legs for a real breakaway.

david: so you wanna go back?

me: Sure, I guess we can just go for it and see how long it lasts.

As you can see, our team strategy was impeccable!

So off we went, and for some reason (read: David’s pulls) our gap grew… and grew… and grew. We stayed away for a lap until we saw a small break bridging up to us, and the peleton not far behind. When the break caught us I told David to keep going and I started drifting back. When the pack started passing me I noticed that the team kits were a bit unfamiliar. When the entire pack had passed me I realized that this was the 1/2/3 field. I let them get about 200 feet on me so I wouldn’t ride with the wrong crowd and then waited for the 3/4s to catch me. Then on the back stretch I saw David off to the very right of the course drifting back towards me too. When he got to me he said he had noticed that they were the 1/2/3s too, and that we hadn’t been caught by the 3/4s so we were still doing well. This was pretty motivating, and we got back into breakaway mode and pushed on. We stayed away for another lap or two until the 3/4s did finally start catching us, we rounded the final turn into the finish line straightway and I went to the front to pull. I thought there might be a chance that somewhere in the confusion this could be a points lap because we wouldn’t have been in the 3/4 pack to hear the points bell, so I put a little extra gas on and saw the 3/4s gaining on us. We had enough gas to make it to the line, though, just before we were swept up, so I was hopeful that we might have picked up some points. Regardless, I was happy with our unexpected 2 man team breakaway, so my night was made.

For the rest of the race I just hung out and David went back up to the front to mix it up. We lined up and gave it a go on the final sprint. Dave got a good position and my rusty tactics got me stuck with the “I break for turns” crew.

In the end I probably crossed the line somewhere in the 20s and David was right in the top 10, but as it turned out we had picked up some points, so we ended up in 7th (david) and 12th (me) respectively. Not too shabby!

The race was fun and the new surface is great to race on. Good times!

Here are some of the details of the Hood River - The Dalles Ride

9-9:15am meet/start at the Full Sail Ale Brew Pub parking lot in Hood River (60 miles east of PDX, 1+ hour drive from Vancouver). I84 East to Hood River, take Exit 63, right on Cascade St, right on 5th St, left on Columbia St. The Brewery is just 1/4 mile or so from hwy exit 63.Brew Pub address is: 506 Columbia St Hood River, OR http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/visitus.cfm?CFID=2193914&CFTOKEN=29078604 for directions.

85 miles/4000 feet Hood River to The Dalles and points east via the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, Moiser Tunnels, Rowena Loops, Emerson Cut-Off. I promise dry weather, great views of the Columbia River Gorge, Mt Adams, and Mt Hood. The route is on very low traffic roads through oak tree forests, cherry orchards and wheat fields. Food and water available at the 60 mile point.In the past this ride has been a fun and mellow ride with rolling regroups, an optional climb up Sevenmile Hill (5 mile climb @ 5-7%) will be available at the 70 mile point for those that need the training.Optional lunch after the ride at Horse Feathers Brew Pub or Full Sail Ale in Hood River.

Car pooling recommended, meet at Mari’s Coffee Shop 7:30am for car pool opportunities.

A large contingent of the North River Racing team completed the 2008 Ride Around Clark County on Sunday May 4th. As is the unofficial tradition, the race started as the Ride Around Clark County and ended as the Race Around Clark county. Good times were had by all. NRR would like to thank the Vancouver Bicycle Club for putting on such a beautiful and well supported event.

Welcome to the new website for North River Racing.

We hope you enjoy the site and find it informative. We are just getting (re)started with our online presence and will be updating all of the areas of the site with full information and content as quickly as time and resources allow.

From now on when you visit our site you will come to this page, which features our blog up front. We’ll be using the blog to post updates on the team, race results, photos, and anything else we can think of to spread the word about what we are up to.

In the mean time, if you have any direct questions regarding our team you can contact Scott Goodrich at:

scottdgoodrich02@hotmail.com

If anything seems broken on the website, you can contact Stephen Fitzgerald at:

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Go for a ride. Its nice out!

-NRR