Hurray for us! As you can see from Stephen’s post, we had some success at PIR this month. I wanted to take a minute and thank all of you who were able to make it out in various roles and under various conditions. It was awesome watching Scott, David and Stephen jumping into the breaks and controlling things at the front of the pack. It was equally satisfying sitting in while I was pulled to the finish line by the likes of Dean, Stephen and co. Sprinting to the line is much easier when you are delivered right into the perfect position. I will have some extra $$$ soon and adult beverages will be on me. However, PIR $$$ does not buy PBR and speaking of Ironclad. . . I have to add how much fun it was racing against the Ironclad contingent. We know that those characters play hard but they race just as hard and do it with class and panache! Last night they buried themselves in pursuit of their race goals. I am already looking forward to the next time our teams line up against one another.jeff
Posted in Uncategorized by Stephen on July 30th, 2008
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Congrats to Jeff Harwood fortaking home the overall series victory for the Tuesday PIR 3/4 category in July!Jeff capped off his series with a solid 3rd place while Scott and Stephen (me) rode defense. Scott also charged in for a solid 11th place finish after driving some crazy breaks and a grueling pace for the whole pack.
First off, I want to thank all the volunteers and sponsors of the race, without you it wouldn’t be possible. The Vancouver Bicycle Club, Larry Holzman Attorney, the Frog Store, Ironclad, DSU Peterbilt & GMC. Inc., Bortolami’s Pizzeria and Microsoft.
Second, thanks to all the racers who particpated in the event this year. We saw record numbers which posed a few problems with our time/street permit but we are working on it and will have them ironed out so next year is even better.
I have podium photos from all the categories. If you’d like a hi-res photo just email me at jonkra@colmac.com
Putting on an event is never easy and so many of our normal racers were busy volunteering their time so they were unable to race. I am glad to see that some did get a chance.
Let’s start off with our wunderkind, Colby Wait-Molyneux, who once again stood on top of the podium. Colby, our Junior Road State Champion, has had an excellent season. Fresh off a recent collarbone injury he braved the technical course and laid the hammer down. You could never tell that the shoulder injury was still sore as he was all smiles. What a great kid! Next up will be the State Time Trail Championship. See Photo
Jeff Harwood and Dean Anderson fought bravely in the Cat 4 race. Jeff, the July points leader at PIR, tried his best but the technical course and speed kept him at a respectable 9th place and Dean finished 26th out of the 50 field limit.
David Monnig and our awesome president Scott Goodrich represented the team in the Cat 3 field. Despite the early morning course set-up and the day long volunteering Scott went out and gave it a valient effort finishing 30th and David nipping him for two spots at 28th.
That left Steve Long to race the Master’s 40+. Steve finished 23rd in a field that was a blur.
NRR had a good turn out for the 3/4 race Tuesday. There was me (Dean), Scott, Stephen, Jeff, and Pirooz. It was great to see Pirooz out racing again. He rode strong and looked in great form. There was a large field with good turn out from several teams.
As for the race, Scott attempted several breaks, but nothing was getting free that night no matter how much blocking we were doing. With all the teams there, moves were getting shutdown pretty fast. I was stuck in the pack during the first sprint points, so I’m not sure what happened up there, all I saw were a bunch of brightly colored backs… I was able to get up front for the second sprint and managed to give Jeff a decent pull and he shot off like a bullet to take three points. The third sprint, Stephen got out with me and Jeff behind him. My timing was a bit off though, and I didn’t pull through as soon as I should have so when Jeff was able to sprint, we were too close in and he had to chase hard to get a point for third. This is where I was hurting and almost was dropped from the pack… Fortunately, I was able to stay on and made my way up to Scott where I did my best wheel sucking impersonation in hopes of some recovery before the final sprint to the finish…
The pack had split and there was about 50 to 100 feet between the front group and the back group. I stayed stuck to Scott’s wheel knowing that he would make his way up to the front. Sure enough, he started accelerating and Stephen and I just hung on while Scott bridged us up to the front group. Eventually, on the back straight, I ended up on the front and up comes the Ironclad train. I grabbed on to them and off we all went. They eventually peeled off and by then Stephen and Jeff had gotten on my wheel, so we went into the final turn with the Sunset Cycles guys neck and neck with us. I went until I popped, then Stephen and Jeff came around me along with 40 other guys just flying.
We eventually ended up with Jeff in 5th, still holding onto his series lead, Scott in 23rd, Pirooz in 38th, Stephen in 44th and me bringing up the rear in 45th.
I gotta say that this was one of the most fun races I’ve done. Racing as a team was great and everyone played a part. My wife and parents were there watching, so I had to do some ’splaining as to why I was happy even though I was 45th, but it was sure worth it.
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…
Our man Dean showed up for one last night of fistacuffs at Mt. Tabor tonight and in the process pulled off a personal best finish on the last race of the ‘08 Tabor season. Previously he’d had some difficulties with the pack here and there, but tonight he stayed with ‘em all the way and finished strong. Nice job, Dean. Way to go out with a solid push!
If I can say so myself, unless you happen to be one of the few actually capable of winning at Tabor, its all about showing up and trying to improve on the previous week’s efforts. I’ve seen quite a few riders race the race once never to be seen again. Here’s a NRR digital salute to everyone who raced the series this year just for the suffering and personal rewards.
We caught a few pics of The Dean in action. He makes the macaroni and cheese kit look goooood.
In attendance for this week’s race was Jeff Harwood, David Monnig, and Scott Goodrich. It was a beautiful night for racing with temps in the low 90’s and a tailwind finishing straight.
The goal for tonight was to try to race together and be in a good position at all times. The race started off with a HFV guy taking a flyer off the front. The three of us worked the front and slowly helped bring back the breakaway guy after he got about 800 meters up the road. As he was about to be caught I launched an attack, but was quickly reeled back in. The first sprint was all together and very scary…the sharp left hander on the back stretch was totally ridiculous…guys were breaking hard and all over the place. After the sprint two guys went up the road and David attacked to join them. He was still off the front as we were going into a bell lap. Jeff and I did our best to block, but he was brought back on the back straight. The other two guys made it to the line and Jeff snagged the 3rd place point. After getting passed by the 1/2/3’s two guys attached and got away. I decided to bridge up and after about another ½ mile was joined by David and another guy. The group of 5 turned into four and we passed through the finish line hearing the bell for another sprint point opportunity. David and I just played it cool and did our best to keep the four of us working together to get the points. As we came onto the finishing straight one of the guys pulled off the front and David was in front with about 400 meters to the finish. David jumped once and then again to get the speed up. I started screaming at David…FASTER! FASTER! …each time he responded. I wanted to make sure that both of us got the 1st two points. With about 50 meters to the finish I looked back and we had dropped both of the other guys in the break. After David worked his rear off I thought it would be pretty jerky to come around him for the win and eased up. I guess that was our Steagman/Boonen moment of the race. After that we both eased up and got back into the pack. With one to go the three of us moved into the front. We were joined by two Rubicon Guys and an Ironclad guy. The pace was really high coming into the finish and we were all in great position. Jeff ended up going toe to toe with Ironclads Mark Crawford and got him by about 6 inches. I finished in 5th place and David in 7th for the final sprint. With the points we finished Jeff 1st, Scott 4th, and David 5th. It was a great race for the three of us and we all commented afterwards that we all really enjoyed ourselves.
Congrats go out to Jeff Harwood, Scott Goodruch, and David Monnig for taking 1st, 4th, and 5th at PIR last night in the 3/4s. Yes, thats three slots out of the top five! To borrow an internet term: Thats some serious OWNAGE*.
Maybe one of them will post a race report so we can read how it all played out (hint hint!).
*from the internet slang dictionary:
2.
ownage
The act or state of perpetrating fierce and unholy domination against another, typically in a videogame setting, resulting in shame and embarassment for the victim and his/her family until the end of time.
