Mud, Sweat, and Gears - PIR

Finally, the rains have come and cross season has fully actualized! It was feeling a little weird for a while, racing in the sun at Nincrossi and the dust bowl at Sherwood. I was thinking that buying the new Clement Crusade PDX mud tires was a mistake. But PIR never fails to bring the mud, and even though the race there was three weeks earlier than the last two years, we still managed to get some great, wet conditions.

We had a nice big crew out for the races on Sunday so it's a good thing we brought both tents! Big thanks to Jeff who volunteered to come out early and help set things up and take pictures all day, despite not racing. Another big thanks goes out to Team Oregon presented by Laurelwood Brewing. We were set up right next to them and their FOUR kegs, and they treated us to great beer all day long.

Nincrossi

Well, this Saturday was the inaugural Nincrossi cyclocross race, held up in the hills of southwest Washington at the Washougal Motocross track.  Tony, Ben, Matt and Marc we're treated to a fantastic day of weather and racing, and of course, beer.  The race was sponsored by Ninkasi Brewery and they came armed with three kegs of their finest, and every racer got a free beer with registration! Yeah! This was great for us, seeing as how the first two Cross Crusade races have been dry events.

Well, this picture makes the course look pretty flat but it was really anything but! No section of the course could be described as flat, and each lap included two hard climbs that really separated the fields.  Each lap also included a trip through the signature "N", which was a twisty course feature that was set on a steep hillside and shaped like the Ninkasi logo.

Despite the tough course we all had a great day and some pretty good results were had. And after it was all said and done, it was nice to kick back and relax with a cold one!

Heiser Farms

While the Cross Crusade races have continued to grow and field sizes regularly run in the 200's, the growth of the popularity of cyclocross has also led to the addition of many other smaller races. On Saturday, Dan, Matt and Ben went to race at Heiser Farms, outside of Dayton, with field sizes topping out at 25.

Saturday started with a downpour and the rain stayed through the afternoon races making for a great, but very challenging race.  While the very challenging greasy mud conditions left many struggling.....

.... Matt was able show off his handling skills and finish an impressive 2nd.  Dan had a great race as well coming in 9th.

 ...and Ben managed to stay alive and get plenty of running in as well.

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Portobello.Racing/HeiserFarms#

Hammer and the Nail

Well, as Lance Armstrong once said, "Some days you're the hammer and somedays you're the nail." Today, we we're the nail! The muddy course at Rainier High School took it's toll on us resulting in 3 DNF's, bloodshed, and a long week ahead for our tool kits.  The tough guy of the day award goes to Mark Adamski for running his bike across the finish line (see above) to avoid the DNF, and he still placed 61st out of 95!

Here's a shot of Dan powering up the final hill enroute to a solid finish.

 Would you trust these guys with your daughter? Uhh no, I wouldn't either!

Zak moved up to the B's this week and rocked a great race.

Congratulations to Matt Hutchinson for getting the best result of the day for the team, 19th in the B race!

Cross Crusade Carnage

Cross Crusade - Alpenrose

Wow!  Cross Crusade broke their own record for the biggest participation for a cross race and Portobello did its part with 13 riders lining up in their respected fields. Lauren decided last minute to try her first cross race and raced back home to get her shoes...luckily Aaron had her practicing dismounts the night before after Portobello closed up at midnight.  Aaron brought Field Roast sausages and fixins', Tym brought coffee, Mark brought Shannon's raw energy treats(yum!), Jeff brought the grill and Marc organized having the tents up and ready the day before. 

We had lots of people hanging out at the tents all day watching the action and cheering on our teammates.  Just about eveyone crashed at least once on the fast and technical course that had everything but mud- sand pits, rutted grassy pasture, gravel, off camber sections, and barriers and hairpin turns in the velodrome.  A shout out to Dan Werle who stopped during his race to take care of Tony after he was knocked down and run into.  We'll be bringing ice to the pain cave at the next Cross Crusade!