rubbish heap two

Fergus, SF courier? I raced with him on the track back in like '09.

choc, you will not regret trying out CX. that is, if you can keep the fucking shifters from exploding. i hear there's a pretty sweet east bay renegade cx ride @ lake merritt, and a handful of outlaw races in addition to BASP.

Soup - put shifters back on my cross bike to race CX. Busted the right one yesterday racing. I'm averaging about 2 weeks per SRAM shifter...

today's race was going great! until i went down and busted my shifter.

nice photos choc. remind me to not post here drunk. jeez...

That's my dream steel track bike if I ever saw it. White > all other bike colors atmo.

Joker, you doing Pain'n Suffering? If so, are you doing it in the B's?

fenders, layering, being an oregon native. emphasis on the first, though. full fenders can take the edge off anything save the worst downpour.

$1600? fuck that. i got my caad9 for $1150 and that was with campy. they don't come spec'd with campy as you probably know. $$$$$$ to build it that way. tell him to get his head out of his ass and sell it to you for 12 bills, no fuss.

more track racing this evening. match sprints this time. my flying 200m time was respectable for taking a shit line and riding a headwind finish, but my sprint tactics sucked in the actual heat. won the keirin, though, which was cool because i absolutely dug myself into the gutter to make up the gap for first place. tomorrow: 24 hour scavenger hunt on bikes (almost seems like an idea pulled straight out of 'portlandia'). the $666 prize payout for winning is better than most (read: all) legitimate races that aren't pro-level. sunday: cross crit out at a farm, likely not sleeping at all the night before. never done it before, but i guess it's basically a cross race without dismounts. i'd say this weekend is shaping up to be a hell of a hipster stage race.

mainly at the larger events, of which there are only a handful on the calendar. the really dedicated track guys here travel most of the west coast velodromes to do the big money stuff: FSA GP in seattle, AVC here, TVC in san jose and nationals in LA. realistically, i'd say all things being equal, an upgrade to 2's on the road is a slightly bigger leap than 2's on the track, mainly because bigger fields in crits/RR's mean more talent you have to beat, but there's also some overlap between 1/2 trackies and strong crit guys.

hell of a track race out at the velodrome tonight. they combined fields, so cat 1/2/3/4. we dropped off the old guys around lap 5 on a 50 lap points race and then proceeded to wreck the rest of the field until 4 of us remained. with 6 to go i got pooped and couldn't hang with yet another attack from the race leader, so sat up with a buddy and rode tempo. he held my wheel like a champ, but i managed to unleash everything i had left for a double points sprint at the end. 3rd place and 1st among the cat 3's! that's about it for track this year, except possibly doing some match sprinting tomorrow. i'm bummed that it took me this long to get back on the velodrome after crashing out hard last season, but i'm really stoked i did. if this season was just a little longer i think i could squeeze a cat 2 upgrade before cross...

new cross bike.

Racing crits is fairly simple on paper but can be complicated in real life depending on how aggressive the field is and how unwilling people are of giving up the wheel they're on. Generally you want to: -stay in the top 3rd of the race field for as much of the race as possible -shift to an easier gear before every sharp corner, then shift to a harder one after you're accelerating out. -avoid the crashes by staying near the front and not half-wheeling anyone. -don't attack off the front. Any actual tactic/strategy depends on a few different variables: are you racing alone or with teammates? Are you hedging bets on a sprint finish, or does the course favor a breakaway? What direction is the wind blowing on the finishing stretch? Generally I like to start the race attacking hot off the starting line (because if I don't, someone else can/will), and immediately get the pain going. Then I'll respond to attacks and hope/assume a breakaway is going for go for the first half of the race. If, at the halfway point of the race, the field is aggressively chasing down everything that tries to get away, I'll hedge my bets and assume the race will end in a field sprint, and then ride accordingly (hide behind a wheel and take no pulls, then try to get in a good position near the end). This works, but not always: late-race breakaways can and do get away, especially when someone is wise and smart enough to attack immediately after a bunch of guys killed themselves bringing in a flyer.

For sure. All business track racer. Had a ton of fun at the cat 3 omnium night last night at the track. Second time back at the velodrome since I had a freak crash a year back where my front wheel ejected and I went straight from 44 degree banking to head on concrete. Needless to say, a year later I'm just now getting my balls back. First race was a miss and out. I played the 'devil' at the back, which is basically a tactic where you sprint the last person in line while boxing them out. Kind of a dick move but really standard in that race, and basically the best way to roll if you don't want to break the wind at the front. At the end of the race they leave 3 guys left to duke it out match sprint style - so at that point, some poor sap was luckily in front of me and I just rode his wheel like a dog while he tried whatever swervy match sprint tactics to get me in front. (Dude probably should have launched a 'fake attack' and then eased up and got on one of your wheels when we decided to blow a wad.) Anyways, that shit didn't work and I came around up top at the 200m line to arrive first at the line. Felt good. Second race was a 15 lap points race, sprints every 5. Since it's such a short race, I knew every sprint would count - so first time around I came around a few people to take 2nd, and then again on the second time through as well. Sometime in between, two guys were vying for the same spot in the sprinter's lane and put metal on metal - sounded like a crash was gonna go down but they recovered and the race went on. Had me spooked for about half a lap but that's racing. With 5 to go, the dude from the last race trying to coax me off his wheel (a fat boy match sprinter type) made an attack and half the field said 'yeah, he'll get reeled right back in so fuck it'. Woops. Somehow he stayed off the front and 4 of us worked our asses off a half lap later without reward. Took 3rd on the last sprint, putting me at 3rd place in points. Last race of the night was a standard 15 lap scratch. There was a three way tie for first place omnium points - me, my good friend JM, and fat dude match sprinter. I sat out of the wind and let other people call the attacks while following close behind - with each attack the field got split slightly more, until with about 2 laps to go iit was just me and my buddy JM. I tried to come around a bit early, couldn't quit squeeze the gap @ 250m and kept pounding. JM did it smart and guarded the sprinter's lane without actually diving in - a really tactical play because it usually results in the guy behind you dicking around tryin to figure out if he can safely squeeze the gap on the low side or just come around up high. Being a little too cautious from only getting back on the track a few days before, I chose the latter. Bad decision. Didn't quite have the leg speed to come around at the finish line, so JM took 1st and I held in at 2nd, putting us at 1st and 2nd overall, respectively, for the night. One more mass start next week and then it's time for CX.

Re: coffee and beer As far as coffee shops, we have a handful of really good roasters. Stumptown basically started it all here and they're the behemoth but IMO have gone a little downhill in quality over the years. Still, if you like nerding out on different single origin stuff, the annex on Belmont or the shop @ Ace Hotel is worth checking as you can order a pourover in a variety of different Water Avenue Coffee is super good and not that well known right now. Easily up there with Blue Bottle in Oakland - actually, kinda like BB it's in the industrialish area of PDX. Definitely recommended on the quality tip. There's also Courier Coffee, Ristretto Roasters, Barista, etc. All good, all smaller operations. Just depends on what part of town you want to venture into. In terms of beer you have three main options: go to a beer bar (Horsebrass and Bailey's Taproom are two of the best), go to a brewery (there's a shit ton just in city limits) or go to a bottle shop. But hell, even 7/11 and your standard grocery store has a decent selection of microbrews here. Plenty of places to go on all of them. If you're like me and can't get enough Belgium beer, there's a new spot called Bazi Bierbrasserie that has a bunch of Belgiums on tap and bottled, as well as frites and other Belgium choice Belgian food items. Aight, that's it for now. Pics of my track racer + a report of last night's omnium events at the velodrome in a bit...

Yeah, Waterfront is the direction I'd point you towards. Dang, wish I had my roadie so I could show you around some of the steeper hills West Portland has to offer. To point the way though, all the close-in hills from downtown are basically off Skyline Rd. What we do to get big elevation in is basically zig-zag the hills that connect Skyline and HWY 30 - Germantown, Newberry, McNamee, Cornelius Pass and Logie Trail are some of the more well-known/well-ridden ones. On that note, Logie Trail Rd. IMO is the closest thing PDX has to Pinehurst, minus the insanely narrowness of that road. The switchbacks are fierce, though, and on the way up that hill seems like it's never gonna end. If you have a bit more time, the Multnomah Falls ride is basically a rite of passage for roadies here, but it'll take a good 4.5+ hours to do. Great views though. Rubbertothread.com has a nice list of routes btw, so check it as you get closer to coming. You're going to be here around the time cross season really starts heating up so if you can squeeze it, definitely try to check out a CX race or two, especially if it's the Cross Crusade series - it'll change your whole view on what a race venue is and should be. Coffee and beer are two things I can't live without and Portland has tons to offer for both. Thats's another post in itself - 12oz is glitching on me right now so I'll get into it another time.

Just swapped out the Deda Pista's on my Concept for some compact road drops and shaved a cool 55mm off the steertube/slammed that stem/went to a 140mm. Feels good man. Pics soon..... track racing is the only thing I can do right now in lieu of having a road bike so I'm stoked to get out again tomorrow night. I did a race Sunday and took third in the 3's, but that was the first race back from having a freakish crash a year ago where my front wheel ejected and I went straight from the wall to my head. Banking on a good result tomorrow but it's probably gonna be a 1/2/3 field, so we'll see how it goes. New cross frame just shipped in today (!!)

that the former bike from dude @ forallmyfriends.com ? feelin' like creeper knowing that, but i have a big e-crush on all of his bikes. was/is my dream bike.

Interesting... Yeah my idea for racing SS on my geared bike is to keep the derailleur on for chain tensioning, use my Surly SS cog in the middle of the cassette where the 17t would otherwise be on a regular cassette, have two 25t cogs on either side and spacers across the rest of the cassette body. If that works (the only mystery is whether a 10 speed chain will mate up with a Surly cog), I should be able to swap between SS and geared in about 3 minutes.

Joker - if all goes right I think I'm gonna try to do SS and A's on the same bike. Putting the gears back on my CX bike for now though since I don't have a geared roadie anymore.

CX roll call list........... Who's getting stoked for the season?

weird. yeah, my gut feeling was cleat position change. always seems to mess up my legs in some way or another.

changed anything on your fit lately?

Nice work Choc. Joker, my only guess is it's something blood sugar related. Definitely get that checked before CX time. XJonathonX, I've ridden 53/19 for the last 3 or 4 years. Works for everything outside the track. 48/16 is a little steep for road riding IMO - you want to spin and have the versatility to get up steeper hills. Otherwise just get a road bike.