My trip has been a very enjoyable success so far; connecting with friends, dealing with storage and doing 3+ hour training rides with lots of climbing daily. Staying with good friend, head coach and owner of Aeolus Endurance Sports, Adnan Kadir and his wife Stacy. They also run the Oregon branch of Life Cycle Adventures. Got to ride with coached athlete, randoneur Rick Blacker and showed him some of the great climbs around the area (Greenleaf, Thompson, 53rd, etc.). I miss being able to climb right out the front door so I am getting my fill while I can.

Raced PIR (Portland International Raceway) last night for the first time in a year or more here during my week long trip to Portland. It never ceases to amaze me how prolific bike racing and cycling are here in Portland. Once again we had over 100 riders in the masters 1/2/3 field last night. Made for some fast, and at times, sketchy racing.

PIR is a closed. 2.2 mile car racing track that has an infield that allows for warming up off the course. It’s huge, smooth and wide open and able to accomodate several races at a time and huge fields. Masters racing goes on Monday nights and there is such a huge populous of riders in PDX that they have equally large fields on Tue nights for categorized races. Women’s fields, inline races and even MTB and cross races on the infield as the season progresses into fall, make this a one of a kind venue.

http://www.racemondaynight.com/blog/

http://www.obra.org/flyers/2010/tues_pir.html

http://www.facebook.com/MondayPIR?ref=ts

It was great to see some familiar faces and get to race with good friends, Hugh Givens (BicycleAttorney.com), Brad Ross (River City Racing) and Richard Lorenz (Beaverton Bicycle Club). Got into another one of those damn and doomed two man breaks with probably the strongest rider in the field and local ‘cross legend, Shannon Skerrit (Vanilla Bicycles). he proceeded to absolutely break my legs with pulls at least several miles an hour faster than mine. Our get away was short lived although probably one of the more successfull attempts of the night.

Tried to mix it up in the sprint but blew it in the last corner. Not surprising as it usually takes me a few tries to begin to figure that one out. It’s a hairy one to say the least. Great times and a great close to a nice 3 day block of training. Time to enjoy a rest day, catching up with friends and dealing with the rest of my belongings. Hoping for decent weather tomorrow so I can enjoy doing the infamous Lawyer Ride before I head home. Looking forward to doing Lake Luisa on Tue and the Tampa Wed Night Crit next week. See you there!

~JDS

In June we will be having an omnium for the Wed Night Crit series. Each week we will have a payout for the race and those placings will count toward the overall for the month. The last weekend of the month we will host a finale race where double points and separate payout will be awarded. There will be separate prize money paid out to the following categories at that race.

June Series

• Top 5 overall in A’s
• Top 5 overall in B’s
• Most improved rider
• Best female rider

Should make things even more fun and interesting. Find out more about these upcoming events and the watch the video form the races at the links below.

June Omnium Finale Race
Weekly Racing Clinic Series
Week 1 Crit Video

~JDS

Check out this site for FREE, live coverage of the Tour of California…

 http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

~JDS

Congrats to our top placers and thanks to all who participated. Another great week of racing. We had a nice group of about 15 riders partake in our short cornering clinic before the race where we practiced cornering and counter steering before the start of the B race. Hopefully this helped those who participated have an even smoother race.

With this aim in mind, we had a separate race for Cat 4’s and 5’s at 6pm and for Cat 1-4 riders at 6:30. After a little pre-race grumbling and chatter, things went very smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy the format well enough.

B Race

The B race of 30 riders kicked off fast and furious with a first lap prime. Riding on the back of it showed me these B’s were out to race, and enjoyed a nice pace. Eventually a break of 3 got up the road with aboout 5 laps to go and up and coming rider Steve Baltic out kicked his break away companions Rigoberto Rielo and Angel Canter. Yosvani Rosell took the field sprint ahead of Johnathan Stewart.

1) Steve Baltic
2) Rigoberto Rielo
3) Angel Canter
4) Yosvani Rosell
5) Jonathan Stewart

A Race

After a great finish to our first B race in which many new and old riders took to their first race or first race back, the A race started fast and furious. Riders were pushing the pace early and after incessant attacks, the decisive move went with 18 laps to go after a very speedy, tough start. It started with only 4-6 of us but quickly grew to around 10 or so after Mark Stein, Steve Baltic and others bridged up with a monster effort.

I was suffering badly at the hands of my breakaway companions who were much stronger on the day and pulling like mad around me. State crit champions Didier & Pablo Santa Cruz, strong man David Alexanrdou, recent pro ½ podium placer Darren Dowling, returning legend Kurt Phillips and ex-Navigators pro Ken Vida took turns killing us. As a result, the break wasn’t working together very well I was just happy to be there at this point.

After many attacks and reshufflings, Ken Vida an Frank Lopez got away while the rest of us made attempts to either get across, bring them back or hold on for dear life. Ken and Frank ended up staying away after several attempts by our group to bring them back. I made a last pull with 1 lap to go and sat up dead to watch a knackered Darren Dowling take the sprint win ahead of a strong Pablo and Tim Carbone.

1) Ken Vida
2) Frank Lopez
3) Darren Dowling
4) Pablo Santa Cruz
5) Tim Carbone

It was a great outing for our first clinic and B race in only our 3rd week. A good time was had by most and most importantly, we all stayed upright. I am most enthused about the positivity, enthusiasm and excitement I see out there so far each week. Our goal is to keep it up while improving things weekly. I am super grateful for the support, hopeful for the future and looking forward to next week.

Cheers until then,

~JDS

Visit the crit and clinics pages at www.endurofit.com

That’s right. This week newbies to racing or veterans who want to hone their skills can get a free pre-race coaching session with USAC Elite Coach and top local riders from 5:30 to 6pm. It’s a great way to hone your skills and WU for the B race at 6pm.

This week we also start a separate B race for category 4 & 5 riders from 6-6:30pm followed immediately by the A race for 1’s, 2’s and 3’s.

Wed Night Crit

http://www.endurofit.com/Events/Tampa%20Training%20Crit.html

This will help provide opportunity to everyone to get some practice and be competitive. our goal is safety, fun, competition and development. These new additions will be fixtures weekly from here forward. Also be on the lookout for 90 min racing and skills clinics to start this weekend.

Beginner’s Clinics

http://www.endurofit.com/Events/Events.html

This month the 30 min clinics are free of charge as a courtesy to racers locally. Next month we will begin offering full 90 minute clinics on the weekends after the group rides to more fully develop your skills, racing and fitness. Stay tuned for more info.

Look forward to seeing you all there tomorrow.

~JDS