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More Fazio Farms CX from Jeff Curtes
Photographer and Speedvagen cross racer Jeff Curtes snapped some great photos of me during this past weekend's Fazio Farms CX race. The course is a really flat and rutted farmland that features three steep climbs and descents that have been created by the farm construction equipment. It makes for a really cool course visually as you get to ride in and around the construction equipment. It's also tough as hell but a lot of fun. Thanks Jeff!
Fazio Farms CX Race
Me hitting the first barrier on lap #1.
Ironclad Cycling knows how to put on a CX race. This course is unique and challenging in that the climbs and descents on the otherwise flat farmland were built by dump trucks and backhoes. And they are steep. This race happens twice a year usually and it is a completely different ballgame once the rain starts. I was feeling good today and I ended up taking the win - not sure which was tougher, the dusty washboard or the legion of hecklers at the top of the climbs. Big props to my wife Lu for grabbing some really awesome shots.
I was sitting in 2nd on the first lap, then I chose my moment on the bumpy washboard and attacked. The move stuck.
If that isn't called heckle hill, it should be. Those guys were brutal up there!
Me climbing solo.
What other race has you riding under the construction equipment that built the course?
The large rock piles provided some cool scenery, but those rocks were also all over the course. Lots of flats, tubulars were a good choice on this course.
Me climbing somewhere towards the end. I had a good lead but was terrified of a flat.
You can't quite tell from the photo but this was a monster descent. Don't freak out, don't touch the brakes, just hang on!
That descent then shot you right up this hill at about 30mph. A 180 turn at the top took a bit of skill.
Once I was done racing I grabbed the camera and got a few shots of the next group of racers.
Bridge Of The Gods Ride
This is hands down one of my favorite rides in the Portland area, and my last big solo training ride before the PDX > LAX ride. BoG is a 110+ mile loop through Washington and over the steel grate of the Bridge Of The Gods. On the way back you're treated to one of the most beautiful roads in Oregon, the Old Columbia River Highway. On this occasion I rode over something sharp and slashed both of my sidewalls, so the last 70 miles were done at a snail's pace. So I took the opportunity to grab these photos, eat a cheeseburger, and generally just enjoy the hell out of the day.
Richard Sachs + House Industries Cyclocross Exhibition
Whenever I'm in NYC I always try to swing by the Rapha Cycle Club for a well-made coffee and a brush up on my cycling history. They've currently got a great Richard Sachs + House Industries cyclocross exhibition going on with tons of ephemera and unique House-designed souvineers on display. Richard's personal backup race bike is the star of the show, and it is a beautiful sight indeed. I especially love the hand-painted Cole race wheels. If you're in the area don't sleep on this great little exhibit. It'll be on display until September 21st. More details on the Rapha blog.
#crossishere
If you race enough cross, sooner or later you're going to go down. There's a little more blood in summer cross because there's no slippery layer of mud to cushion your fall.
Regardless of how you feel about early season cyclocross, it is a fact of life (at least in Portland). I'd race cross year round if they'd let me, so I couldn't be happier. Summer cross is a different beast than the typical raining, freezing, muddy mess we get in the fall. It's much faster due to dry ground, but to me it no less fun. More photos to come throughout the (now very long) cross season in Portland.
Grand Prix Ryan Tonkin race #1 at David Douglas Park in Vancouver, WA
Grand Prix Ryan Tonkin race #1 at David Douglas Park in Vancouver, WA
Grand Prix Ryan Tonkin race #1 at David Douglas Park in Vancouver, WA
Cross training on Leif Erickson trail in Forest Park
Keizer Rapids CX series. Very dry, hot and lots of singletrack. The course will not look this in a couple months time!
Stay tuned, LIOTR frame stickers coming to the store very soon!
After riding across the country and getting injured, Andrew looks to a new challenge.
Andrew was in pain so he got a Cortisol shot on day 5 of the ride. But that tiny bandaid actually hid a really big problem. A genetically misaligned kneecap which resulted in torn ligament & cartilage on the back of the patella. The cartilage can't be repaired.
In September 2014, Mike will once again throw a leg over the LIOTR Speedvagen in a 14 day ride from Portland to Los Angeles, while Andrew will be shifting focus to a new herculean challenge: swimming across Lake George in two days. Here's the big news, in his own words.
On January 2nd of this year, I had to sit in an exam room and listen to two doctors tell me that due to a knee injury that had progressed beyond repair, I would never again run, ride competitively, or compete in a triathlon. Considering the role these activities have played in my life, I was devastated. These things were so entrenched in what I did every day, I wasn't even sure who I was without them.
But they never told me I couldn't swim. So I started swimming. Slowly and for short distances at first, but gaining strength and speed with each workout. Then one day, about halfway through a four mile workout, it occurred to me that maybe I had found a new way to fight back in the battle against cancer. I started thinking about long swims I could potentially do to raise funds and awareness. None of the big channel swims (English Channel, Catalina, the swim around Manhattan Island) seemed possible due to the amount of support needed and the huge cost that went along with that. However, the lake I grew up on, Lake George in upstate the New York, is 32 miles long, or 11 miles longer than the English Channel. I still have friends in the area who have boats on the lake, and I figured I could surely get one of the to offer up their boat as the support vehicle for a swim attempt.
Andrew's nightly routine on the cross country ride. As the days got longer, the ice and recovery time got a lot more important.
As the idea started to take shape in my head, I began thinking about the challenges of training, and the logistical challenges of the swim itself. First I had to break it into terms I could understand; a riding equivalent. Based on the paces I was holding in the pool, around 2 1/4 miles an hour, and assuming I could hold about 2 mph for the duration of the swim, I would be swimming for about 17 hours. Assuming I hold about a 17.5 mph average on the bike (which is right around where Mike and I were last year), this would equal out to about a 300 mile ride. That would be a pretty tough stretch for a single day. Then the practical side of the logistics. Lake George is a very crowded lake in terms of boat traffic, but it drops off significantly right after Labor Day. This is also about when the lake is at it's warmest. Unfortunately there are only a little over 12 hours of daylight this time of year. That would mean swimming the whole thing in one day would require five hours of swimming in the dark, so I decided to break the swim into two days. On the first day I will swim 22 miles, or 1 mile more than the English Channel, leaving 10 miles for the second day.
With a plan in place I began training. I lucked upon a great training group in town and they got behind my cause 100%. A shoulder injury set in early on due to poor stroke mechanics and a couple of local coaches volunteered to step in and help me figure it out and fix it. I lost a month of training, but quickly got caught back up. I spent most of the winter staring at pool tiles and counting laps. I hit the gym to strengthen my shoulders and upper body and eventually put on ten pounds (while dropping the bit of fat that I had picked up while figuring out what to do without being able to ride). I ate bacon for fuel. LOTS of bacon. When the monotony of 500 laps in the pool got to me, I reminded myself of the cancer survivors, and patients for whom I was swimming. Their inspiration drove me on. As the summer arrived, I first moved to outdoor pools, and now to open water training. In the open water I have found what I so missed in running and riding; the inspiration of being outside training in the beauty of the mountains. Catching glimpses of the sun rising over the waves with each breath, or the sunrise painting the Rockies pink, has restored what I found so special about training in running shoes or on the bike.
My goal is now very close, and I am feeling up to the challenge. The training is getting faster, the swims longer. My confidence has returned. Once again, the strength of the inspiration of cancer survivors has prevailed over adversity. I feel very lucky to get this chance, but also very lucky to have met so many amazing cancer survivors over the years whose stories have helped me develop the perspective it takes to feel fortunate to continue my athletic career, rather than unfortunate to have lost my ability to run and ride. The challenges I am facing are nothing compared to what all of them have been through, but they taught me that when one door closes, you just have to kick another one right the hell open.
Mike and I have talked about what our next adventures will be. With me now going in a different direction, we’ve decided that he will continue the management of Leave It On The Road, and I will head off on my new adventure. It doesn’t have a name yet, but we will be announcing it soon, and hopefully it will inspire just as LIOTR has. I don’t know yet where this new adventure will end, but I know where it will begin, on a lake in upstate New York in September.