Cross Crusade at Alpenrose 2009

A posse of Vigilantes raced last Sunday at the Cross Crusade at Alpenrose Dairy.

Jeremy - Beginner
Jimmy – Beginner
Robin – Beginner women
Chuck – Master C
David – C
Dave - B
Darrin – B
Dylan - SS
Tony - SS
Chris – SS, Master A

Jason - Master A
Nick – SS, A

Darrin got 3rd and Dave got 7th in the B's. Nick got 7th and Dylan got 10th in the Singlespeeds.
Chris rode the SS race with a helmet cam. We put the footage together into a couple of videos.

alpenrose 09 chris mix from Dylan VanWeelden on Vimeo.

alpenrose 09 dylan mix from Dylan VanWeelden on Vimeo.

Robin S. took a bunch of photos from several of the races. Robin C. did her first cross race.

Crossin' at the Asylum

The Cross Crusade venue this week was at Villebois which is built on the site of an old asylum.

Sandbagging Dave hogged the podium from his Alpenrose win.

Luckily the weather was nice because there would have been a lot more carnage if all the rutted bumpy sections were muddy. Dave AKA Sandbagger #1 won the C's again. We had vigilantes sprinkled throughout the classes including David Fee in his scout uniform in Master's C. Eric took home a 6 pack from his placing last week.

Here's Dave gunning for a solid sandbagging win. Who knows how many more races they let him race C's. He's due for a callout to the B's any day.

Here's Chris doing the bunnyhop remount in the Master's A. No sandbagging here with a 24th place finish. 24th is good for a six pack next week.

James showing how light his bike is with a new fork after last week's spectacle.

even more Pain (and dust) on the Peak

Shane Young at OregonVelo posted some great pictures from the Pain on the Peak. He was kind enough to let us post some with the help of Health & Performance Chiropractic.

Here's Chris remounting in the dust.

Here's DaveD powering up the final straight before he broke his seatpost. Here's Joe rocking the lower meadow in one of the TWO races he did that day.Here's Tony leaping the triple big log barrier on his way to 2nd place in Masters B.

Pain (and dust) on the Peak

The first actual cyclocross race of the season was today. Pain on the Peak was a dusty lumpy hilly windy hot race put on by Portland Velo. It was a great start to the season. Most of the course was plowed into a hay field on the top of Bald Peak. The combination of golden grass and 180 degree views from Portland to the coast range was spectacular.

Tony and Joe both raced Masters B and they pulled off a nearly perfect bookend. Tony got 2nd and Joe had last of the finishers. Both guys were hard to recognize after their race because they were covered head to toe in black sweaty dust.

I raced Masters A. At one point in the first lap, the dust in the air was so thick I couldn't see the rider in front of me, much less the course. We were riding on trust and memory. Fortunately our invisible conga line made it through without much mishap. As the field spread out, the worst of the dust was gone and we were able to see what we had been riding through blind. Luckily in the dusty blind sections there were no barriers. I rode without mishap and placed 17th. Ryan Trebon showed up and schooled all comers. I think he lapped the entire A's field. Some of us were lapped by Treefarm multiple times.

Pictures to follow. I've never ridden in dust like that so the pics are sure to be incredible. Next week we're all headed to Starcrossed and then off to CrossVegas!

-Chris

What do do when not racing the TTT

The road riding around Canby is stellar. Low traffic and lots of rolling twisty back roads. The ferry makes a nice break in the endless back roads.

Some of the roads were a little narrower than others.
We checked out the elevator in Oregon City. Pretty cool and a unique way to descend on a bike.

A lot less suffering was involved on this ride than with the TTT crew.

Urban Assault on the Big Big Wheel

Check out Oregon Velo for tons of pictures from our Big Big Wheel assault on the streets of Portland. Riding the little big wheels on wet brick at the end of the ride was almost as fun as rocking the Big Big Wheel down the switchbacks on the Esplanade. We got lots of photo coverage here on the Urban Assault blog.

Also, there are some videos on Youtube Bigwheels and human wheelbarrows .

All said, it was about as much fun as you can have on a bike...outside of a cyclocross race of course.

Urban Assault on the Big Big Wheel

The Vigilantes have a secret weapon for when the racing gets serious. We (David, Eric, and Chris) took the Big Big Wheel to the Urban Assault Bike Ride and DOMINATED the streets of Portland. Here's David getting an early break on the Hawthorne Bridge.
Here's David getting some serious speed. The tassles are flying. Eric taking a turn through on the way to Plan B.
This is the view from the cockpit of the baddest racing machine on the block. We were cruising up Belmont.
Uhh. I don't want to talk about it.
Oregon Velo has more pics. Here are a few favorites:
The tow rig Limbo Little Big Wheel Stompin Fuel