A weekend of racing and a new hatred for the SRAM chain

Saturday saw the OBRA Championships down in Salem. Clayton and I headed down for the fun. Clayton rocked the C race to a 6th place looking really strong for sure. He spent the whole race in no mans land just behind the lead group of guys in a headwind that would knock you over if you weren't careful. Solid. Then, just in time for the B race the rain came. At least the wind died down, but it made for a very wet affair. Worked out well for me and I snagged a spot on the podium, hard work for sure and quite a battle with the Portland Velo boys. Now a few beers and on to Sunday...

All lined up and ready to rock the B race at Cross Crusade number 7 and luck was not on my side. The call up had me sitting nicely in row two on a course I knew I would love. No real climbs, 3 run ups and miles of mud, what could be better? Fifteen seconds to go, bring it on, stoked. Racers ready, oh yeah. Go, snap, not moving, wtf, oh, stupid chain. That sums it up. At least I had a spare bike there for the WCSSCX so I yell to Clayton, get that SS to the pit as I start the jog. I get to the pit and mount the trusty Voodoo. Um, what was I thinking when I put this gear on, good god. That hurt. 32x13, bad idea. That about sums that up. And then, on to the WCSSCX race. I pull out the short shorts and throw on the Grundel formal kit and have, well, a lot of fun. Hamer and I hung out in the back for a while then he decided to call it a day, um, crap, I guess I'd better race then. With Brian so far up the road krushing it at the front I suppose I'll just try to make some friends out here. For some reason no one was really into chatting, odd. I even had someone throw down for a full on sprint finish for what must have been like, 100th place or something, really? Um, it's yours...

Hats of to the designers of that madness, short cut, nuff said. All in all, a fun day of racing out there. The Grundellegion saw the return, straight off the IR, our very own V-Power bringing home some glory in the womens race. Welcome back Lid. Saweet. All in all a day of a few mishaps, some strong racing by the boys, and perfect cross weather. Now on to the recovering from racing two races with gearing that should only be used by Magnus Ver Magnusson. Bring on Barlow.

Photo by Stephen Fitzgerald

Gründelbarriers and Oh so much fün

So really, when the idea hit us to rock the Halloween weekend as the Gründelbarriers who knew it would be that much fun. Really though, the fun started Friday night during some seriously awesome cross weather. Hanging with our great friends from Team Beer proved to be nothing short of wicked good times. I'm pretty sure wind and rain actually make it better. And then, well, racing, really? It seemed so far from a good idea to race on Saturday, but we went for it, and had a blast doing so. That course was fun. A couple of top 10s for us even, who knew. And well, that leads us to the rest. If you were there you've got your own awesome stories, and if you weren't, well, you should have been. I'm willing to bet that all the Gründel have some bruises from the barrier throwdown but it sure was fun. Perhaps the best and most fitting end to the fun was the Lana/Ambeer ass slapping followed by a french maid dustdown. They knew we were dirty. A big thanks to all y'all that were out there in Astoria for one heck of an awesome weekend of racing and mayhem. I have a feeling this weekend will be no different as a few of us prove to the world we're rad singlespeeders...