Oregon's Site for Bicycle Racing News

Starla Teddergreen won the Open Women's race at the final Monday Night PIR of the season.

PORTLAND — Monday Night PIR closed out the season with two new winners in the Open Women and Masters Cat 1/2/3 races. River City Bicycles’ Eirik Schulz warmed up for the coming cyclocross season with a winning evening on the race track’s wide tarmac. Schulz notched 16 points, two better than runners-up Dan Quirk (Veloce Racing) and James Karmer (Arizona Masters Racing). The Open Women’s race saw series leader Lisa Reeve back at the front, but newcomer Starla Teddergreen (Vanderkitten) squeaked out the win with 18 points, just one better than Reeve in second. Veloforma’s Tina Brubaker was third with 12 points.

Hammer Velo’s Keith Levesque won the Masters 3/4 race ahead of Team Oregon’s Aaron Aikin and Ironclad’s Shaun Conley. Catherine Cooper (Word-RCB) won the Novice Women’s race, and Rob Fleskes (Harder Cycling) won the Novice Men’s race.

GETTING THE GARMINS
Lisa Reeve (Veloforma) and Christian Tresser (Cyclepath) took home the Garmin Edge 305 units courtesy of Strava.com as winners of the Women’s and Masters 1/2/3 monthly series for August. Monthly winners in all the categories also won green PIR Series Leader jerseys and gift certificates to Laurelwood Brewing.

Sprinting for hot spot points in close quarters.

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RESULTS
Monday Night PIR
August 30

Senior Women
1. Teddergreen, Starla (Vanderkitten) 18.0
2. Reeve, Lisa (Veloforma) 17.0
3. Brubaker, Tina (Veloforma) 12.0
4. Levo, Jenn (Bridgetown Velo) 9.0
5. Kaplan, Jessica (Therapeutic Associates Cycling/GENR8) 7.0
Masters 1/2/3
1. Schulz, Eirik (Specialized River City Bicycles) 15.0
2. Quirk, Daniel (Veloce Racing) 13.0
3. Kramer, James (Arizona Masters Racing) 13.0
4. Heaberlin, Cliff (Guinness Cycling Team) 12.0
5. French, Eddie (Guinness Cycling Team) 10.0 (more…)

Davy Yeater leads the men's race early as the field kicks up a dust cloud at Kruger's Farm Sunday. Photo credit: Pat Malach

SAUVIE ISLAND — The Kruger’s Kermesse Farm Criterium bid a dusty welcome to Oregon’s cyclocross season Sunday at this U-pick farm on Sauvie Island northwest of Portland. Molly Cameron took the win in the Men’s A event after soloing the last half of the race in front of last year’s Cross Crusade winner Sean Babcock (Team S&M) and River City Bicycles’ Ian Brown. Speedvagen’s Tina Brubaker took the Women’s A win alone ahead of River City Bicycles’ Amy Campbell and Brigette Brown.

Molly Cameron soloed in for the win in the Men's A race. Photo credit: Pat Malach

The nearly 2 km dirt course had no barriers or run-ups but featured plenty of finely ground dust, especially on the backside near the cornfields and farmhouses. Traversing hard-packed farm roads and some lesser-traveled paths, most riders chose ‘cross bikes for the day.

River City Bicycles’ Davey Yeater animated the men’s race early with a burst from the line that strung out the pack and started making an immediate selection. Aaron Olson, who got his road racing start in Oregon before riding in Europe with T-Mobile and Saunier-Duvall and then coming back to the states with Bissell and Colavita/Sutter Home, made the move to bring back Yeater. Cameron was the only rider able to eventually get on his wheel.

With Yeater dispatched and spit out the back of the chasing groups as well, Olson and Cameron powered on until Olson met with some untimely luck and apparently flatted, leaving Cameron alone at the front to press home the advantage the pair had worked for.

“Aaron brought Davy back, and then that was the race after that,” Cameron said. “Aaron had a gap and I got up to it. I saw Ian and Sean back there behind me and I was just totally cross-eyed. I mean I was just lucky that Aaron flatted or he would have put the screws to me today, for sure. It was a fast road race there, you know.”

With Brown and Babcock trading off powering the chase, Cameron kept the pace high and maintained a fairly consistent 15- to 20-second gap by riding the hard section hard and trying to recover whenever possible.

“There’s like 50 feet of elevation, and I was making a point of hitting it as hard as I could on that part,” Cameron said. “Then there’s a downhill section where you can kind of recover. I was going as hard as I could, I mean all out, then I’d get to the top and catch my breath for a couple seconds.”

It was a strategy that paid off for Cameron, who crossed the line alone ahead of Babcock in second and then Brown trailing in for third.

BRUBAKER CONQUERS CLOUDS FOR WOMEN’S WIN

Tina Brubaker added another criterium to her palmares, this time on the farm. Photo credit: Pat Malach

In the Women’s A race, Speedvagen’s Tina Brubaker joined River City Bicycles’ Amy Campbell and Brigette Brown on the front as the trio circled the hard-packed roads around the pumpkin and melon fields that dotted the first three-fourths of the course. The riders hung tight together for the first half of the race until Brown got hung up in traffic from fields that had started minutes before the women.

“There was a guy that Brigette couldn’t get around in the last corner and we kind of gapped her off a little bit,” Brubaker said.

From that point on, it was a battle of two accomplished road criterium riders; Brubaker most recently wining the Ironclad Hillsboro Criterium and Campbell finishing second at the Vancouver and Franz Bakery criteriums.

“We had a good one-two going,” Brubaker said. “It was a tough battle. It’s a really hard and fast course.”

But the battle was cut short in the closing laps by mechanicals. First Brubaker broke her front derailleur, then Campbell suffered a more catastrophic dropped chain when a piece of metal lodged in her drivetrain. Campbell removed the debris and replaced the chain, but the delay gave Brubaker enough of an advantage to solo the last three laps for the win.

“I looked up and saw that she had just dropped her chain,” Brubaker said, “but then I saw her get off her bike and I was like, “Alright, I just gotta keep riding.’”

Campbell was back in the race quickly enough to hold onto her second-place spot, with Brown crossing the line next for third.

OBRA’s cyclocross season takes off in full two weeks from now with the Cross Over Stage Race in Eugene and the Pain & Suffr’n CX race on Bald Peak outside of Portland.

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RESULTS
Kruger’s Kermesse Farm Crit
Sunday, Aug. 29

Men A
1. Molly Cameron (Portland Bicycle Studio)
2. Sean Babcock (Team S&M)
3. Ian Brown (River City Bicycles)
Women A
1. Tina Brubaker (Speedvagen)
2. Amy Campbell (River City Bicycles)
3. Brigette Brown (River City Bicycles)
(more…)

Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island will host the Kruger's Kermesse Farm Crit Sunday. File Photo / Pat Malach

Road racing takes a well-deserved break this weekend, but the first race on the OBRA 2010 cyclocross calendar picks up the slack. Sunday’s Kruger’s Kermesse Farm Crit presented by Bike N Hike bills itself as a perfect transition between the road and ‘cross seasons, and Oregon’s MTB season continues with the Stagecoach XC in Jacksonville. For those not yet ready to head off the pavement, the OBRA Masters Track Championships run Saturday and Sunday at Alpenrose Dairy Velodrome in southwest Portland.

SATURDAY, Aug. 28

OBRA Masters Track Championships; Alpenrose Velodrome
Masters men and women will battle over two days for the 2010 OBRA championships in six age-graded categories. Saturday’s racing will include time trials, sprints and keirins. Racing starts at 10 a.m.

Stagecaoch XC; Jacksonville
This is what an MTB cross country race is all about. Epic climbs to the tune of almost 2,000 vertical ft of elevation gain, sweet single-track trail and demanding descents will make this one of the most technical courses of the year. While the overall distance seems short, this course will require every bit of your resolve! Registration is from 7-9 a.m. Racing starts at 10 a.m.

SUNDAY, Aug. 29

OBRA Masters Track Championships; Alpenrose Velodrome
Masters men and women will battle over two days for the 2010 OBRA championships in six age-graded categories. Sunday’s racing will include points races, madisons and pursuits.

Kruger’s Kermesse Farm Crit; Sauvie Island
Although it’s called a crit, this event will probably feel more like a fast and non-technical ‘cross race over hard-packed farm roads. The course at Kruger’s Farm on Sauvie Island will feature some potholes and ruts, a sprinkle of gravel, a bit of sand, and, depending on the weather, possibly some mud. However, everything will be 100 percent rideable with no barriers or dismounts. The spectator-friendly venue, which also hosts the Kruger’s Crossing cyclocross race in late November, will feature live music, a beer garden, catered food and, of course, a kiddie race. Registration opens at 9 a.m. Racing starts at 11 a.m.

Oakridge Super D; Westfir
The second race of the Oregon Super D Series hits southern Oregon Sunday at this Oakridge event. A Super D/Enduro mountain bike race is best described as a downhill cross-country race. It encompasses roughly 80 percent descending and 20 percent climbing built into the course. Super D racing is for the all-around rider with DH, XC and Freeride skills. Racing starts at 10 a.m.

A calm start to the Gentleman's Ride

By Emiliano Jordan
The 2010 Rapha Gentlemen’s Ride Northwest turned into an epic day of battling heat, dust, sharp rocks and, according to my GPS, 8,755 feet of vertical. It what was one of the hardest courses I’ve ever done.

My day started out innocently enough with a quick “hi” to Rapha’s Slate Olson, who I haven’t seen in too long, followed by a trip into the winery and some careful loading of calories into my jersey pockets. Then with some time to spare the Team Oregon’s group sat on a few pallets to avoid the already intense sun.  Some jokes were passed around and playing the alphabet game is mentioned, “Yeah, but will we pass a Dairy Queen, or will we be stuck on Q for the whole ride?”  This, as with most starting-line plans, quickly fell apart when confronted with the reality of how hard this day would be.

I Love Tarmac

Like most team, after going out in a tailwind we were excited by our average speed. Our rotation was working well and we were reminding each other to eat and drink in the heat. While we didn’t know it at the time, passing the Portland Bicycle Studio’s riders when they pulled over to fix a flat was an eerie omen of events to come. Undaunted, we passed through turns and along the gorgeous country side between Forest grove and south west Columbia County. (more…)

One more week remains in this season's PIR Tuesday Nighter race series.

PORTLAND — Rubicon-Orbea’s prolific winner Roman van Uden notched one last victory in Oregon Tuesday night at PIR before heading home to New Zealand next week. The Portland Twilight Criterium winner racked up 21 points over the evening in a tight battle with Rapha Racing’s John Leonard, who finished just one point behind. Guinness Cycling’s Cliff Heaberlin and Jason Riffle (HPC/Scott’s Cycles) tied with 15.

Hammer Velo’s Lincoln Wettenhall won the Cat 3/4 race in front of Mark Crawford (Ironclad Performance Wear) and Brad Whetstone (Colorado State). Jesse Trigg won the Cat 4/5 race ahead of Matthew Rider (Team Bike Tires Direct) and Michael Scalzo.

John Leonard (Rapha Racing) battled Rubicon-Orbea's Roman van Uden all evening and finished one point short of the New Zealand rider..

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RESULTS
PIR Tuesday Nighter
August 24

Pro/1/2/3
1. Van Uden, Roman (Rubicon-ORBEA) 21
2. Leonard, John (Rapha Racing) 20
3. Heaberlin, Cliff (Guinness Cycling Team) 15
4. Riffle, Jason (HPC/Scott’s Cycles) 15
5. Harwood, Jeff (Ironclad Performance Wear) 13
Cat 3/4
1. Wettenhall, Lincoln (Hammer Velo) 18
2. Crawford, Mark (Ironclad Performance Wear) 13
3. Whetstone, Brad (Colorado state) 12
4. Penner, Daniel (Ironclad Performance Wear) 11
5. Weinstein, Jason
Cat 4/5
1. Trigg, Jesse 15
2. Rider, Matthew (Team Bike Tires Direct) 12
3. Scalzo, Michael 10
4. Webb, Emerson (Beaverton Bicycle Club) 10
5. Russell, Cameron 9
(more…)

The OBRA Criterium Championships Sunday in Albany awarded medals to the top three in multiple age- and skill-graded categories.

ALBANY — Cycling invaded these downtown streets for the 3rd Annual Historic Albany Criterium, the second year this wide-open, super-fast, six-corner course has hosted the championships. Moderate summer weather and the popular venue combined for a beautiful day of racing.

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(more…)

Gentle Lovers' Steven Beardsley takes the win at the OBRA Criterium Championships Sunday in Albany.

ALBANY — Steven Beardsley kept the OBRA criterium champion’s jersey in the Gentle Lovers family for the third straight year Sunday by taking a bunch sprint for the win in front of Stephen Bedford (Word-RCB) and his teammate Pete Groblewski.

In the women’s race, Flywheel Bicycle Solutiuons rider Jade Wilcoxson repeated her 2009 performance and took the win in front of Leia Tyrrell (CAPA Cycling) and Karey Swan (Therapeutic Associates/GENR8) in a bunch sprint.

Southern Oregon's Jade Wilcoxson (Flywheel Bicycle Solutions) won her second consecutive OBRA criterium title Sunday.

Cycling invaded these downtown streets for the 3^rd Annual Historic Albany Criterium, the second year this wide-open, super-fast, six-corner course has hosted the championships. Moderate summer weather and the popular venue combined for a beautiful day of racing.

Aggressive tactics drove full-throttle paces throughout the entire senior men’s and women’s events, with plenty of attacks coming but nothing managing to stick enough of a gap to get dangerous. In the end, both fields charged to the line for gutter-to-gutter sprints.

Wilcoxson, the women’s defending champion, had a fairly short list of who to watch out for in the closing laps. CAPA Cycling’s Leia Tyrrell, fourth at last year’s championships as a Cat 3, has been on a tear this year. The young rider finished second at the collegiate criterium nationals and since July has won the Gresham Criterium, the Vancouver Courthouse Criterium, the OBRA Road Race Championship and the Longview Criterium.

“She was the main one that I was worried about,” Wilcoxson said. “I was sitting third wheel coming through the back stretch before the last corner and saw out of the corner of my eye that she jumped. So I thought I guess I better go now. “

Wilcoxson was first through the last corner and drilled it for the line. It was a winning move that she was able to practice earlier in the race.

“For the first prime that was kind of the same scenario,” Wilcoxson said. “I jumped way early and was able to hold her off.  So that was kind of my practice and it worked for the last lap, too.”

Wilcoxson held off Tyrrell, who took second in front of Karey Swan, Jen Akeroyd and Megan Chinburg (who won the separately scored Cat 3 race).

Defending her criterium champion’s jersey caps a successful season for Wilcoxson, who won the Kings Valley Road Race and the Umpqua Criterium before placing second at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage 5 criterium, winning the High Desert Omnium criterium and the finishing 18^th overall at the NRC Cascade Cycling Classic.

BEARDSLEY KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY

The men’s race followed a similar pattern to the women’s, with constant attacking, chasing and counter-attacking keeping the field strung out and the racing safe. Word-RCB’s Stephen Bedford and Jake Hansen animated the race early on with repeated attacks. Aaron Olson, a former OBRA rider and pro back racing in Oregon again, also drove the pace with repeated attacks.

When Bedford, Team Oregon’s Chris Swan and Beardsley got a small gap about a third of the way into the race, the field immediately pounced to bring them back. And so it went for the rest of the day. The fast course and good-sized field combined to defeat any attempts to gain an advantage over the field, producing a mad rush from beginning to end.

When the field rolled into the final laps together, Portland’s Gentle Lovers swarmed the front with James Adamson pushing the pace, Pete Groblewski and last year’s winner Sam Nicoletti patrolling the front, and 2008 winner Steven Beardsley waiting patiently behind.

With one lap to go tack specialist Zac Kovalcik (BRIHOP) attacked over the start/finish, taking Beardsley and the rest of the field with him. Kovalcik pulled through the backside of the course until only three of the six corners remained.

“Bedford came in front of me on Zac’s wheel going down that back straightaway,” Beardsley said. “So I attacked on the inside and got into that corner right before Zac did. I had a clear shot coming out of the corner, so I just put my head down and shifted into a big gear.”

Beardsley had plenty of time for his signature heart salute crossing the line, while Bedford, able to grab Beardsley’s wheel but unable to come around it, nailed second. Groblewski crossed the line third, also saluting his team’s winning effort.

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UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
OBRA Criterium Championships
Sunday, Aug. 22

Senior Men
1. Steven Beardsley (Gentle Lovers)
2. Stephen Bedford (Word-RCB)
3. Pete Groblewski (Gentle Lovers)
4. Josh Liberles (Ten Speed Drive)
5. Zac Kovalcik (Brihop)
Senior Women
1. Jade Wilcoxson (Flywheel Bicycle Solutions)
2. Leia Tyrrell (CAPA Cycling)
3. Karey Swan (Therapeutic Associates/GENR8)
4. Jen Akeroyd (Sorella Forte)
5. Tina Brubaker (Veloforma)
(more…)

Carl Decker took the win Saturday on the challenging Franz Bakery Criterium course.

PORTLAND — Pro mountain biker Carl Decker (Giant) followed up a win in his first-ever track race at the Alpenrose Velodrome Friday night by taking the men’s Pro/1/2/3 win at the Franz Bakery Criterium Saturday in Portland. Decker went solo early and then joined Rubicon-Orbea’s Ben Chaddock in a two-man breakaway that snagged up enough laps to win the points-race-format event in Portland’s central eastside. Ironclad Performance Wear’s Anna Christiansen left behind the rest of the women’s field, escaping the bunch on the fourth lap and gobbling up the race’s remaining points.

Alex Lightman (Guinness Cycling Team) soloed away to a win in the Cat 3 race. Veloce Racing’s Eric Sheagley won the Masters 35+ race. Troy Sexton was the Cat 4/5 winner.

Ironclad's Anna Christiansen rode the last 90 percent of the race off the front by herself.

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RESULTS
Franz Bakery Criterium
Saturday, Aug. 21

Pro/1/2 Men
1. Decker, Carl (Giant)
2. Chaddock, Ben (Rubicon-ORBEA)
3. Olson, Aaron (Foundation Roots)
4. Groblewski, Pete (Gentle Lovers)
5. Liberles, Joshua (Ten Speed Drive Racing)
Senior Women
1. Christiansen, Anna (Ironclad Performance Wear)
2. Campbell, Amy (River City Bicycles)
3. Walle, Brianna (Ironclad Performance Wear)
4. Teddergreen, Starla (Super Relax Concept)
5. Tisdale, Sarah (Sorella Forte)
(more…)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Ian Boswell on Friday successfully defended the blue jersey of the Tour of Utah’s best young rider competition during the 9.5-mile stage 3 time trial won by Trek-Livestrong’s Taylor Phinney. Boswell (Bissel Pro Cycling) covered the course in 18:01 for 44th place and slipped one spot on GC to fifth, 2:29 behind overall race leader Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack).

With two stages remaining — Saturday’s criterium and Sunday’s Queen stage — the 19-year-old rider from Bend holds a 48-second lead in the young rider competition over Trek-Livestrong’s Tim Roe and 1:12 over Lachlan Morton (Holowesko Partners/Garmin).

Ian Boswell finished the stage 3 time trial Friday at the Tour of Utah in 44th place and held onto the best young rider's blue jersey. Photo courtesy of Christopher See.

STAGE 3 RESULTS
1. Taylor Phinney (Trek-LIVESTRONG) 16:46
2. Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny’s) 16:48
3. Jeremy Vennel (Bissell Pro Cycling) 16:57
4. Alex Dowsett (Trek-LIVESTRONG) 17:02
5. Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) 17:05
44. Ian Boswell (Bissell Pro Cycling) 18:01

OVERALL STANDINGS
1. Levi LEIPHEIMER (Radioshack) 6.57:24
2. Francisco MANCEBO (Canyon Bicycles) +1:37
3. Darren LILL (V Australia) +1:49
4. Philip ZAJICEK (V Australia) +2:07
5. Ian BOSWELL (BISSELL Pro Cycling Team) +2:29

Tour of Utah photos courtesy of Christopher See.

Gentle Lovers rider Sam Nicloetti's OBRA criterium champion's jersey will be up for grabs this Sunday in Albany. File Photo / Pat Malach

SATURDAY, August 21

OBRA Junior and Senior Team Track Championships: Alpenrose Velodrome
Junior Races start at 9 a.m., with registration at 8. Senior events start at noon. Entry fee is $5 for juniors, $10 per event for seniors. Junior races will include two- and four-lap time trails, scratch races, points races, chariot races and pursuiuts. Junior events will be omnium scored with one set of medals given out for the final omnium. Senior races include team pursuit, men’s and women’s team sprint, a married couples’ sprint, madisons and a tandem pursuit. Racing should end about 2 p.m.

Franz Bakery Criterium: Portland
The inaugural Franz Bakery Criterium is an eight-corner race in Portland’s central eastside. The 1.13 km course near the namesake bakery features wide streets with good road surface, and, despite having eight turns, isn’t overly technical. Twenty feet of climbing per lap will sting the legs, but it also means 20 feet of descending to recover. At this race, every lap counts because the first rider across the line each lap earns two points. Points will be awarded 15 deep for the final lap, and the rider with the most points overall wins the race. It’s also rumored each rider will get some Franz products to take home. Racing starts at 3:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, August 22

OBRA Criterium Championships: Albany
The Third Annual Historic Albany Criterium will once again host the OBRA Criterium Championships on a classic L-shaped, six-corner 1 km downtown course with a 300-meter finishing straight. The roads are wide, fast, and safe with plenty of excellent spectator spots. This course was well received by riders at last year’s event. Medals are awarded to the top three OBRA members in each category.

OBRA CRITERIUM CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE