Brad Cockman, DC
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_000_0031_01C32634.0F013C80
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Bend Bicycle Festival Criterium Re-cap
By Brad Cockman and Geoff Raynakallini
After two days of deluge in Bend the skies parted and gave the participants and spectators at the Bend Bicycle Festival a little well-deserved UV.
The Category 4/5's were up first and it was the trio of Josh Ryan (Arizona State) Shawn McCloud (Half Fast Velo) and George Pinney (On The Way) setting the pace early. Fourteen year old Carson Miller (Pearl Izumi/Hutch's Bend) would steal the first prime away from his elders, despite a strong headwind up the steep-ish hill before the final turn of the .7 mile course. The 4/5's were spread all over the course after 30 minutes of racing and in the end it was the powerful trackie Ryan that crested the hill first. McCloud came across second, followed closely by Pinney in third.
Next up was the fourteen and under Juniors. The thirty minute event saw Bend's own Carson Miller (Pearl Izumi/Hutch's Bend) give his younger cohorts a major hard time. Winning his category the day before at Pickett's Charge and doing the 4/5 event just before was not enough to slow down the up and coming eighth grader. Miller led from start to finish and took most of the primes. Ian Boswell (Hutch's Bend) was second and Bryan Jorgensen (Century Cycles/CORE) was third.
The biggest event of the day was the Master's 30+ 1/2/3 race. Twenty-four racers toed the line, including former Bend resident Steve Larsen (Steve Larsen's Wheelworks/Pearl Izumi). Bend based Team Compass Commercial had big plans, which didn't include Larsen getting away alone.
Half Fast Velo's Geoff Raynak explains the rest albeit without capitalization...:
watching the 4/5 race, i realized that this is definitely where the race would be decided.
it also happened to be the place where everyone came to watch, so i got a LOT of people coming up and telling me so-and-so is going to be here and team-something-or-other is going to rip the race apart. but i have to admit, i am just a cat-3 schmoo from portland, the bigger names of oregon-cycling outside of portland-proper don't register with me.
the only name that made my ears ring was steve larsen. i only know him from his dirty-toothed roar he displayed winning a world cup mountain bike around the same time he got snubbed from the olympics. geez, i gotta race this guy?
so after a paltry warm-up, i practice the course a few times to see if i can stay in the big ring for 50 minutes. with enough speed at the base of the hill, the answer is yes ... phew, one less hand to coordinate during mid-race vapor-lock.
so i get to the line and get the race run down... primes, 50 minutes, 5 laps to go will be on the board at the end. then i turn around .... OH ... i guess the team everyone is talking about is Team Compass. It looks like a harsh payback from the first banana belt race when my team had 20-some-odd guys in an 80-rider race.
anyway, the bell was rung and the race was on. and guess what, it was compass and larsen flexing their respective muscles. i was lucky enough to get the tip that compass was going to gun-it from the start so i did my best to stay with them. after the first two laps, we (or at least larsen and everyone tagging along) had about 10 seconds. i think there were 5 of us at first. larsen, two compass, john bravard (Nike/Logie Velo), and myself. the course was perfect: a hard effort up the hill, a little more to get past the start-finish, a coast/recovery through the first two corners, a little effort to close the gap on the back-side rollers and then hit turn 3 at speed to attack the hill again...
then about 3 laps later, larsen attacked on the hill. i tried like crazy to get up and stay with him, but he was off... and then all of a sudden, compass cloned themselves and became four. so now the 'chase' group was 6. bravard and i were the only two trying to keep the pace moving and any time we rotated through, the compass guys just let us go or attacked. so instead of rotating, us non-compass teammates took turns attacking. in a moment of hypoxia, i chased down bravard by accident and got a fair scolding.
eventually there were some hotspots that kept our pace high, but not high enough to keep larsen (and the rest of the pack in tow) from lapping (or catching) us. this was a mixed blessing, it caught our sizeable break, but it also brought some more people back into the race to gang-up back against compass.
oh ... and larsen took off again. NO ONE could stay with him
there were a few attacks lobbed later in the race, but once the lap board showed 5, everything settled in and we knew what was coming next... a sprint up the hill, a hard right, and about 50 meters to the line. what no one was expected was to hear the bell and see larsen AGAIN coming around toward the front. he tipped to bravard (and maybe me via association as the other non-compass guy in the break) to stay close for the lead-out up the final hill. coming around turn 2, kent johnson (Fred Meyer) skipped a chain in front of me and i had to get around him to stay on the train... but i never really could... i'm not sure where larsen and bravard ended up in the sprint other than in front of me. a monster (Ed Roberts) from team compass crushed the hill to win the sprint for second. i went home with 5th.
all in all, it was a great time. the only downer was in the kiddie race. dawson cockman (4 year old son of the race promoter) had a rear-disc equipped 16-inch bike. he had a slow start, but was powering past everyone on the front straight. his forward momentum was too much and he overshot the coned-corner by about 50 yards. once he had his rig re-oriented, he showed his wicked top-end to finish in the middle of the pack.
again, it was a fun times with smiles from start to finish...
Now the Women's race: Three 1/2/3's and five Cat 4 Women lined-up for 50 minutes of fun. Early on, Lisa Magness (Hutch's Bend) was not content to sit in. (Of note: Lisa finished 7th in the 40+ Men's Rehearsal RR that Saturday). Magness rolled off the front and nobody was able to respond. Shanan Whitlach (Fred Meyer) and Kerry Rohan (Team Compass) made their best effort, but Magness was just too strong. She eventually lapped the field, taking Rohan with her on her second effort. Whitlach finished 3rd. Jenny Ruiter won the Women's Cat 4 event, followed by Shari White and Heather Holmes.
The sun and heat really made it's presence known at the start of the Pro 1/2/3 event, a real change from the coolness and wind that prevailed at the start of the day. Some of the Northwest' best riders were present, including Sam Schartz (Hutch's Eugene), recently crowned NCAA Champion Doug Ollerenshaw (Broadmark) and pro mountain biker and 'cross dude extraordinaire, Barry Wicks (Kona/Clarks' Factory MTB Team). The pace of the race was up and down with Broadmark and Wicks setting the initial pace. Eventually, Wicks snuck off the front of the pack and once he had a little gap he really put the power to the pedals, eventually lapping the field. Schartz ended up second, followed by Ollerenshaw's teamate Mike Hone (Broadmark) in third. Warren Atkey (Ashmead/King 5) and Derek Stallings (Team Compass) followed in fourth and fifth respectively.
All in all a great first year event. Hopefully, with a little more forethought and time this race will grow to become a fixture in the Northwest race calendar. Thanks to all the sponsors, volunteers, officials and everyone associated that helped make this race happen.
Brad Cockman, DC
POB 6693 / 1646 NE 8th St. #1
Bend, Oregon 97708 / 97701
541.382.3211
541.280.0777
bra-@bigfoot.com
bendcycling-@topica.com
http://www.wenzelcoaching.com/Brad%20Cockman.htm
------=_NextPart_000_0031_01C32634.0F013C80
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1141" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans">
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>Bend Bicycle Festival Criterium
Re-cap</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>By Brad Cockman and Geoff Raynakallini</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>After two days of deluge in Bend the skies parted
and gave the participants and spectators at the Bend Bicycle Festival a
little well-deserved UV. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The Category 4/5's were up first and it was the trio of Josh
Ryan (Arizona State) Shawn McCloud (Half Fast Velo) and George Pinney (On The
Way) setting the pace early. Fourteen year old Carson Miller (Pearl
Izumi/Hutch's Bend) would steal the first prime away from his elders, despite a
strong headwind up the steep-ish hill before the final turn of the .7 mile
course. The 4/5's were spread all over the course after 30 minutes of racing and
in the end it was the powerful trackie Ryan that crested the hill first. McCloud
came across second, followed closely by Pinney in third.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Next up was the fourteen and under Juniors.
The thirty minute event saw Bend's own Carson Miller (Pearl Izumi/Hutch's
Bend) give his younger cohorts a major hard time. Winning his category
the day before at Pickett's Charge and doing the 4/5 event just before was
not enough to slow down the up and coming eighth grader. Miller led from
start to finish and took most of the primes. Ian Boswell (Hutch's Bend) was
second and Bryan Jorgensen (Century Cycles/CORE) was third.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The biggest event of the day was the Master's 30+ 1/2/3 race.
Twenty-four racers toed the line, including former Bend resident Steve Larsen
(Steve Larsen's Wheelworks/Pearl Izumi). Bend based Team Compass Commercial
had big plans, which didn't include Larsen getting away alone.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Half Fast Velo's Geoff Raynak explains the rest
albeit without capitalization...:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>watching the 4/5 race, i realized that this
is definitely where the race would be decided.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>it also happened to be the place where
everyone came to watch, so i got a LOT of people coming up and telling me
so-and-so is going to be here and team-something-or-other is going to rip the
race apart. but i have to admit, i am just a cat-3 schmoo from portland,
the bigger names of oregon-cycling outside of portland-proper don't register
with me.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>the only name that made my ears ring was
steve larsen. i only know him from his dirty-toothed roar he displayed
winning a world cup mountain bike around the same time he got snubbed from the
olympics. geez, i gotta race this guy?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>so after a paltry warm-up, i practice the
course a few times to see if i can stay in the big ring for 50 minutes.
with enough speed at the base of the hill, the answer is yes ... phew, one less
hand to coordinate during mid-race vapor-lock.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>so i get to the line and get the race run
down... primes, 50 minutes, 5 laps to go will be on the board at the end.
then i turn around .... OH ... i guess the team everyone is talking about is
Team Compass. It looks like a harsh payback from the first banana
belt race when my team had 20-some-odd guys in an 80-rider
race.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>anyway, the bell was rung and the race was
on. and guess what, it was compass and larsen flexing their respective
muscles. i was lucky enough to get the tip that compass was going to
gun-it from the start so i did my best to stay with them. after the first
two laps, we (or at least larsen and everyone tagging along) had about 10
seconds. i think there were 5 of us at first. larsen, two compass,
john bravard (Nike/Logie Velo), and myself. the course was perfect: a hard
effort up the hill, a little more to get past the start-finish, a coast/recovery
through the first two corners, a little effort to close the gap on the back-side
rollers and then hit turn 3 at speed to attack the hill again... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>then about 3 laps later, larsen attacked on
the hill. i tried like crazy to get up and stay with him, but he was
off... and then all of a sudden, compass cloned themselves and became
four. so now the 'chase' group was 6. bravard and i were the only
two trying to keep the pace moving and any time we rotated through, the compass
guys just let us go or attacked. so instead of rotating, us
non-compass teammates took turns attacking. in a moment of hypoxia, i
chased down bravard by accident and got a fair scolding.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>eventually there were some hotspots that
kept our pace high, but not high enough to keep larsen (and the rest of the pack
in tow) from lapping (or catching) us. this was a mixed blessing, it
caught our sizeable break, but it also brought some more people back into the
race to gang-up back against compass.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>oh ... and larsen took off again. NO
ONE could stay with him</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>there were a few attacks lobbed later in
the race, but once the lap board showed 5, everything settled in and we
knew what was coming next... a sprint up the hill, a hard right, and about 50
meters to the line. what no one was expected was to hear the bell and see
larsen AGAIN coming around toward the front. he tipped to bravard (and
maybe me via association as the other non-compass guy in the break) to stay
close for the lead-out up the final hill. coming around turn 2, kent
johnson (Fred Meyer) skipped a chain in front of me and i had to get around
him to stay on the train... but i never really could... i'm not sure where
larsen and bravard ended up in the sprint other than in front of me. a
monster (Ed Roberts) from team compass crushed the hill to win the
sprint for second. i went home with 5th.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>all in all, it was a great time. the
only downer was in the kiddie race. dawson cockman (4 year old son of
the race promoter) had a rear-disc equipped 16-inch bike. he had a slow
start, but was powering past everyone on the front straight. his forward
momentum was too much and he overshot the coned-corner by about 50 yards.
once he had his rig re-oriented, he showed his wicked top-end to finish in the
middle of the pack.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Andale Mono" size=2>again, it was a fun times with smiles from
start to finish...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Now the Women's race: Three 1/2/3's and five Cat 4 Women
lined-up for 50 minutes of fun. Early on, Lisa Magness (Hutch's Bend) was not
content to sit in. (Of note: Lisa finished 7th in the 40+ Men's Rehearsal RR
that Saturday). Magness rolled off the front and nobody was able to respond.
Shanan Whitlach (Fred Meyer) and Kerry Rohan (Team Compass) made their best
effort, but Magness was just too strong. She eventually lapped the field, taking
Rohan with her on her second effort. Whitlach finished 3rd. Jenny Ruiter won the
Women's Cat 4 event, followed by Shari White and Heather Holmes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The sun and heat really made it's presence known at the start
of the Pro 1/2/3 event, a real change from the coolness and wind that prevailed
at the start of the day. Some of the Northwest' best riders were present,
including Sam Schartz (Hutch's Eugene), recently crowned NCAA Champion Doug
Ollerenshaw (Broadmark) and pro mountain biker and 'cross dude extraordinaire,
Barry Wicks (Kona/Clarks' Factory MTB Team). The pace of the race was up and
down with Broadmark and Wicks setting the initial pace. Eventually, Wicks snuck
off the front of the pack and once he had a little gap he really put the power
to the pedals, eventually lapping the field. Schartz ended up second, followed
by Ollerenshaw's teamate Mike Hone (Broadmark) in third. Warren Atkey
(Ashmead/King 5) and Derek Stallings (Team Compass) followed in fourth and fifth
respectively.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>All in all a great first year event. Hopefully, with a little
more forethought and time this race will grow to become a fixture in the
Northwest race calendar. Thanks to all the sponsors, volunteers, officials and
everyone associated that helped make this race happen.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans" size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans"><FONT size=2>Brad Cockman, DC<BR>POB 6693
/ 1646 NE 8th St. #1<BR>Bend, Oregon 97708 /
97701<BR>541.382.3211<BR>541.280.0777 <BR></FONT><A
href="mailto:bra-@bigfoot.com"><FONT
size=2>bra-@bigfoot.com</FONT></A><BR><A
href="mailto:bendcycling-@topica.com"><FONT
size=2>bendcycling-@topica.com</FONT></A><BR><A
href="http://www.wenzelcoaching.com/Brad%20Cockman.htm"><FONT
size=2>http://www.wenzelcoaching.com/Brad%20Cockman.htm</FONT></A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
------=_NextPart_000_0031_01C32634.0F013C80--