rollin for real

Seems like everyone always talks about bringing an indoor velodrome to PDX, but it rarely seems to go much farther than talk. Now Steve Brown and a group of people are pushing the idea farther than just emails and water-cooler talk. He and Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org have been in and out of Salem a few times, and have come back with some great news care of Senator Jason Atkison and measure 66 (which allows use of lottery funds to build parks and recreation centers).

From BikePortland.org: "Sen. Atkinson revealed to us that he just finished the draft of a new Senate Bill that if passed, would allocate $3.5 million to build two new velodromes in Oregon; one in southern Oregon, and one in the Portland metro area!"

The bill officially enters the system tommorow.

Already the same old tired critiques of any state spending are rearing thier stupid heads in the comments section of the bike portland article. "why should we build a park that I'm never going to use?" "I want a 3 dollar tax break!" "If we build a velodrome, the terrorists will win!" Okay maybe that last one hasn't come out yet, but give it time. For every complaint there are five or six in favor, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Keep your eyes on the Portland Velodrome Project website and the Obra mailing list for news and how you and all your friends and relatives and everyone you know can help.
DT

ticket-nazis and anonymous goons

Rolled out the door schoolward bound on the fixie this morning to an interesting sight. Nearly every car on the street decorated with a lovely yellow parking ticket. At first I though "ha, poor bastards." Surely the aftermath of some wednesday night party-goers who overstayed thier welcome in this parking-nazi haven.

Then I saw the ticket on my truck.

WTF?

Turns out everyone's permit expired at midnight last night, and the nazis were ready.

How stupid could I be, to let something like that happen? Then I checked my permit to find the expiration date. None to be seen. Turns out the only proof that I can find that my permit is expired is the little yellow envelope pinned down by my wiper blade. F*#!ers. I counted 28 cars on one street alone with little middle fingers on thier windshields. At 50 bucks a pop, that's 1,400 bucks easy money. Per street. Sneaky bastards.

Sure, I applied for my new permit today, but that stupid envelope is staying on the windshield. We'll see if it can handle a few days of rain and wind untill I actually get in that creaky truck again.

Remember I was amping about the new blog last week? Not so impressed. I don't mind some humor and a good natured jab every now and then, but that stuff's mean and vindictive. The main writer's not the biggest problem, it's the comments. Too many anonymous goons with too little to do and not enough brain power to do it with. It's like a big "I got cheated out of the cat. 4 crit championships title last year and now I'm gonna take it out on someone else" party.

Too many children, not enough toys. An idle mind is the devils playground. "Kill the body and the head will die."

Looking forward to my wedding. Are you?
DT

sweet

New jersey on the line at Worlds this year: the Omnium. Events include:

Kilo:
3k pursuit:
5km scratch:
200m fly:
15km Points race:

How much would it kick ass if that continued beyond this season and expanded into an Olympic medal? Seems like it'd be good for spectators; people get a little more connection with riders, yet races are still short enough to keep up with short attention spans... If USA cycling does not pay attention and make this a national championship event, it will be the worst move they could possibly make. Keep the standing 250 a seperate event and add the omnium, in a couple years you'll have some of the strongest sprinters and endurance guys in the world. Seems that in a country chock full of crit sprinters and trackies that this would be our favorite event.

On the road side of things, apparently Slipstream will test its riders' blood and urine 50 times a year. This will carry a price tag of $20,000 per rider or $400,000 per year... I say kick ass. Good positive step in the public opinion battle that road racing continues to slog through.

New blog on the block: Race Oregon. I'm all about some good-nature shit-talking, so I'm psyched to see how that goes throughout the season. Sure didn't take long to end up the topic of discussion though, this is from a 2007 preview:
"Rubicon
How could I forget Rubicon!? Is Norrene going to load up her basement with Kiwis again? The boys in Orange will be around to share New Zealand’s favorite pastime (drinking) and the national dance (the tuck and roll), in a mutually beneficial cultural exchange. Hide your sisters. Word is she's also looking to load up the team with Cat. 1/2s under 20 years of age or something like that.
2 words for the guys in orange this year: Dan Harm."

Yeah we're amped for Dan's season in orange. I'm just happy to have someone else out at the track. If all goes well we should have a pretty good goup in both the sprints and endurance stuff.

As for the kiwi national dance... well.. yeah. we're working on that. Tuckerman's mountain bike gets training wheels this year.
DT

(almost) Back To Racin'

Some pie race goes down a mere 4 days from now, I better start riding... Actually, I haven't done that race for something like 4 or 5 years and I don't plan on starting this year. Too damn early. The pie race proves a very valid point however, and that point is the 2007 racing season. You can barely see it in the distance, bearing down on us all like a grotesque freight train loaded with acid and chocolates. Come mid-march I'll stand by the tracks and run along at full tilt, pick a car and hop on. Hopefully it's the chocolate one.

First Crit of the year happens pretty early down in U-Jean. If it's the same boring, flat course as always I'm in. This time of the year is tailor made for courses you can sleep through. Just fast enough to hurt, just technical enough to make me corner slightly harder than I do on the bike path. Leave the insane dive-bomber "I can beat the lead motor" courses for summer nights.

We all know that track racing is the best thing you can do with your clothes on, so that's all I'm looking forward to at this point. That and beating Ping Pong at Tabor. Think I'm gonna train for the Fat-Off at Tabor this year. Lord knows the Pong certainly has.

The other thing I need to work on this year is a cyclocross style supporter's club. I need a bunch of old drunk dudes in matching jackets to show up every week at the track to wave pirate flags, hurl insults at other riders and sing songs about how totally awesome I am. I'll even train them to throw the flags like javelins for the AVC this year so I can bring down some sweet moolah when I'm the only one that finishes all of my sprint rounds...
Or maybe I'll just hire this guy. He can just wander around the infield and glare at everyone.

DT

beaches are ill

New best thing: mid-January Oregon coast camping trip. Brave the elements. Face the fears. Nevermind your frozen digits, these smores taste great.

bummer...

I suppose this clears a few thing up though.

"The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced on Friday that track cyclist Stephen Alfred of Capitola, Calif., has been given an eight-year suspension after testing positive for exogenous testosterone and for 'pregnancy hormone' human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG).

Alfred, 39, returned a positive result for exogenous testosterone or its precursors and for an elevated testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio in an out-of-competition test conducted on May 28, 2006. He also tested positive for hCG on June 10, 2006, at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Brazil. The two positives are considered one doping offense according to the World Anti-Doping Code."
-cyclingnews.com

DT

Crash O The Day

This will hurt

DT

computer's dead

My apple died a horrible, click-spazzy death. I have yet to gather the funds to fix it, so updates can only happen when i'm at school, and when i'm at school I just want to go home, not sit in the library and clickety clack about how my day has been and how little I rode this week.

How bout that World Cup, eh? Get some Sarah Hammer. Get some.
DT

day off

It's my day off, so happy new year and here's some pictures.










Bike pictures from PUMA. That guy with the tabloid is Grant. He doesn't think this is very funny.

This is what tracks should look like.

The westfalenhalle. Dortmund, Germany.

Three Words

new-team-van

partyphotobloggin'

This is half of the rock band IndoChina with accompaniment from an orangutan in a sweater.

This is why your parents didn't want you to drink alcohol when you were young. Because you might get naked with nothing but a speedo and a singlespeed champions belt covering your pale, malnourished body in front of a bunch of co-workers you don't know. And that would kick ass.

Ping pong looks a little uncomfortable on the guitar with a naked monkey behind him...

DT

Humungus for Governor

If I lived in California, I would give him my vote.

http://www.inch.com/~william/humungus.html

DT

the finally finished with finals post

Been a long time coming, but it's done for another term. That was a rough one.
Pretty sure I'm ready to be done now.
Yep, pretty sure.
Too bad I'll never be done. I'll be done with this degree pretty soon, but then it's on to the bachelors (after a nice break), and then maybe a masters if I'm not dead before I get my B.S.

Updates: Mr. TooVanilla Burrito Cozy Shack Cats Pomegranates Skerrit scored a second at the Masters Natz cross race yesterday.Pro race finished 30 seconds ago. Trebon pulled off the big V to become a double national champ. XC and CX. Nice.

Updates: Scored 4 free tickets to see the Faint and Ratatat a couple of weeks ago. That rocked my socks off.

Updates: I'm considering making my own christmas presents this year. Maybe newspaper hats or ceramic ash trays or something. I can't hold money long enough to buy gifts with it. It all finds its way into my stomach somehow. Here's a sample of my food intake one day last week after lifting, riding and schooling: 1 turkey sandwich, 3 cups of coffee, 1 whole roasted chicken, 1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich, half of a large pepperoni pizza, half gallon of milk and 6 or so cookies. and a partridge in a pear tree.

Updates: Can't go to Burnaby due to overlapping EMT certification tests... drag.

Updates: My new phone is smaller than yours.

Updates: The BG holiday party is tommorow. Free food...mmm.. scavengertron ACTIVATE.

Photobloggin (now with 80% less racing)

Slater and Tall Mike at the USGP Portland. Crossin. Cross Dressin. Drankin.









Hot Tubbin at the run-up.





















New team car. Big enough for 3 climbers and the team cat.













Man?
Woman?
Weako?
Neanderthal?
Orangutan in a woman's sweater?









Winter. It's cold out there.

the dude abides...

Indoor tracks are why I need to make a lot of money. I could see myself driving the 6 hours each way to train and race pretty frequently in the rainy months if I had the cash. Rumor has it some people are getting serious about building a top-class indoor velodrome in Portland. That would kick ass and I'd do what I could to help make it happen, but for now all we've got is 6 hours to Burnaby or 15 hours to LA.

So to Burnaby we went.

All I've done since Nationals is lift weights and ride to school, so that first 200 was a bit of a shock. Enough of a shock to send me crouching over the toilets for a few minutes. Apparently Gatorade does not change color after being in your stomach for a while.

For those of you that have never been up to the most densely populated frozen tundra in southwestern Canada, the track in Burnaby's pretty sweet. Sweet because it's not outside (it's in a giant balloon), it's made of two different kinds of wood (pine and plywood (and duct tape)), and it's short, sketchy and kinda slippery. This is what I look like on it.



Did you know that I'm fast enough to wear white gloves? I couldn't pull off the white gloves at a cross race (like some real fast people) but fortunately sprints and kierins are much shorter than cross races. Fewer chances live up to my slowness potential.

I lost pretty consistently to the Canadians, but all in all I had a good time. Those guys are great fun to race with, they're not afraid to chuck out the elbows, and they almost usually keep thier clothes on most of the time. Rumor has it the January SixDay they're hosting is going to have madisons, sprints, messenger races (or "courier races" as they say in French Canadian), a beer garden, a petting zoo and a ferris wheel. Be there.

Quote of the weekend from Keith Bruneau, "I'm almost a whole you older than you..."

The Basil Wars

Ever played football? Think you're good in large crowds? Like kicking double-wide strollers? If yes then come on down, come one, come all to the Portland Farmer's Market. I like the FM, but I hate all the other people who like it too. Maybe not all of them, but at least the ones who get in my way. Which is most of them.

So the rain is back, school's in full swing and track season is over. Time to skip the border to our Northern brothers and head to the Big White Worm, Burnaby Velodrome. Nothing says "off season" like more racing and a 200m duct-taped half-plywood half-board track inside a giant balloon. Someone should put that on a greeting card.
November 11th and 12th. Be there or be lame. yeah.

I think my dad has the brain fever. Or maybe the black lung. Not sure. Bummer either way. He missed a great time at the last cross race which included watching everyone fall, every lap in the same corner, the Solomonster demolishing the single speeds in a single speedo (and falling in the tricky corner), a couple of legitimately nasty and unfortunate crashes, dousing Walrod with beer during the A race (3 times), feeding Walrod beer during the A race, and competely psychologically cracking Walrod by handing him an empty beer bottle during the A race (oh the dissapointment).

See you next week at Flying M, and you better be wearing a costume.

DT

tired

So Nationals if over. Again. If I never had to go back to LA ever ever again, I'd be psyched. The place is a landfill. The track is cool, the surroundings are not so cool.

Speaking of Nationals, the kilo was awful. It was probably the worst one ever. Ever. Each time I do a kilo, it's always the worst one ever. However, I think this one actually was the worst, because I went considerably slower than last year. That's the story of the kilo.
Still ended up 3rd in the U23 class. Probably helps that no one wants to do the kilo anymore, now that it's not an Olympic event, and because it sucks.

Sprints were fun, but not as good as I hoped. I gambled wrong on a smallish gear and rode an 11.3 instead of... faster than an 11.3. Which is what I wanted. THE ULTIMATE 200M DESIRE EQUATION: D=T*.97 where D= the time you want and T= the time you get. Got through my first round without too much trouble, then had to race Adam Duvendeck, the top qualifier. That was trouble. Tried to jump him early and disrupt as much as I could, but that guy's too smart and too fast. All I heard as I was chasing after him through the final corner was Jame Carney screaming "GO LUKE PERRY!!"

Beat Lakatosh in the reps, which felt good, but it was for second. Plus I'm pretty sure he sat up. Baby steps i suppose

Duvendeck fought the power with Giddeon Massie for the gold and went down swingin. Big G wasn't taking home another second place, he brought forth the fury and grabbed the big V.

Endurance stuff was ruled by Tiaa Cref, predictably enough. The big upset was Dave McCook winning the scratch race out of a bunch sprint after Jame chased every single Blue Man Group down. That guy rode like ten men. Ten very small, angry men.

Props to Mikkel and Steveo for both riding a solid scratch.

Sounds funny. Solid scratch.

Most importantly, mega-props to my parents, who made the whole trip happen with major financial support, 30-some hours of driving and lots of moral support. They really believe in me (for some reason) and that helps tremendously when there's no big dollar pro deal anywhere on the horizon, just more medals from different places, and maybe a free bike or two...


DT

results

4th in the 250. (3rd U23) Time standard was 18.69, I rode 19.12. Not too happy with the time, but I'll take the result.

Sometimes I don't understand how these events work. Not sure if they're organized or improvised. For instance: the 250 is intended to be a qualifier for the national team. If you can beat the time standard, you're in. If not, too bad. It was specifically described as a talent pool qualifier and NOT a championship event.

As we're warming up, the announcer says that the 250 is in fact a championship event as of riiiight NOW. How does that work? How can you have an event that is NOT a championship event when people have a chance to register for it, then as the first guy is rolling up to the line and registration is closed, THEN you announce there's a jersey on the line? Whaa? So if a jersey's on the line, is there a U23 jersey as well? "oh, well no." Why not? "Um, I dont know, ask that guy over there" So why not, guy over there? "oh um, well, you see... LOOK A UNICORN!" *guy runs away*

8th in the kierin. sketchy and faaast. mega fast. so fast it deserves 3 a's and no capitalization. Couple of wierd calls too. McLaughry was relegated for a hook that I had no complaints about, but another dude was just warned for punting Zac off his bike.

Kierin awards are right after 250 awards, so I stand around to watch and hear another official try to explain to the top place U23 rider why there are no U23 jerseys for the kierin. "Oh, it's because we only do espoir awards for the timed events." That's odd. There was no award for the timed 250, yet there was a jersey for the first espoir in the scratch race (mikkel bosson got that one by the way... way to go buddy). You know, the non-timed mass-start definitely not time-trial scratch race.

I guess sometimes you just have be on the right side of the coin toss.

Kilo is tonight.

Welcome To Purgatory, Population 10 Million

We've arrived in L.A. Sunday night after 16 hours of driving, one muddy rain storm, a packet of jerky, 2 cokes, 4 tanks of gas, a bag of trail mix and a half gallon of water. Poor Abers took a break Sunday night in Sacramento (5 hours from LA), only to get stuck behind 4 accidents the next morning. Took him 11 hours to make the final leg of the trip. Bummer.

In 2 days I've been nearly hit 3 times driving around this southern California wasteland. Our hotel is a little over a mile from the track, but I won't ride to it. No way. Not going outside with those automotive idiots out there. Too many small people in big Hummers slurping frappucinos, talking on cell phones and powering down In 'n Out burgers while flying along at 80 miles an hour on side streets. Last year our hotel was a similar distance from the track, and Norrene still managed to get smacked by a station wagon on her ride to the velodrome.

Drove to the track yesterday to reaquaint myself with the ADT wood bowl. That track's pretty cool. Very wierd rolling up on a track that's steeper than Alpenrose and three times slicker. Those boards are crazy smooth, but not grippy.

Still feeling the affects of a lingering head-cold, but I have the technology. I have the medication. I have an up to date banned substances list and I'm taking just about everything that's not on it. Couldn't find "intravenous injectin of Cozy Shack," so I'm safe. Gotta clear myself out by tommorow morning at 7. Go time.