Hutchs Bicycle Shops Blog

Greg Bruce reports on the Hutch’s Masters team:

Better late than never! I have been quite busy and traveling since High Desert, so this is long overdue.

We had an absolutely successful weekend at the High Desert Omnium.

The race started out with the Summit High School Criterium and everyone rode really intelligently and safe and when the dust settled, Rick Johnson finished 3^rd and picked up some valuable omnium points.

Later that afternoon, was the 9 mile Skyliner Time Trial. Scott Seaton scorched the course and was the top finisher picking up the 16 points that came with it. Also turning in good TT’s were Gregg Strome and Ambrose Su who finished 7^th and 9^th respectively.

Speaking of TT’s, Andy Su also won his TT that day in the 13-15 year old age group.

Sunday was the Road Race and it was on a new course up at the mountain. We staged and finished at Edison Sno-Park. We went into the day with the goal of launching Scott from his second place overall position to first place by the time we were done. He sat 2 points back at the start. The math can get fuzzy with these omnium’s, so the bottom line was that we really needed for him to win to be guaranteed and at the least, he needed to score points and finish ahead of the guy who was ahead of him by 2 points. The guy ahead of Scott was on a very strong team (De Salvo) with a number of riders represented and there to help him. Our best strategy was going to be and offensive one. We needed to put on the pressure - make them work, chase, suffer and eventually tire them out.

So, Jurgen went to the front from the start and kept a very high pace for the first 10 miles. After we rolled over the first climb of the day, Rick Johnson launched the first attack on the descent, as others of us patrolled the front and kept the pace moderate and allowed him to get a good gap. After 4 miles, the De Salvo team realized the threat and marshaled there team to the front to bring the break back. They eventually did, but it took them 6 miles or so and they were looking spent. So, as soon as Rick was brought back, Ambrose launched off the front and got a gap. This caused the De Salvo team to keep chasing and working. Ambrose got caught and then Scott tried his hand, testing the waters to see what would happen. This caused the guy who was ahead of Scott on GC to have to react, as his team was exhausted. I sat on his wheel as he tried to bridge up to Scott and witnessed his pain and torture first hand. He was really hurting to get across, but eventually did and brought all the rest of us with him. Scott reintegrated into the peloton and just as he did so, Gregg Strome launched his attack. He got a nice gap and extended it down Cascade Lakes Highway. The De Salvo team was hurting and they were lucky to find an ally in John Slawta from Team Landshark who was on his own that day (without teammates). John was desperately wanting to get away himself and not leave it up to an uphill sprint. So, he started chasing Gregg down and the De Salvo guys did what they could to help. Gregg was eventually brought back before the turn back onto Trappers Road.

We still had cards to play, so when Gregg was brought back, James Wellington launched his attack and John Slawta went with him. This looked quite promising and was going to really make the De Salvo guys work. Eventually, they too were brought back ½ way up the Trappers climb. When they were brought back, Scott went back to the front to test everyone out over the last mile of the climb and kept the pace just hard enough to keep things interesting going over the top. As we began the descent, Scott’s De Salvo adversary, together with Jon Slawta and Turner Waskom (from Half Fast velo/BBNS: we weren’t sure who Turner was riding with that day, he had a jersey from one and shorts from another) got a jump on the field from the back and got a good gap. This was potentially very dangerous, so I bridged across and got into their rotation. I slowed it down by not pulling through and sitting on the wheel of the De Salvo guy as he rotated off the front. This disruption was enough to nullify the move and bring the peloton back together. They attempted 2 more times to get away and we chased it back both times.

As we turned the corner and began the climb back up to Edison, Rick Johnson and I went back to the front and set the tempo that would keep things together until the right time. We didn’t want to see any further attacks from other teams that had been sitting in all day. With about 5K to go and at the steepest pitch of the climb back up, Gregg Strome launched off the front and started pulling away. No one reacted - no one could react! Gregg got a good gap and started moving up the road. With 2K to go, Scott attacked the field and began bridging up to Gregg. Again, everyone was too wasted and Scott was too strong for anyone to do anything. Scott made his way to Gregg at the 1K to go sign and Gregg then put his head down and broke the wind for Scott toward the finish. Scott got the win and Gregg got second. The rest of us rolled in at the back of the peloton having done our work for the day. Mission accomplished!

I can’t tell you how many guys from the other teams came up to me after the race and even in the last couple weeks since the race to say how impressive our team was that day. They were really in awe and extremely complimentary of our tactics and execution. Things do not always work out the way you plan them, but on this day they did. A big congratulations to everyone and to Scott for winning the Omnium overall.

Greg

This is an email I sent to the Hutch’s race team back in June after the stage race in Baker City.  Rick suggested that I start blogging, so this is my start.  I plan on doing more, we’ll see!
> Hey All!
> Good job at Pickett’s!
> Hutch’s had an awesome showing at Elkhorn this year.  We had six guys
> in the top 17 of the masters 1/2/3 and Sorlie took 5th in the masters
> 4/5 after a stellar climb up Dooley mtn.
> We had 4 guys in the winning break of 14 guys on Friday and I had what
> I thought to be a good 3rd place sprint finish only to be denied later
> by the officials relegating me to the back of the pack for crossing
> the center line with about 100 m to go.  It was a flat wide open
> finish and often it is legal to do that for the last 200m, but
> apparently not this time.  Mike King got relegated also, lawbreaker!
> Greg Bruce suffered with the cat 3’s but I wish he had raced with us,
> next time I hope.
> Other than sucking in the time trial, we had a succesful weekend.  We
> really need help with time trialing, don’t we?  I can understand why,
> they are no fun at all.  Maybe I just need an attitude adjustment.
> Some of the crits got cancelled due to thunderstorms and very slick
> roads but the masters crit went great, no rain, no crashes.
> We started the last day with clear skies and full bellies to prepare
> for the 100 mile sufferfest.  The pace was pretty tame until about 25
> - 30 miles into it.  Mike and Erik got into a breakaway with 9 others
> and Strome and I sat at the front controlling the pace until we got a
> time split of 7 minutes.  Enough of a gap to start racing again, so I
> went to the front and pushed over the 3rd climb.  I looked back and
> there were 7 others, 3 of which were  my teammates!  The group of 8
> kept it rolling with a lot of coaxing out of the other riders who were
> hoping to latch on to a Hutch’s train.  We not only kept our gap but
> we caught the lead break at the bottom of Dooley.  They were rested
> however and proceeded to drop me and leave me to solo up the climb
> just slightly ahead of the shattered remnants of the break.  We all
> felt good up that final climb of 7 miles, no one bonked, which you
> just never know after 90 something miles in your legs.
> Anyway, epic weekend!
> Adios
> Scott

So a Spanish guy won the Olympic bicycling road race today. From what I read it was a thrilling race. I think the ancient Greeks would be proud. I say that because I recently saw an OPB program about the history of the Olympics (”the Real Olympics“) and it was quite educational. From the very first games the Olympics were all about true sporting competition, real athletic accomplishment. The first games had one event - sprinting (on foot of course) and that was it. See ya in four years folks. Later they added longer distance running races, boxing, wrestling, jumping, vaulting, the pentathlon events. Eventually chariot races. All were very serious athletic competitions, some exceptionally bloody, and the outcome was often fatal to the losers.

This went on for something like 1200 years. Wow.

With that historical perspective still fresh in my mind I flipped on the idiot box while making dinner to see what kind of Olympic coverage was on. They were just starting feature piece about, get this, Olympic beach volleyball. Yea, you read that right - beach volleyball is an Olympic sport now.

TV off.

I don’t know if anyone reading this has these moments of clarity like I do. Sometimes all the pieces of a particular mental puzzle just fall into place all of a sudden. I can imagine what Einstein felt like when he finally figured out all the details of the theory of relativity. My thought was this - I suddenly know why China has had so many devastating earthquakes recently. It all fits together; it’s the ancient Greeks all turning over in their graves about beach volleyball being in the Games! Just when they had all finally settled down over the curling thing…

Well folks, hope you get to enjoy some coverage of some real sports during these modern games.

RJ

I just had an opportunity to speak with our Hutch’s teammate Nicole Strong and find out more about her crash and how she’s been doing since her surgery on Tuesday. She said she’s not typing too well at the moment so I’m passing along the word.

For those of you who - like me - had a little trouble deciphering the x-ray she posted here’s a more detailed version of the story. Nicole was competing in the Gorge Games Super D on July 19th when she took her fall. It was in a short shoot in a dip section of the course and the crash happened suddenly. She was unable to even identify what happened exactly but the end result was that she went down hard on her left shoulder. Knowing immediately that something was wrong she actually still finished the run, walking, since that was the nearest aid. At first it wasn’t clear that anything was broken since she had passive movement of the shoulder. However, later examination would reveal that she fractured the greater tuberosity of her humerus into ten small pieces. Ten pieces! Ouch!!

Believe it or not her effort still resulted in a fourth place finish only 14 seconds out of third place - in spite of her injury and having to carry her bike to the line. Think of that next time you have a flat in your XC race!

So, back to the breaking of her shoulder into rubble - that’s where the surgery part comes in. All those little parts had to be carefully put back into place. It sounds like no small feat since they were too small to use hardware and had to be put back into place with sutures and other such medical trickery. At the moment Nicole has been doing well enough to quit the pain medication (only three days following surgery - way to go Nicole!) but is very limited on the use of her arm. She’ll be in a sling for some time to come and, while she can use her hand, any other movement of her arm is very limited. You can imagine the inconvenience since she’s left handed. It will be a couple weeks before she gets going with physical therapy and somewhere around 3-6 months before she can again enjoy the full range of her normal activities.

Anyway Nicole, from all your Hutch’s teammates we wish you a speedy recovery and hope to see you out there soon!

RJ

PS - inaccuracies (if any) in this post are strictly my responsibility and I’ll be glad to correct them if they are brought to my attention.

RJ works on catching up on his blogging…

Each of us has things we do besides riding and racing bicycles. In my case one of the big things is motorcycles. This summer I had an invitation from a long time friend of mine to join a group doing what’s known as the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route. It’s a 900 plus mile primarily off-road route winding its way through the eastern half of Oregon. It’s like mountain biking with camping gear, but also having an engine so covering miles and climbing hills is easier. And that happens to be my favorite kind of motorcycling; rough, remote and challenging.

The only problem is that this week long trip was scheduled for the same time as the Cascade Cycling Classic. Tough choice… but I decided to go motorcycling for a change.

The trip started out a little different than we had planned. The plan was that two of the group would meet me in Bend; we would then ride together to Lakeview to meet two others. Later in the week a couple more had planned to join us to finish the route. That plan went awry in the way up to Paulina when one of the people ran their bike off the road and totaled it. You can read his story here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360373

I’m not going to detail the whole trip here at the moment. It would make good story telling but quite frankly I’ve got a lot to catch up on. Suffice it to say we rode some beautiful country, visited some out of the way places and traveled on some roads where I swear the last tracks were made by wagon wheels. At times it was some of the roughest riding I’ve done in 30 years, certainly the roughest I’ve done carrying the heavy load of gear I had along on my KLR. And yes, I call that fun.

But unfortunately the organizer of our ride had some trouble with her bike. It was just a stupid little thing – the cooling fan on her GS gave up. That meant that on the low speed steep climbing part of the ride her bike would overheat. It also meant continuing the ride with that problem was not possible. We decided to quit early and come back another time to finish the route.

That is how I wound up back home in Bend in time for the CCC after all. Unfortunately registration for the Cat 3/4 race was closed and there was no doubt in my mind that taking on the Masters race under the circumstances would be foolhardy. Hearing rumors that the race was in need of someone to fill a need for some last minute driving duties I checked in with Karen Kenlan at MBSEF. She said that she’d have Molly give me a call about what they needed, but before that happened I talked to someone else who had a job that perfectly suited my talents. Later I heard from someone that the rumored driving position was driving a team car for Astana. I don’t know if there’s any truth to that but it would have been cool to support Chris and Levi.

But what I did was way better anyway; riding the CCC Mt Bachelor Road Race in the Pro peloton – on my motorcycle carrying a photographer. Carte blanche to go pretty much wherever, whenever – in front or behind the race, zooming up ahead, pacing alongside, jockeying among the caravan. What a great way to see the race!

The most fun part (from a motorcyclists point of view) – zooming past cops on blind corners, while speeding, on the wrong side of the road. And having them give a friendly wave. Priceless.

Most challenging part was being in the middle of a rolling feed. Team cars moving up, team cars moving back. Escort motos coming through. Refs on motos moving around, comm car directing. Peloton moving side to side, accelerating and slowing. More stuff to keep track of than even LA rush hour traffic! Whoa, I was tired afterwords just from the mental load of keeping track of all that structured chaos. So if you see any great photographs by Tracy Smith from the 2008 CCC that look like they where right in the thick of the action there’s a good chance I helped make it happen.

I also got to take care of the one of the other little things I usually do before the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, the Saturday night sweep of the climb up from Tumalo. Since the race takes place in part on the Hutch’s Adopt-a-Road section I try to make sure that it’s the cleanest part of the course. Traditionally that involves a lot of sweeping gravel (and sometime glass). This year it was both, unfortunately.

Sunday was a little mellower; I got some training miles in doing the course in reverse and then helped out at the start/finish area with the Hutch’s Kids Race. After that I headed back to my house to make sure the feed zone – which was just across the street from home - had everything they needed (the race was using my water for the neutral supply). All was well so I had a chance to relax a bit before the racing was done and the traditional post race cleanup of OB Riley Road got underway. I’m not saying that MBSEF doesn’t do a good job of picking up after the race but there’s always stuff they miss. And since the feed zone happens in the middle of our Adopt-a-Road our standards are a bit higher. Thanks to some help from my neighbor we got it done pretty quickly.

Never a dull moment!

RJ

Looks like my life is going to change focus the next few months. surgery, sling for 6 weeks and baby steps from there.

I could kick myself for not wearing body armor, for stacking a line i had cleaned several times prior, for taking such chances. but i won’t. this seems to be the nature of the sport. hope to be up and running by cross. In the meantime, if you need a friend to attend a play, watch a lame movie, or accompany you in any sedentary type activity, I’m your gal. Nicole

~ n. strong (apologies in advance for poor photo formatting, it’s tougher than it looks!)

McCall, Idaho

If you have never been, McCall is not to miss. At 5600 feet, the town is located in an alpine arid mountain ecoregion, which means more moisture and incredibly diverse vegetation. There are lush meadows filled with wildflowers, extensive aspen groves and impressive mixed conifer stands. Rivers, lakes, mountains, and proximity to the Frank Church Wilderness provide a myriad of recreational opportunity.

There was great riding to be found on challenging mountain bike trails (alas, photos were deleted into the digital black hole….), spent a lot of time in rivers, ate well, and enjoyed fireworks over the lake.

The highlight, however, was being invited to take the Frank Church Wilderness not-so-direct route home, via my friend Jake’s Cessna 170. I had never flown into the backcountry before, and was continually astounded by the scenery and vertigo as we banked and swirled, used thermals to climb over rugged peaks, and landed in teeny little grass strips hidden amongst the mountains.  We spent a lovely evening at Upper Loon Creek, slept under stars and awoke in the dark to walk out to hot springs 6.5 miles away. I had not walked 13 miles in some time, and am sore in some very strange places today as a result.

Unfortunately, later in the day we were to witness a startling lack of prudence, as someone tried to fly the wrong kind of plane into a tricky little airstrip, and balled their craft into the side of a pick up and proceeded to push it 100 feet along the ground. The passengers were pretty banged up but alive!

A sobering lesson nonetheless. We flew back to McCall to fuel up, and Jake made a very hot and choppy flight home fun by buzzing cows, banking alongside mountains, and flying really close to meandering rivers.  I am still a little nauseous, but would totally do it again! Now it’s time to get a little work done before roadie friends start pouring in for CCC. I’ll be on the sidelines, cheering for all you lime n’ greenies!

Harrison Ford’s plane, maybe.

Return on the Jedi: A Tale of Two Races. 

Prudence is the better part of valor, or so I have been told.  It was certainly the deciding factor at the last aid station of the Return on the Jedi XC race. I had come into the weekend a bit over-trained but had a great Super D race (too bad it was not a state championship event, I would look pretty good in an OR state jersey1) in the 100 degree heat on Saturday. I used all the right recovery aids (ice bath, Recoverite, rest, no beer) but Sunday I came out of the tent very sore and watched the entire Pro-Expert field tear away from me at the very first pedal stroke. A surprisingly good attitude joined me for this very slow pace, and I figured since I was there and had paid, the least I could do was enjoy the scenery and fantastic trails. This attitude was bolstered when I actually started picking folks off, due to there being actual SINGLETRACK! This good mood would not last. Heat and smoke from CA fires took their toll, not to mention the grueling course (we did the same course as the pro men who were finishing in 2:40 – 3:15!) I ended up, after 3:30, feeling very shattered and unsafe on my bike, and knowing the fast flowy descent that remained, I bailed. DNF. Yuck. I kicked myself a bit the next day, but all in all, probably a prudent choice.  The course rocked, it will definitely be on my calendar for 2009.

Andy Su took top honors in the 14U division by almost 3 minutes
Ambrose Su placed 11th in 50+ class.

Jake Keener made the drive from Hutch’s of Klamath and placed 6th in the 19-39 Expert class.

Rick Johnson, as I recall, was helping people on the course as well as
dealing with his own bike mechanicals, but managed to finish the 40+
Expert race. Drew Holmes was also in the helping mood and helped
himself out of a tube….that he later needed and didn’t have. So,
unfortunate DNF in Single Speed.

Scotty Carlile cranked out a 4th place in Semi Pro- on a Single
Speed….argh!!

And since all the other 40+ Hutch’s MTB riders were in Elk Horn, I
managed to squeeze out a 1st place in 40+ Expert (just seconds ahead
of Eric Martin).

The weather was nice and the trails were as good as you could expect
for this time of year. They added a new short technical section that
turned it into a distance of just over 40 miles for the
Pro-Semi-Expert riders. Hutch’s had, by far, the greatest local shop
presence.

Bruce

~ n.strong

Sometimes you do it for the glory and the excitement.

Sometimes you ride for a good cause,

or just a good time….

And sometimes you just have to get on your own, away from the dust and mayhem, and explore. That was my plan for yesterday, an epic solo road ride along the just opened Cascade Lakes Highway, plenty of introspection and rumination time.

The thing is, you can’t spit in this town without hitting a Mainah. A Mainah cycling enthusiast to be more specific.  Being from Pennsylvania, which is kind of like Maine, both states which are kind of like Oregon, I understand the migration trend and the attraction to Oregon’s still highly rural, but liberal environs. But the Mainah contingent is EVERYWHERE: representing the bike portage industry, vying for the Olympics, rocking the singlespeed Super D scene or the singlespeed borrowed STP, living it up in Mitchell, organizing the Kegerator Cruiser Crawl or the weekly High Desert Crit. If you like bikes and you live in Bend, it is 87% certain that you will befriend a Mainah. In this case it was local race coordinator Matt Plummer who joined me on mile 2 of what turned out to be a 107 mile adventure. Though I initially begrudged the idea of company (nothing personal, I had been grumpy all week!) it became quickly apparent that without someone to suffer with I would turn back around and back to the comforts of my home. Matt was probably the best male road pacer I had ever ridden with, he didn’t seem too bothered by my lally gagging speed, he made good conversation and equally good silence. We laughed when we wanted to bitch, and kept the spirit high, which was necessary on that last climb from Sparks to Bachelor, yuk! All in all a good, if long exhausting day in the out of doors, just what the doctor ordered. 

Race the High Desert Crits!

Wednesday evening raced the first of our local crit series at Summit High School. It turned out to be a nice weather for racing - mild temperatures, sun and of course the usual stiff breeze making it hard to make a break around the back side of the course. While the fields weren’t huge since some of the regulars were resting up for the Elkhorn there were still 37 riders starting the first race (cat 3/4/5).

We rolled out and as usual TJ “the Lunatic Luthuanian” Paskewich goes on the attack right away. This is to be expected but I was still a little tardy getting clipped in and had to deal with the wobbly and unpredictable riders at the back of the pack for a couple laps. Once I saw my team mate Pat making a move towards the front I used his draft to carry me up. From there we worked together a couple laps to stretch things out before settling in for the usual high intensity rhythm of back and forth that characterizes crtieriums.

For the next 25 minutes we went round and round. There were a few attempts to get away off the front but none ultimately succeeded. Jurgen Fennerl (Hutch’s) did his usual energetic best to keep the pace high and control the race. Personally I was happy to just be able to hang in there and keep a decent position since I’m still building up my fitness.

And so we came to the final lap - where the real action happens. Coming across the line on the bell lap the group upped the pace heading downwind. Sean Tucker made what turned out to be a very well timed attack and opened up a gap. Chasing him Jurgen was leading Bruce Rogers looking to set him up for the win. Doggedly on their wheel was Tim Jones (Therapeutic Associates) looking to do the same for TJ who was following closely. I was just off to the side of TJ intending to cover their move in case they got better position on Jurgen and Bruce. There was a mix of other riders trying to gain position as we entered the over 90 degree far side corner. A second challenging line of riders had developed to the right and I found myself entering the corner boxed in on the right and left. With the only opening being to the front I pedaled through to carry maximum corner speed. Unfortunately the lead rider to my right chose to be brave and take a very aggressive line - one which he couldn’t hold. Down he went! I was on the brakes instantly - getting a little crossed up - as the human torpedo passed across my bow and took out Bruce from behind. I had just straighten out again when the riders following piled in and had to cross it up again to avoid going over the top of them. The last view I had was Mark Reinecke ( BBNS) going over his bars to my left - and then I was clear, still clipped in and rolling. Up the road I saw Jurgen was still going after Sean, not having been touched and still carrying all his speed. On his wheel was Mike Brown (Therapeutic Associates) who somehow also managed to avoid the carnage.

Since there was still a race on I put my head down to try to catch up with Jurgen who was now about 60 meters ahead. After the hard upwind stretch I hadn’t gained much but more problematic was the three other chasers that had attached themselves to my wheel. I sure wasn’t going to bring them to within striking range of my team mate so I had to ease up in the hope they’d go around and tow me instead. Entering the final corner they did just that and I played their draft for a few seconds. Weston Fitzsimmons (Fred Meyer Lakeside) made a strong run for the line and opened a bit of a gap. When I saw the other two riders were not able to hold his wheel I had to fend for myself. While I was able to drop them both I came up short of catching Weston by a couple bike lengths at the line.

Under the circumstances fifth place wasn’t such a bad result. And the legs are only going to get better.

Post race carnage report: no broken bones, just some various scrapes and bruises. TJ trashed his rear tire bad enough he couldn’t ride home. Unfortunately Tim had the worst bike damage with his carbon frame having been broken, but he was still able to limp it home.

The 1/2/3 race went off uneventfully with a smaller field. Early on Carl Decker, Chris Sheppard and Derek Stallings went off the front and established a solid gap. They maintained it all the way to the finish, Chris Sheppard pulled off the course early to save his legs for the Elkhorn. At the finish Derek looked as though his sprint would be enough to beat Carl but he went a little too early and Carl pipped him at the line for the win.

The rest of the field swept in with only Eric Martin strongly sprinting out at the finish to take an easy third place.

Racing resumes next week at 6:15. See you there.

RJ