The end of Bend

Two days of racing. Lots of yelling. Fast people. Bikes. Cake. Yeah... great weekend.

 

While not as cold as it could have been, still not especially warm. Fortunately the fire pit started early and lasted all day.

Also I inevitably had to fix some bikes. New rule: only go to bike races to work. Otherwise it just feels unnatural. Perhaps I have a problem.

The guys from Rapha clothing brought their espresso machine down from their Portland headquarters. Free espresso for all!

(Bike nerd aside: of course they had a Chis King espresso tamper. It's just to the left of the machine)

Also spotted. Not sure how or why, but it seems there was at least one last ride in the team car. Don't know that we'll see this much more, if ever.

Ryan Trebon. 2nd place, he's always one to give high fives on the line.

Tim Johnson taking the win with a big solo break Sunday.

Afterwards I got a chance to congratulate Stu Thorn (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com Team Mechanic) on a very successful weekend for this team.

Hodola! and Katerina Nash after the women's race. It was her birthday on Sunday, so we all got together to sing her way into the finish line. This picture originally appeared on Velonews.com. My left arm got a cameo appearance (left side of the pic).

It was great to get to see the high level of all apects of the weekend. From racing to support to the fans yelling on the side of the course. Big thanks to Recycled Cycles racing, Hodola!, Canada, Bend, and all those people who made the weekend such a blast.

 

 

Three dudes in a house

No, not a new crappy CBS sitcom, my current existence. At least for the weekend. I have returned to Bend for the final stop on the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross. Not really working, but getting a chance to hopefully see the top level cross mechanics doing their thing.

 

Somehow I ended up packing a large amount of stuff for a weekend. Or so it seemed at 530 am when I took this picture. I am thankful for the extra layers. It is not warm here.

On the way, we had some interesting van issues. We ended up replacing a van part in the parking lot of the dealer. Lots of fun.

 

 

Also I discovered that there are varying opinions about Portland. I think its a fine town (where young people go to retire) but apparently not everyone in this bathroom had the same view.

Then there was snow. We took the least snowy mountain pass, but still a good amount of snowy trees. Also mist. This picture does not do justice to how beautiful the pass was. Probably because I took it from the back seat of a van.

Despite the van trouble we got to Bend in time for pre ride of the course. The pit. Kind of like a battlefield the day before the battle.

 

There was no good place for this picture in this post, but it had to be included. The night before I left Nick decided to threaten the dog with a bath. She did not seem too excited about this prospect.

 

 

More from Bend very soon.