Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood marked my return to working for Hagens after a pretty substantial break. It was nice to be back in the van, where life makes sense. For this trip we journeyed to Hood River once again for the final installment of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.

This journey involved a quick stop. We opted not to get the 2 for 269 meats at AM/PM.

That was mostly there to illustrate it was raining. Hard enough that my t-shirt got mostly soaked walking in to get gum. I can't remember if you get wetter running or not. I'll have to watch that Mythbusters again.

Once we got to Hood River things were much nicer. Stage one threatened rain but delivered sun.

We were also fortunate enough to have some rider parents join us for the weekend. Here Ryan and Colby's fathers discuss, I assume, the challenges of having a cyclist as a child.

Wheels and barns.

and Hagens riding the front.

Friday was also Chris' birthday!! To show everyone what experience can do, he takes his turn at the front. Looking awesome.

The final time for this race. A bit sad rolling through the scenic finish of the first stage.

Afterwards we headed back home and I tried to get the attention of some host animals to take their picture. Apparently whatever was to my right was much more interesting.

And bottles go flying! Making sure everyone is well hydrated can be a tricky job.

 

That night I saw this at a brewery in town. I particularly like "The quantity is naturally indefinite". Medicine has changed a lot in 80 years.

 

Waking up next to this garden every day is fantastic. Our hosts were nice enough to let us sample some greens.

And they had Arugula!!

Our best outcome of Friday was that Steve was in the King of the Mountains jersey so he got to start Saturday (his birthday) rocking the red. (photo stolen from his twitter feed)

 

I failed in getting any more pictures of Saturday. There was a crit and a TT. I'd recommend checking out Hagensbermancycling.com and checking out Darcy Miller's excellent photos of the weekend.

 

Now: Sunday

Alan preparing Steve's KOM jersey ahead of the Sunday stage.

Sunday stack of food. Sitin sideways. The pizza on the top/right was my exciting caravan food. Not too much better than pizza during a long road stage.

The Miller parents also dropped off some after race italian sodas. So good.

Alan marks the car with the mighty #1.

This is where you want to be in the caravan.

Basically it meant we could almost see the race as it wound through some very narrow forest roads for most of the day.

The racers seemed to mostly ignore this sign, seeing as there were several breaks, and some very high speed descents.

The weekend ended with Steve winning the King of the Mountains and Ian 4th overall. Next we're headed to Nationals, BC Superweek, and Cascade. More posts/more often are coming. Stay tuned.

 

 

Ballard Crit 2013

2013 marked the 20th edition of the Ballard Crit. This is one of the more fun races of the year for a few reasons: it's in Seattle, it's in a part of Seattle where there are lots of non cycling (read: drinking) activities to for spectators to participate in, and because of the previous two reasons there are generally a lot of people in attendance. This makes for a good day.

The HSP team car arrived early, and was not sporting their usual high end bikes on the top. Time to start the rumor that now they are a commuter shop.

From left to right: Tre, John, and Kenny. While it is true that there are more people than the average bike race, these are the usual suspects.

Home sweet home in the pit.

The announcers in the middle of the first race. With 14 minutes to go, things were probably interesting. I don't exactly recall.

Key things to have in the pit (as pictured). Water, tools, wheels, energy drinks, and a positive relationship with the pit official. If you can have those things and a great parking spot for your logo van, everything will be well.

Had to get a shot of my toolbox in the mix. Even if it was accidentally photobombed by the Group Health team.

Action shot! Cat 4 men I think.

The sun was nice enough to come out for us and everything.

Large pizza for the pit crew. Bonus: as the only non-vegan in the pits, this pizza belongs to me. Ballard Pizza Company does the pizza right.

FSA gave us a bunch of these multi-purpose headwear pieces. Bobby was kind enough to model one.

Action for the day included the end of this Mad Fiber. RIP.

Also this rather large staple. Not good for your tires.

In the end it was nice to be back at a bike race.

 

 

 

 

Non bike related

Fair warning, no bike stuff in this post. Future posts will return to some bike theme, but for now: the woods!

 

On the way to Levenworth we passed by this next to a gas station. Sadly we didn't get to visit this amazing shop or sample their products.

We did get to go to the woods. Which looked like this.

And follow a bunch of other people out on the trail.

View from the trail.

And again.

There was a rock in the parking lot that had a natural occurring cup holder. I took full advantage.

Colton used our post hike time to split wood.

and to set up a lean-to in case of rain.

Which, in case you can't tell, was awesome.

Then all that was left was to sit back and enjoy the fire.

Memorial Day started as it should. While I had always thought the Aeropress would be a good camping coffee device I hadn't tried it out. Lisa and I were very pleased with the results.

Then we walked up a hill. You can kind of tell how steep it is from the picture, it was much steeper and harder to walk up in real life.

Eventually we got to the top for some rock climbing. Lisa and I happen to own the same backpack in the same color. We used this weekend to showcase that point.

We also discovered this terrible artifact at the top (belonging to one of the other climbers). I know that if I owned the world's most terrible shoes I would keep them safe in a mesh bag.

Rock climbing happened. Colt and Lisa at the anchors of one of the climbs.

I used some of the rock climbing time take a quick nap.

Downhill we got some time to stop and smell the flowers.

Which were awesome.

I've had to say goodbye to the woods for now but don't worry, I'll be back.