Saturday, August 1, 2009

Oregon riders sweep Canada's Intermontane Challenge MTB race


Butler and Sheppard in their leaders' jerseys.

Portland's Sue Butler and Bend resident Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz-WTB) rode away with the top titles at the five-day Intermontane Challenge in Kamloops, B.C., this week.

With $10,000 on the line for the pro men and women, the first-year event drew a pretty talented field. Butler's Monavie-Cannondale squad brought a full contingent, including Jeremiah Bishop, Tinker Juarez, Benjamin Sonntag and Brandon Cross.

Salem's Evan Plews (Domenic’s Marine Ltd) joined Sheppard -- who is originally from Kamloops -- in the men's race, while Lynn Bessette (Thule Team) and Amanda Carey (Kenda-Tomac-Hayes) joined Butler and the others in the women's field.

Each stage started and finished in town and used courses designed to show-off the many miles of singletrack surrounding the town. But the race ran into significant trouble on stage 3 when a local crank threatened to stay up all night removing course markers from "his" trail. A course change followed the next morning, and much confusion for lost riders and officials ensued. By the end of the day, promoters decided to nullify the stage results. Unfortunately the news came too late for Monavie-Cannondale's Bishop, who crashed while leading the race and cracked two vertebrae.

Sheppard, who suffered a broken chain and finished fourth on day one, rode his way back into the lead and stayed there for the rest of the race. Sonntag crashed hard and suffered a concussion on day four after getting a stick in his front wheel.

Butler led the women's race from beginning to end, with Carey battling for the lead each day.

"It was a HOT week of racing, and this first-year event has a ton of potential," Butler said via e-mail. "A lot of room for improvement, but the cash incentive was enough to get some really good competition."

Visit Sue Butler's blog HERE.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Holland wins shortened Tuesdsay PIR on course that gives new meaning to 'hot spots'



Finnegans Toys/Discover Chiropractic's Steve Holland (pictured below) seized the victory at a Tuesday PIR race shortened to 12 laps because of extreme heat. Temps well in excess of 100 degrees brought out sprinklers and misters to cool the riders, but it didn't seem to slow the racing.

Holland joined Jeff Mitchem (Rapha Racing) David Gates (Bridgetown Velo) and James Adamson in an early-and-successful breakaway group in the Cat 1/2/3 that gobbled up most of hot-spot points throughout the evening. Holland's consistent sprinting gave him the win by four pionts over Mitchem. Gates finished third, seven points down.

Race official Luciano Bailey devised an interesting formula for the the Cat 3/4 race after some riders requested a shortened evening. The first five finishers on lap five would get the top five results in win-and-out fashion, and everyone else would have to race the full schedule.

Ironclad Performance Wear made the most of the situation and their superior numbers, launching David Monnig on a five-lap solo flyer for the top spot, and then following it up with three more riders in the top five. Ironclad's Ryan Smith finished second on the lap-five win-and-out but chose to keep riding. Team cthulu's Andrew Trask was third.

RESULTS
PIR Tuesday Night Series
Portland International Raceway, July 28


Cat 4/5
1. Riehl, Damian 18
2. Ward, Christopher 12
3. Murphy, Kyle 11
4. Barnhart, Brandon 8
5. Curzon, Aaron 8
Cat 3/4
1. Monnig, David (Ironclad Performance Wear) 15
2. Smith, Ryan (Ironclad Performance Wear) 12
3. Trask, Andrew (team cthulu) 10
4. Willis, Andrew (Ironclad Performance Wear) 8
5. McCoy, Jonathan (Sunset Cycles) 7
Cat 1/2/3
1. Holland, Steven (Finnegans Toys/Discover Chiropractic) 21
2. Mitchem, Jeff (Rapha Racing) 17
3. Gates, David (Bridgetown Velo) 14
4. Adamson, James 12
5. Leonard, John (Rapha Racing) 9


Rapha Racing's Jeff Micthem and Bridgetown Velo's David Gates made the break.


The Cat 1/2/3 break group contests a hot spot.


Ironclad's Dave Monnig gets misty on the way to taking the lap five win-and-out.


A sprint for the line in the Cat 3/4 race.


The promoter's improvised sprinklers were popular.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Warner wins Monday night Masters race on toasty PIR Tarmac

RESULTS
River City Bicycles Monday Night Race Series
PIR, July 27


Novice Women
1. Lewis, Leigh 15
2. Karottki, Mary 12
3. Thompson, Lynn 10
Novice Men
1. Usher, Craigan 15
2. Zimmer, Darrin 12
3. Lehto, Danny 10
Masters 4/5
1. Hemming, David (Rapha Racing) 21
2. Radich, Matt (Cat 6 Racing) 12
3. Kyper, Robert (Tireless Velo) 10
4. Loeb, Curtis 10
5. McGuire, Matt (ZteaM) 7
Masters 1/2/3
1. Warner, Charles (Veloce/Felt) 21
2. Ghilarducci, Thomas (bicycleattorney.com) 12
3. Hopper, David (NoMad Sports Club) 12
4. Tresser, Christian (Cyclepath Racing) 10
5. Alling, Chris (Fred Meyer/Lakeside Cycling Team) 8

Wilmes, Chinburg win at Portland Short Track

After winning five consecutive weeks of the Portland Mountain Bike Short Track Series, Vanilla Bicycles' Shannon Skerritt's misfortune opened the door for a new face atop the Pro Men's podium.

Portland Bicycle's Doug Wilmes (Portland Bicycles Studio) seized the lead after Skerritt was forced to abandon after four laps. Wilmes went on to complete seven laps for the win in front of John McCaffrey (bicycleattorney.com) and James Crowe (Revolver Cascadia).

Wilmes, consistently a top finisher behind Skerritt, now trails the Vanilla rider by just one point in the overall standings for the seven-race series. Best six out of seven races count toward overall results for the series, which concludes next week.

Megan Chinburg took the Pro/Cat 1 Women's race Monday night. The Portland-based rider finished six laps ahead of Susan Grandjean of Showers Pass and Team S&M's Audrey Brown of Hood River.


RESULTS
Portland Mountain Biking Short Track Series #6
PIR, July 27


Singlespeed
1. Zlatnik, Pete (Signal Cycles) 5
2. Curtes, Jeff (Fuel)
3. Porter, Daniel 37 (Cyclepath Racing) 5
4. Brown, Edwin 27 (Artisan Family Racing) 5
5. Weaver, Ryan 32 (River City Bicycles)

Pro/Cat 1 Women
1. Chinburg, Megan 6
2. Grandjean, Susan (Showers Pass) 6
3. Brown Audrey, (Team S&M) 6
4. Love Christy, 6
5. Garland Patty, 5

Pro Men
1. Wilmes, Doug (Portland Bicycle Studio) 7
2. McCaffrey, John (bicycleattorney.com) 7
3. Crowe, James (Revolver Cascadia) 7
4. Butler, Tim (River City Bicycles) 7
5. Armstrong, Joel (River City Bicycles) 7

Complete OBRA results are HERE.