Rants, Raves, and Cement Waves
I have to say it was a Fair Day! Saturday, July 12th, 2008
I swear I did not even see the angle in front of me. I just put my camera above the crowd as we left the 2008 Oregon Country Fair around 8:30 pm on Saturday, July 13th. It was not even until I looked at the picture on Sunday that I saw her. It was that kind of day. A Fair Day!
Pablo getting tile and copping at the new Lower Woodland park in Seattle. It is not even a month old. And I was luck enough to have Dan Hughes, the Northwestskater himself take what I think may be the best picture of me skating. Not my best trick ever, but the fish eye lens, the fact that he did not cut my head off, etc. EPIC!!!
The Concrete Rodeo Tour 2008 is coming to Oregon this week and I will be judging once again, this time at my favorite skatepark… Newberg… this Sunday, July 13th!
Fellow Sleestockers Pablo and Auggie. Photo by Rich @ Earth Patrol Media
Don and I picked-up another Sleestaker named Corey (Chompy on the stak) and made it down to Sleestok III last weekend. It was also my first visit to the new snakerun at Lincoln City. Freaking EPIC!
Check out a little page of Don’s pictures from our visit to Gabriel Park and Sleestock III
Don’s pictures
Grover’s Corner
Tuesday, June 25th, 2008
The fourth and last race for the June series
PIR results for Tuesday, June 25th 2008 and for the June series.
There were four races in the June series. The first race of the month was on June 3rd. It is historically important now to note that all of my best results at PIR have been when the race is going counter-clockwise on the 1.92-mile long course. I really am a pure sprinter and have had to work on climbing skills and muscle memory. The counter-clockwise direction is a much shorter sprint to the finish line. If you are not sprinting by the pedestrian bridge that goes over the drag strip, it is too late!
I finished in 5th place that night. My best result since 1996, when I place 6th in the Cat 1/2/3 field.
The next week, on June 10th, we went the wrong way for me. I tried to score some points in the first Hot Lap, but the wind was to our backs, the sprint was very fast, very early, and very hard to judge. Even in the final, the field broke apart in the last corner and I was forced to try and bridge the gap. I ended-up pulling the field back on just in time to give up for 25th place and no points on the night. Did I mention that I have no team mates?
Back to my direction on June 17th… Kurt and my aunt’s birthday! I gave them a little present with a second-place in the first Hot Spot and a third in the third hot lap. Then I was 6th on the finish line, but with the Hot Spot points, I was moved up to fourth place. That was my best results since 1995, when I finished in second place on the night that Kurt led me out to a PSU win. But with no other points, I was placed second for the night.
That gave me 15 points over two-of-the-three races that far for the month of June. I was tied with two others for fifth place overall. Mark Crawford from IronClad Racing looked to have too much of a lead, but it was mathmatically possible for me to move into second place. Just one race to go for June’s series, but it was to be the direction that I have never scored points doing. It was going to be 12 laps with Hot Laps on 9, 6, and 3. I went for the first Hot Spot and finished in a photo-finish for second-place and two points. My first points ever going counter-clockwise! And first-place overall in the series was behind me in a distant third.
I sat in for the second Hot Lap. The third Hot Lap was a much tighter affair as we came in a bit slow and spread apart. But I timed it almost perfectly as I swung out in the wind shadow for another photo-finish second place. Two more points.
And then the classic breakaway got up the road. Two men with a small gap would end-up winning it as the 1/2/3 field nuetralized us twice as they were broken into two fields. I timed it a bit late and finished in sixth-place out of the field sprint, but was 8th on the line. Eighth-place gets four points. A total of eight points on the night moved me up to fifth-place for the overall.
Two fifth-place finishes and a fourth-place in the four-race series gave me enough points for third-place in the month of June. I have never finished in the winnings for a series at PIR. The payouts go five deep for the Cat 3/4 field. I fought for it. I kicked the skunk out of the boat by scoring points for the first time going the direction that I do not like. All the hard work paid off!!!
Street Films at Portland’s first Sunday Parkways
The day after Tour de Blast, I volunteered to work Portland’s first Sunday Parkways. I rode a 6-mile loop closed to cars with the trailer and gave out apples, banannas, water and cliff bars. Also my opinon and my hellos to many friends old and new. It was EPIC!!!
Summer is on! It is official! And even in Portland we have had temperatures above normal and mostly dry, except for Sunday morning.
Saturday was the first offical day of summer and the Kurt, Billy and I made or second trek up to the Tour de Blast. An 80-plus-mile, 7,000-feet, or so, of climbing “fun” bike ride to start the season off. The ride starts at the Toutle High School. Toutle being a very small SW Washington town best know for being in the way of the mud flow from Mt. St. Helens coming down the Toutle River.
At Johnston Ridge
That’s me in the red on the beautiful orange Igleheart road bike at PIR on Tuesday, June 17th. I got 4th place! My best result since 1995!!!
I did the Midnight Mystery Ride with about 300 people on Friday night, then I did the Circus du Cycling crit on Mississippi Blvd Saturday night at 6:30 pm, and then I joined easily over 1,000 people on Portland’s World Naked Bike ride at midnight!
What did you do?
