1/24/2009 – Apiary Double Circuit

This is always a team favorite. The double has all those great climbs and surfacing challenges. It really is becoming a Classic but — “Don’t bring your race wheels” ! This time we spiced it up with a 3 mile gravel stretch down on the flats that usually only offer broken, cobbled pavement that can rip your bike in half. We had another good turnout, nice job to all of those training diligently. Oh, and Ryan flatted.

1/17 – 1/18/2009 – Cherry Pie and Headquarters

Our recon of Cherry Pie included Lance, Matthew, Chad, Ryan, Nick and Me. The weather turned out for us – we can only hope for similar on race day. Alternatively we could hope for rain, because that’s what tough guys do.  The course looked like it had just been paved, and there did not appear to be any winter damage to the roads. Good ride, but long day.

Headquarters was equally as uneventful until Matthew decided he would go cyclocross on us and consequently ripped his rear derailleur. Bummer for our dear Matthew, hopefully he can get it sorted out before the Pie. In hindsight, I think we should start to track Ryan’s flat tires.

1/10 – 1/11/2009 Dairy Creek and Brothers

Short post here. Dairy Creek was Chad, Richard, Matthew, Nick, and Jason. Great to see the Jaybird out for a fly. I actually thought this was a great route, thanks Matthew. We saw a couple other big groups out there but resisted the temptation to track them down and.

Brothers was a great idea by Mike, to finally ride South of the Lewis and Clark River without detours and route changes. Best Intentions. As far as I’m concerned that part of the world offers some of the best in road cycling, but there are so many options we invariably get crossed up. This time it was my doing, and the group split early. Luckily there were 9 of us, great turnout, so we all had friends along for the ride. Most did “Brothers”, the four of us did a mixed bag and three climbed Shirly Gorden for the finale. Its still steep, I about fell off my bike.

1/1/2009 – The Poseidon Adventure

 

Happy New Year. This may have been the rainiest ride ever. And it was definitely the windiest. The weather man delivered on 40 – 50 mph gusts and at points there was a driving headwind for extended stretches. Effectively we climbed for the whole ride. In reality we covered almost 5000′ of gain – see the post in the Ride Library. We owed Nick on a snowed – out Clackamas Classic and have made good. Good Luck to the rest of the Masters 40+ field if this is Nicks’ standard training route.