LOCAL BUSINESSES SAVE THE CRIT

(From PDX Crit) Portland is a world-class cycling city, well known for smart planning, innovative projects and thousands of people happily commuting to work - rain or shine. So it seems fitting that we have a world-class bicycle street race - the Portland Twilight Criterium, Presented by Subaru - that draws professional racers from around the country. 15,000 spectators flock to downtown Portland for a night of fast-paced racing action in a festival-like atmosphere around the North Park Blocks every year in early August (This year Friday, August 5th).

But this year, as the title sponsor bowed out in light of severe budget cuts, the Portland Twilight Criterium was facing cancellation. Determined not to let that happen, local race fans have stepped up to bring in the support of their businesses, including Subaru of America and the local law firms Swanson, Thomas and Coon; BicycleAttorney.com; Berkshire Ginsberg and BicycleLaw.com. In their effort to rescue this popular event, these attorneys who are usually competitive have put the competition aside and banded together.

Amazing things happen here in Portland - success, creativity, forward thinking. In keeping with this spirit, the organizers hope additional businesses will come out as race fans too and help bring professional racing to Downtown Portland this summer.

This event is a fundraiser for Bikes to Rwanda, a nonprofit organization that provides cargo bicycles to co-operative coffee farmers in Rwanda. Bikes to Rwanda improves quality of life in these communities through a bike workshop and maintenance program that provides transportation resources for basic needs. Through their good work, Bikes to Rwanda helps many families and their efforts lead to enhanced production of quality coffee.

Shelled...

Getting older brings some realities - one of them is you have days of yin & yang. Saturday was mine. I got shelled in the afternoon crit. Pulled from the course after losing contact. Why is it the yang ends the day?

The Yin: I was really focused on the morning's TT. I know its my Achilles heel. To hold on to my 16th from stage 1 it was critical not to lose to much - maybe miracle-of-miracles gap the guy behind in the GC 30secs more. The 14 miles were good for me - lumpy and the longer than anything I had done before. I now know that hilliness hurts others and this old motor does better as the distance stretches.

I got this one nearly right - my Yin had taken over my attitude. I warmed up for nearly an hour, riding over 5 miles to the start and heaps of laps on local streets similar to the course (lumpy rolling stuff) for another half hour. The pump was primed. Hell, I timed this so perfectly I literally rolled to the start line, never unclipped as they held me and started the 30 sec countdown (a bit too close for OBRA officials - sorry guys).

The Yang: Riding over to the start the legs complained, the spark that hints of speed was not there, but for me crits are all about surviving - just sit on the back and stay alive. I planned to find Dave Zimbleman's wheel and stay there. Dave is the GC leader but doesn't get mixed up in front these speed fests if his lead (he's leading the Masters 45+ GC) isn't at risk. They, OBRA officials, neutralized scoring today because of complete mess up in stage 1 recordings - they're trying to sort out overnight. Its becoming crystal clear I and the a populous of the peloton have a distinctly different interpretation of the commonly used term "neutral". My good friends over at Merriam's online have this take on the word:
Function: noun
Date: 15th century

1 : one that is neutral 2 : a neutral color 3 : a position of disengagement (as of gears)

Now of course I, being a Masters and all, which means I have been on the planet for a few years, at least long enough to learn the language, would assume any word that has had 5 centuries of use should be fairly commonly accepted and understood. I guess that's one of those realities getting older still hasn't taught me, because I don't call taking off at over 31 miles per hour for the first sever laps neutral! No one that night except for the Pros went that fast - and even they were shelling each other at that speed!

Getting back to Merriam's, I especially like definition #3 "disengagement (as of gears). Could I just add - wheels, frame, derailleur, handle bars, saddle, pedals, etc. Ya I'm frustrated. If I decide to drop that's one thing, but working my arse off and getting pulled totally pisses me off. Yang is crappy, and not the way to end a day. We're back on the open roads in the morning - thank goodness... btw, did I mention I hated crits before and now even more!

Yang was tough on everyone. The above photo is of my friend and Lip Smacker pro Hilary Billington, she did a great job "hanging on" in the women's pro crit - they ripped it up in the high 20 mph range. Afterwords she looked beat, but no whistle, nice job Hil!