Mountain View Cycles

To all Gorge Cyclists:

We have an opportunity to volunteer at the Hood River Port Crit races in April. Obra and the race organizers need 4-5 people on each night of racing to marshal the corners on the course. It’s a great chance to get involved and should qualify us to get a partial refund on our team dues. One stipulation is that, if volunteering for the evening, you can’t race. Tony will be working with Candi during the series in order to become an OBRA official (another team requirement). It would be great to get several people willing to help out as well who were not planning to race.

The schedule looks like this:

April 7, 14, 21 & 28 from 4:45 to 7:00-30ish.  4-5 people needed each night.

Volunteers can come from within our ranks or from other family members, friends, etc.

Please e-mail Tony (tony_dirks@hotmail.com) if you or any of your family/friends can help with any of these dates.  It would be great if we could fill all the needed slots. 

Please forward this to anyone you think might be willing to help out.

Thanks very much.

Mountain View Racing Team

This Monday’s Team Meeting will be at 7 PM at Tony’s house.

812 Henderson Rd
Hood River, OR

Link to google maps here:  http://bit.ly/fn3rcc

BYOB!  See ya there

We’ll be meeting on Monday the 28th of Feb to discuss the 2011 cycling season as well as how to organize a true “team” for OBRA regulations.  Check back for exact times and locations but Keep Monday open!

Contact Tony for more info:

tony_dirks@hotmail.com

It’s that time of year again!  After a great warmup for cross with the season opener here in Hood River with the Hood River Double Cross we were all primed and ready for the Cross Crusade (http://www.crosscrusade.com/default.htm)  It got it’s start this past Sunday at Alpenrose Dairy where another record was broken with just over 1500 racers lining up at the start.  At the beginning of the women’s start the announcer stated that there were more women lined up there than every other cross series in the country combined!!  Way to go Oregon!!

Team Mountain View did well on the day and had 25 total starts in almost every category.  Of these 25 we had nine riders get into points with a total of 98 team points awarded.  Julie and Taylor were the big point winners with their 2nd place finishes while Tre, Zack and I rounded out the other top 10 finishers (I have to mention that Andrew got 11th and missed top 10 by 1 spot!!)

Ed, Gregg and Kristi rounded out our other top 18 finishers pulling in points for the team.

Alpenrose is probably my favorite venue as it had us racing on gravel, BUMPY grass, pavement through an old western town, dirt, concrete stairs, barriers, and even in the velodrome!!  The folks at Cross Crusade and OBRA (www.obra.org) really manage this huge race very well!

Even the Kiddie-Cross is a huge event here and they had 256 kids under 12 years old line up for the race.  My boy Camden – just 4 yrs old – lined up for the smaller kids race as I was not sure I wanted him racing with the older kids and doing the full 1.5 mile lap around the whole course but at the start he sped off the front of the small kids and caught up with the bigger kids!  He managed to pass quite a few as he rode the entire length of the race and only needed help getting his bike over the barriers and up the stairs!  He is fun to watch and I am a very proud daddy!!

Next week we will be at Rainier High School for the Cross Crusade #2!!  Can’t wait to see you there!!

http://www.crosscrusade.com/flyers/2010/october_10.html

Cheers,

Eric

The 2010 Pain-n-Suffer’n cyclocross race definitely lived up to it’s name.  It was a beautiful sunny day but the course was dry, dusty and HARD!  Many barriers (including some massive logs) and lots of climbing on the top of Bald Mountain put the hurt to some of the Mountain View racers!!

Greg getting ready to remount after making quick work of the logs!

Zack hitting the log barriers during the junior race!

Even with all of the pain it was a pretty good day for the team as we had 12 racers on the day in almost every category from the kiddie cross to the Masters 50+!  The fields for each race were not huge but still had a good amount of racers making the day challenging and fun.  Even Karl was able to race Masters B without a mechanical – which is rare for him so success was everywhere!!

Tony making the logs look easy

We were able to get a few folks on to podiums for the day as well – which is huge for these early races as the top 3 in each cat will earn the ever-important call up for the first Cross Crusade race.  Kristi (in her first year of racing) got third for beginner women and is leading the OBRA BAR for this cat.

Kristi getting her medal for 3rd and showing her excitement for the podium spot!!

Taylor also stood on the podium – on TOP of the podium – for the junior women cat.  She crushed the field and is hoping to go for the overall during the crusade this year!

My favorite race of the day – the one I was there to support as I did not race this weekend – was the kiddie cross!  4 year old Camden (I think only Tony races more than Cam!) stood on top of the podium in his Mountain View jersey for the 5 and under race!!  I couldn’t be a more proud papa!

Camden standing on top of the podium - a scene I expect we'll see often from him over the years with how much he loves to ride a bike!!

Overall, I think it was a pretty good success for Team Mountain View and everyone seems ready for the Hood River Double Cross this weekend where we finally get to race on our home turf!!

Good luck everyone – see ya this weekend!

Team Mt. View showed up this week at the Tuesday night PIR series with our strongest team showing yet. Karl and Zach Mikkelson; Tony Dirks; Colton Swearingen and Andrew Hayes were sporting the Mt. View colors.

In the Cat 4/5 race Zach continued to build his riding skills; with on-course coaching provded by Karl. The Cat 3/4 race was marked by many break attempts and hot lap sprints. Tony and Andrew managed to join up with 2 other riders and formed a break at the race mid-point; but after the hot lap the two other riders let up and the break collapsed.

The final sprint saw an impressive performance from Colton; who surged to cross the line 4th; putting him in 5th spot in the final points standing. Tony grabbed some hot lap points; placing him in 13th.

The racing continues through August at PIR; perfect training for Cross season!

Had a great ride Saturday.  We’ve been leaving at 10 am from Ground (still a little chilly at 8!)

We did a hard 60 miles with a strong group of seven.  Not sure where everyone was as the weather was beautiful but we did manage to have 3 Mtn View jerseys (Tony, Gregg and I)

Here’s a link to my Garmin tracks from the ride:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27557037

The mountain biking has also been stellar right now in the gorge!  Post is in perfect condition and Hospital Hill has been great for a month now!  I did a quick shuttle up Coyote Wall with some friends to ride Little Moab this past week with some new bikers and a couple friends.  A fun group and one even had a Helmet Hero for some video.  Check it out:  http://www.vimeo.com/10332087

If you have not been out riding this week you are not enjoying the Gorge in it’s fullest!!!