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As much as we like riding bikes, it’s not always a race.
Barbara Diamond invited us all to come join her in at a table at the Labor Day picnic at Oak’s Park. We joined many other unions all joining together for a day of family fun.
We set up a table with some games for kids and spend the day in the sunshine.
Here’s some photos:
We’ve been all over..
Zak at the Madison Cup at Trexlertown:
He and partner Dan Harm placed 2nd overall.
Gateway Cup
Group Ride season.
Brian doing some cylocross..
Team Track Championships
(That’s 2 out of 3 podium spots!)
Giro di Portlandia
The Embrocation Omnium
The Twilight Crit
The Vancouver Crit
Zak teaching track class
Marymoor Grand Prix
Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge
Pre-Avc Roller Races
State Track Championships
Ironclad Street Sprints
The Six Day
Out of all the photos, this one is my favorite:
After a bit of adventure on the way down, quite a few members of Diamond Law arrived in San Jose, CA for the 2011 Testarossa Velodrome Challenge. Happy to say we came out with some great results!
Our coach, Brian Abers, took the top spot in both the Masters Keirin AND the Masters Sprint.
Zak made his way onto the podium three times this weekend, with an incredible final finish in the Point’s Race where he out sprinted 2010 National Pro Crit Champion Daniel Holloway in the final points sprint.
Some Podium Shots:
Points Race
Miss and Out
Scratch Race Podium
Master’s Miss and Out
Master’s Scratch
Here’s our best results from the weekend:
2nd Elite Points Race: Zak Kovalcik
3rd Elite Scratch Race: Zak Kovalcik
4th Elite Miss and Out: Zak Kovalcik
6th Elite Miss and Out: Al Urbanski
6th Women’s Scratch: Heather VanValkenburg
1st: Master’s Sprints: Brian Abers
1st: Master’s Keirin: Brian Abers
4th Master’s Miss and Out: Daryl Hemenway
5th Master’s Scratch Race: Daryl Hemenway
The Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge is only 2 weeks away! Check out more information at http://www.alpenrosechallenge.com/
We will be racing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (July 15-17), with morning and evening sessions Friday and Saturday. There’s a lot to see and lots of seating for spectators. Parking and Admission are FREE to see some of the best track racing in the country, right here in Portland.
A few pics from the six..
All photos by Jose Sandoval.
Check out more pictures from Pat Malach at Oregon Cycling Action
Round and Round 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race in Spokane May 28-29–no, not a joke! Brian Abers, Nathan Frechen, Daryl Hemenway, and Jason Crago would have been top half had there been 24 teams rather than 22. We completed 5 laps each for 20 total. Frechen was on his franken-bike, Hemenway had a bad case of food poisoning Friday and a 15 year old hard tail, Abers looked resplendent in his track national champion stripes, and Crago actually looked like a mountain biker. Great race support from Kathy Abers, Elena Larson, and Alissa Maglaty.
We clearly had the largest asses of any team. Tank ate it on a gnarly downhill, then the med tech thought his thigh was swollen and bruised–Tank disabused her of that notion by pointing out that this was just his gigantic tank-like thighs. Brian flew down hills. Crago killed it on his single speed. Daryl actually passed lots of people going up hills (but got smoked in downhills and technical sections).
Team member Seth Daniels lost his mind and decided to do the race solo for his 40th birthday celebration. He finished 10 laps on his own, including two epic laps Sunday morning. For some reason unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Seth decided to use his brand new single speed hard tail. You will have to ask Seth himself if he can sit down without an inflatable donut yet.
Note to self–food poisoning Friday afternoon and evening makes for a difficult 24 hour race–the nausea-meter ranged from 8 to 3 (on a 10 point scale), but I managed to keep food down and fueled up for each lap. The worst part: I couldn’t even stomach the thought of beer. And that was a significant portion of why I decided to do the 24 hour race.
In a typically twisted BRIHOP/Diamond Law Cycling Team sort of way, I can’t wait to do this race again next year. Hopefully without food poisoning.
Daryl
On May 22, the Diamond Law Cycling Team participated in the Erik Kautzky Memorial track race, coming away with wins in the men’s Category 4, Category 3, and master’s 40+ omniums; and 2nd in the women’s open, and 3rd and 4th in the men’s Category 1-2 omniums.
Brian Kesselman began his run up through the categories by winning all three races in the category 4 omnium and was promptly upgraded to category 3.
Chris Deardorff earned his upgrade to category 2 by winning the category 3 omnium. He did so in style–in two of the races he closed 25 meter gaps to Brian Ratliff (Portland Velo) in the last 200 meters, proving that DLCT sprinters are not afraid to win endurance omniums.
Heather Van Valkenburg took 2nd in the women’s open omnium, looking dashing in her national champion stripes. Amy Shepard-Emoff and Elena Larson provided support and fireworks in the women’s races.
In the men’s 1-2 races, Al Urbanski took 3rd, with Brent Emoff in 4th, supported by our own superstar mullet ninja Zak Kovalcik. There looks to be a season-long showdown between DLCT and the Gentle Lovers in the elite mens races at Alpenrose Velodrome.
National Champion John Forbes made a good showing in the 50+ category, till he had to go engage in some Sisyphean landscaping endeavor.
Now–for the more detailed old man 40+ race report (mainly because that was the race I did so I remember it better than the others). The main protagonists were myself, Mark Ginsberg (HPC Chiro), Peter Drake (Lakeside Bicycles), Mark Duff (Veloforma), and a guy from Existential Velo (hope he found meaning in the absurdity). And–don’t forget–our very own Brian Abers, who is showing some endurance chops this year.
Race 1–20 lap points race. Sprint 1–I led it out on the bell, won the sprint. Sprint 2–the Existential guy was out in front, I was second. Sprint 3–I led it out on the bell, won the sprnt. Final sprint (double points)–I led it out, Mark Ginsberg won the sprint, I took second. Results: 1st: Me. 2nd: Mark G.
Race 2–12 lap scratch race. I led it out from a couple laps out. Mark G. pipped me at the line. Damn.
Race 3–Miss and out. Oh yeah. It was on. In order to win the omnium I needed to beat Mark G. I figured it would come down to the two of us for the race. About 1/3 of the way in, I took the front. Then realized that the pace I was setting was a) high enough where no one wanted to challenge; and b) pretty damn comfortable for me. The final elimination left Peter Drake, Mark Ginsberg, and myself–two laps to go. Peter attacked with a lap and a half to go. I got to his wheel (with Mark tucked in his usual spot–on my wheel) and passed him. So it was down to a two-up sprint starting at fairly high speed. Playing and training with sprinters pays its dividends…so I kept the speed high but not full on, and stayed above the sprinters lane through turns one and two…then dropped in as hard as I could at about the 200 meter line. Mark tried to come around at the line, but I held him off.
Overall results: Daryl 1st. Mark G 2nd. Peter 3rd.
So–a great start to the track season for me personally, and a great start to the track season for the Diamond Law Cycling Team.
Daryl
Some photos:
After the Eric Kautzky rain out, we’re all getting pretty anxious for track season.
So far we’ve had to get our fill in of riding in circles (kind of) at the weekly race each Tuesday at Portland International Raceway. This week had a good bunch, with Al, Brent, John, Heather, and Amy sitting into the 1/2/3 field enjoying the sunshine.
Heather in the field.
Al off the front.
Photos from Pat Malach @ Oregon Cycling Action
Thursday night racing at Alpenrose is in full swing, with 2 more weeks of time trials before the mass start races return for the duration of the summer.
This weekend Diamond Law goes international, with Zak Kovalcik and newest team member Brian Kesselman heading up to Canada to race at Burnaby for the “Cascadia Classic”, which includes 3 days packed full of racing. Rain or shine, the roof will be enough to guarantee them a fun weekend of racing.
The rest of us are doing our best to keep up with the training in preparation for the summers big races.. On the agenda for the summer:
June 10-12th: Fixed Gear Classic. Blaine, MN
June 20-25th: The Alpenrose 6-Day. Portland, OR
July 1-2nd: Testarossa Velodrome Challenge. San Jose, CA
July 15-17th: Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge. Portland, OR
July 22-23rd: Marymoor Grand Prix. Redmond, WA
July 26-31: Master’s National Championships. Trexlertown, PA.
Hopefully by the time July hits we’ll finally be able to get a sun tan.
I’ve made a few updates to the blog recently, including a Photo page, so thanks again to our favorite bike race photographers.. Pat Malach, Jose Sandoval, Dave Roth, etc!
– AS
Unfortunately, the Eric Kautzky Memorial race was rained out and moved to Sunday the 22nd. But we did get one day of racing in and some impressive results from Diamond Law team members this last Thursday.
Senior men:
1st: Al Urbanski
Cat 3 men:
1st: Chris Deardorff
Cat 4 men:
1st: Brian Kesselman
3 firsts in one night! Congrats Al, Chris, and Brian.
Cyclesport.com p/b Brihop Racing 