Midsummer rolls around

  

 

Last week was midsummer, and we put on our traditional backyard fire. This year we had no banjo boy, but Manny came over and played "Jenny from the block" on the accordion which was cool too! Happy summer everyone! 

I am a cat 2!

Racing is divided into classes, and typically a race will be separated into cat 5, cat 4, cat 3, and cat 1/2. My one goal this season (apart from complete domination) was to upgrade to a cat 2 on the track, which would allow me to race with the fast crowd all the time and I just did! My new OBRA card arrived yesterday. As a bonus I can now race the 1/2/3 field at PIR too as I apparently am a cat 3 roadie now. This calls for a celebration. And its almost midsummer too. It may be time for some vegan fermented fish and fresh potatoes!

Six day racing championship.

  

  

The national six day championship just ended here at the velodrome---six days of madison racing where teams of two riders takes turn racing, while slinging each other into the heat of action when trading off. The pace is fast and furious (often over 29-30mph for long periods of time), and the element of danger is very real as people move on and off the track at high speed at very close quarters.

I had a blast, but the riding came at a high prize. I got crashed out twice by the same rider, who eventually ended up being disqualified for dangerous riding. The first crash was not so bad, but I ground pollen from the track into my skin and had an allergic reaction that put me in the emergency room when my lungs swelled up to the point where I could not breathe very well. After some adrenalin and O2 things shaped up, but this meant a bunch of precious hours of sleeping lost. The second crash occured high at the track, and I banged myself up pretty good---the last day I was riding at 80% capacity only.

I and my partner Steven ended up on the podium in second place, which was very cool. We are now official national silver medallists, and we got some sweet schwag too. This was my first racing with the cat 1 and cat 2s (including a team that travelled up from California), so to place this well felt very nice. Yay!

Black rose bookstore one year anniversary!

 

A few weeks back our bookstore, the black rose, had it's one year anniversary. I and Justin had prepared by making two kegs of homebrew, we invited volounteers and neighboors to come over and fired up the barbeque. A mellow afternoon ensued. 

West side invite!

  

 

A while back we did the west side invite main alleycat, an epic four hour race all over Portland. About 70 people or so did the race, hailing from as far as San Francisco and Seattle. Stops included Mount Tabor (twice!), the bluffs, and assorted bars. Amelia threw down a second place finish in the womens field, winning this sweet messenger bag. I placed fifth overall and got myself a nice new comfy helmet. With some luck we should get some sweet new sneakers too. Alleycats are so much fun! Amelia is currently planning the women's alleycat slated for labor day, more about this later.