Portland Twilight Criterium

Health Net sponsors the Health Net Portland Twilight Criterium every year (they have offices there). We've been wanting to go for a few years now so decided to go this year. Then it worked out that Joan had to go there for some meetings while we were going to be there so her trip got paid for--sweet! There were really only a handful of pros in the criterium. A guy from Jelly Belly (I think), Jittery Joes, BMC, a Navigator, a few others. Most of the guys were Cat1 and Cat2 racers (there was also an amateur race before the "real" one).

It was amazing how fast some of these guys just got blown out of the field. I mean, these guys were absolutely flying around the course. It was about a half mile course and they were averaging about 32 mph the whole race (one hour). In the initial 45 minutes the idea is to get in as many laps as possible. If you get lapped, you are out of the race. Probably half the field (the Cat2s?) just got shelled. Then they probably halved the field again by the last fifteen minutes. For the last bit they calculate the average speeds and determine a number of laps. In this case it was 15.

Now, if you get lapped, you're supposed to be out, but for some reason they did not bump the guys who got lapped on the last 15--which probably would have been another half. The guy who won, John Murphy, just kept increasing his lead. He had a good 20 seconds on the field and lapped quite a few guys (as did many of the guys behind him). Before the race the guys came into our little VIP reception for a meet and greet and I immediately commented to Joan, "Holy shit. Look at that guy's thighs!" He's the guy who won.

So, the HN riders took 1st (John Murphy), 2nd (Doug Ollerenshaw--who's from Portland), 4th (Kirk O'bee), and 10th (Roman Kilun). The guy who took 4th, Kirk O'bee, got his pedal clipped on the final turn by the guy who took 3rd. In a pro race the other guy would have been penalized for cutting like he did on that turn, but they ignored it. O'bee would have had 3rd otherwise. O'bee had just won the National Criterium championship. So he's in good company--the three national jerseys are...can you tell me? Road: George Hincapie; Time Trial: Dave Z.; Criterium: Kirk O'bee! They came in afterward and shot the shit for a while and had a few beers. It's kind of cool getting to hobnob with them.

I almost forgot, Joan got to go on the team bus! I was walking by (I had gone to the bathroom) but didn't hear them knocking on the bus window--so Joan got off the bus and we wandered off. And THEN she told me she had been on the bus!