The first day of the Gorge Roubaix is in the books. It was a fantastic day of racing, with dry and party cloudy skies most of the day. There was some rain for the later races. And the wind was howling; but that’s to be expected out here in the Gorge.
Personally, I’d rather forget what happened. Long story short: I got dropped early by the Cat 3 field and never caught back on. Oh, and the only guys I passed all day had gotten flats. It was my first road race since 1998, so I didn’t expect much. But still, being last and riding slow and alone for three hours in a “race” is never awesome.
But enough about me, let’s take a look at some photos from the day.
I got an unexpected treat this morning and was able to hop in an official media car to do some photos of the early races. It was beautiful out there. Before we headed out on the course, I got a few shots in the parking lot and registration area. Have a look…
Now, let’s get to the racing action…
And there’s another full day of racing tomorrow. The course includes the famous Rowena curves and more gravel. For more on the event, check out the Gorge Roubaix on Facebook.
When can we read about the cease and desist letter from Specialized?
Dude (14th photo)? I dunno. Sure looks like a chick to me?
It’s a kid.
The Dalles is not exactly a top cycling town. It doesn’t surprise me that Hood River is providing support.
Agreed, to a degree. Sure there are three bike shops in HR and only one (small one) I know of in TD, but there are lots of cyclists in The Dalles and the city’s done a pretty good job allocating space for us. I wish the infrastructure in HR was nearly half as good (and drivers more patient, attentive, and accommodating when I take the lane downtown), but I know the real issue is what HR has to work with for budget and space. I bike in both cities quite a bit and generally am treated better by drivers in TD.
BTW if you want a nice road ride (with some climbing) head up State Road in Mosier and take that over to Chenoweth Canyon down into TD (especially on easterlies when you can scream back on the old highway with a tailwind). Unfortunately they chipsealed it but several years back they had asphalted it and the winding descent was a screaming hoot! Great views.
From what I understand Chad does a good job of offering all the local shops the opportunity to help out, but it’s a volunteer gig and not everyone has the resources to step up. Join us for http://tourdehoodride.com!
A great ride out of the Dalles is the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge ride on 6/14/2014 (http://www.hcrh.org/events/2014-gorge-ride)
It is a benefit to support the restoration of the old Columbia River route.
A great place to stay to access this ride as well as many others that originate in the Dalles is the Colubmia Windrider Inn. The owner, Chuck, is big time into windsurfing but actually once owned the local bike shop and has a lot of great suggestions for rides in the area.
Check them both out!!!
I’m assuming women weren’t allowed to race this….?
So, it’s more like a BROubaix?
Gee David what makes you think that? Because you looked at a blog post and didn’t see any photos of them? Seriously. Give me a break. There are several reasons certain photos show up in my posts and others don’t — and it’s never because of some vast conspiracy or bias on my part.
But thanks for the feedback. I just added a shot of a member of the West Coast Women’s Cycling team.
I don’t know a thing about this kind of racing myself. Had seen photos of only male racers I would have assumed it was a male only race. Why the snide remark? It was a reasonable question.
I appreciate that you added a photo of a female racer, but the fact that it had to be called out or questioned in the first place and the fact that you’re so snide about being called out AGAIN seems AWFULLY familiar.
Point taken Christian. My remark was based out of annoyance at how it seems some people are so quick to make judgments about my character and motives when they know so little about me and/or how I run this site. Again, news stories and photo galleries are a subjective thing. Decisions are made about what to include. Yes those decisions shine light on the perspectives of the person making them, but in my opinion, those decisions do not equate to some overall statement or philosophical bias/position about the subject being reported on.
Put in a more simple way. I make choices about what photos to include a photo gallery based on what I saw out in the field and what photos turned out well. I am not going to include an image of any particular representative group simply to show that that group was at the event. The image has to be an image I deem good enough (in image quality terms) and important enough to share with an audience. In this case, I wouldn’t have added the photo of that woman unless it was a photo I had already considered. I was going to include it initially, but it just didn’t make my own personal, subjective cut prior to publication.
Thanks for the feedback.
There was a good-sized field of women, both morning and afternoon. My brother Mark was the lead for both morning and afternoon women, and said that they were really impressive bike handlers. At times he was hard-pressed to keep a good gap on them, and he’s a professional driver!
Morning races were generally cat 4-5 and afternoons races were 1-2-3 and Masters.
Great photos, Jonathan- really makes me want to ride out there!
I can attest to the strength of the womens field since I was the last guy for most of the race in the Masters 4/5 group.
Their lead car was behind me for some time, and I went to the side of the road right at the beginning of the dirt as they caught me and watched them motor up the dirt.
number 294 flatted pretty much right up front in the dirt, and I ended up getting passed by her a few miles later, she was screaming along!
Great photos, Jonathan! I just wished I had been in better shape so I could have been included in te pics of the mens masters 4/5. Oh well, next year!