Riding Rowena: A mini Gorge Roubaix gallery

Beautiful shots Jonathan, thanks for sharing!

Beautiful photos Jonathan; thanks for making the trip to The Dalles and congrats on jumping into a race after a 16 year hiatus. Very impressive.

Awesome photos! That climb was so beautiful it was darn near impossible not to smile all the way up. That gravel, on the other hand…

Sunday was definitely a more climby day than Saturday. The gravel section trended up, then up some more, then steeper up before going up some more. I was lead for Mens 4-5 and Masters 1-2-3, it was awesome to see these guys absolutely at the limit. Just incredible.

We enjoyed leading the racers, going back down the loops was an exercise in technical driving at speed to stay ahead– while also looking back to make sure we’re keeping the right gap! Good suspension and good brakes were important for the lead cars, and keeping your head on a swivel.

I heard over the radio that someone in the Cat 3 men crashed near the top of the loops, heading down. He got his bell rung, and last I heard was getting a ride down to the medics to get checked. Hope he’s not too injured, and that he heals up fast!

This Gorge riding looks great! Is this something a novice bike rider could do (I bike year round in PDX, maybe 2000 miles/yr)? I don’t worry about being too slow up the hills, etc.. How hard is this stuff on a scale of 1-10? Are there sections of the Groge closer to PDX that are a little easier? Is traffic an issue or do 99% of the car take hwy 84 and not the scenic route?

Jonathan, some or all of these photos should be in a BikePortland calendar that I can mail to friends and relatives so they see that what I tell them is real. Thanks for sharing!!

Jonathan, your spectacular photography is half of what makes this blog so incredible. Your writing is the other half. And Michael’s writing and number-crunching is the other half. And the podcast is definitely at least another quarter. And the commentary and online community you have built is certainly another half. Okay, my numbers aren’t adding up to 100% but you get the idea.