Alpenrose Sixday Bullets of Interest.

Just a few interesting observations I had while watching the bikes fly by today out at the track.

• A hilarious moment on turn three that had former Madison National Champ Hartley stuck up top of the wall hung out to dry. He took a steep angle uptrack and found that the wall was a bit different than the many other tracks he has ridden on. He lost traction speed but was high enough up to grab the top rail and hold on till a break in the racers let him slide down with bike in hand on his ass. Very strange moment but especially funny as no one got hurt because of it and Weir and Hartley were still able to gain a lap on the competition despite the delay.
• Next on the mishaps was Sasha Lacey losing concentration and slipping off the wall in turn four. Luckily he was all alone so no one was hurt and most people missed seeing it. Way to save face.
• The sound of disc wheels makes me uneasy still. The noise is unsettling and makes me imagine terrible things are about to happen.
• A big shout-out to the newly settled Portlanders by way of Seattle who served up a veritable smorgasbord of popsicles, pretzels, and sandwiches for James and myself. Way to really win over new friends!
• Loki (the dog) seemed rather disinterested in the entire thing. Go figure.
• The beagle there certainly can fucking bark. Those barks shake my soul and make me shiver.
• Next up in the comedy of errors--the Gentle Lovers Blackwelder suffers a mechanical of loose bars. Upon hearing of the mishap from the announcer Kic w/ a touch of irrational exuberance jumps in the race w/o drawing even w/ his teammate. The lovers follow eachother around the track for about 3 laps before tey realize one of them needs to stop. Despite the mishap the Gentle Lovers remain w/i striking distance in 3rd on even laps w/ Beardsley/Lingwood.
• More or less accurate results: 1. Hartley/Weir +1 31pts 2. Beardsley/Lingwood 0 18pts 3. Kic/Blackwelder 0 6pts 4. Drake/Boxberger -2 5pts 5. Dumortier/Lacey -3 4pts 6.Simmons/Hoefer -3 2pts


• Zak certainly enjoys the color black. He even had a black sling for his broken collarbone. Very stylish and very dark... like his soul.
• For the most part things weren't too sketchy out there. There was of course a bit of questionable maneuvering (passing downtrack of exchanges, coming up in-between teammates during exchanges, a bit of the wobbles in the sprinters lane during the B's comp). But all in all I was happy to see everyone being considerate and smart. I don't need to see anymore wrecks for awhile thats for sure.
• Holy crap what was that soundtrack out there today?! Europe "Final Countdown"? Terrible R&B pop madness? I was overwhelmed. The music made me so anxious that I was having trouble concentrating on the racing. How bout something a bit more subtle? Seriously, I am not going to take that techno pop bullshit for much longer. I will start getting all Bob Knight out there if it keeps up this way; throwing chairs at people and slapping little kids around. It will not be pretty.
  
• Thanks to Big Alex McFarland over at North Portland BikeWorks for lending me his van, Chub 2: electricboogaloo (aka: bride of chub). He is an amazing man and even more amazinger mechanic.
• And a big thank you to Candi Murray for patiently sitting with me and writing out the results for us. I can't even begin to say enough good things about that lady. A truly amazing woman.

And for our own sake here's the notes for tomorrow (if it doesn't rain that is! fingers crossed.):

• Bring some chairs! It is hot in that sunlight and we are both delicate flowers that must have shade.
• Request some new music out there. I'm thinking some Black Sabbath or serious adventure metal. In fact let's just get Calamity Claire out there DJing. Nothing says Madison Sixday like Manowar and Iron Maiden.
• Get some cool old timey reporter hats. You know the ones with the "press" cards stuck in em. That'll make us look legit.
• Get a camera you morons! We are not wowing anyone with our linguistic portraits and need some hard evidence that we were even in attendance.
• Perchance we can sponsor a new event for the Sixday. I'm thinking milkshake/malt chugging contest followed by the flying 200. Puke buckets will be provided.
  

That about does it I guess. Thanks for bearing with the babble. Hope it was worth your time. Hopefully we'll be out tomorrow for the next day of racing. It is a rather busy day though what with the Tour and school and... well....you know... all that other crap I have to do. Stay tuned for more incoherent banter and get on with the comments!