How beautiful is that thing? It's the culmination of one of the best Memorial Day weekends in recent memory. It started Saturday morning with the Rehearsal Road Race in Rainier. I was tired after Mt. Hood, so I'd spent the entire week doing nothing but short, easy rides on my 'cross bike. I hadn't even bothered to fix the crash damage on my road bike until Friday. So on Saturday I wasn't too sure how things would go, but it turned out I didn't feel as bad as I'd feared. Evan Elken and I ended up alone at the front, and Evan didn't bother with the sprint. Fortunate for me.

I followed that up by joining Adrienne at the tail end of a garage sale. Drinking beer in a lawn chair and watching strangers sift through our cast off junk is surprisingly relaxing. From there we joined some friends at a British pub and got thoroughly embarrassed at a game of darts. Can't win 'em all.

But the best part came Sunday morning. Recent Portland transplant and super-pro mountain biker Jason Sager convinced me to do the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride. On the way there, the tone for the day was set perfectly when a cop car rolled up next to me as I pedaled down the bike lane. The officer was shouting something out the window at me that I couldn't make out at first, but I assumed he was harassing me for some trifling offense. Maybe not riding far enough to the right or something. But no, what he said was, "I haven't seen that Rock Racing kit before," in reference to the blue jeans and black jacket I was wearing. I laughed, then told him it was the new city design. He followed that up by congratulating me on Saturday's win, then headed on his way. Amazing. On the off-chance he reads here: thanks again.

But on to the event itself. It was a race to various checkpoints around the city, in any order and by the route of our own choosing. At each stop we had to do some ridiculous task before moving on to the next point. Examples: Beer Keg Walk and Human Wheelbarrow. Best of all, the first prize was New Belgium cruiser. Due partly to my newly discovered skill at throwing beanbags thirty feet into a box, and Jason's uncanny big-wheel bike handling skills, we managed to take the win. That's one for the resume for sure.

Unfortunately though, I had a fender malfunction before the start, and I ended up going without it. Plus, my clothing choice was far from optimal.




By the end of the ride, I was completely soaked. The last few dry bits of clothing were eliminated when we had to negotiate the final obstacle: a giant inflatable set of climbing walls with pooling rainwater in between. Then, after the finish, there was this guy:

John from the esteemed Team Beer scolded us for sandbagging, then worked to ensure that our keg cups were never empty. Thanks, I think.

But wet denim, cold feet, a pre-noon beer buzz, and a stern lecture are all small prices to pay for a good time and a new cruiser bike. If only real bike races were that much fun.