Dan Kaufman hosts this Internet television show by, about, and for cyclists. CrankMyChain! documents psycho bike niches, creates bike music videos, and discusses cycle advocacy. Send me your videos and comments. And go ahead, CrankMyChain!
Astoria, Ore. - You never know who (or what) you might find at the River City Bicycles Cyclocross Crusade Halloween Costume race last Sunday. Travis Bickle the famous taxi driver from New York must have found a fair to the race and we get a bit of insight from him and a word of warning. There is also a word of warning for those who did not dress up. Prepare to be heckled and even sprayed. For those with the most creative costumes Shimano Bikes was giving away some great components.
Katerina Nash took both Sunday’s race and the 2008 USGP Championship Trophy while local heroine Sue Butler was cheered to a third place finish and the Sram “Most Aggressive Female Rider” award.
Ryan Trebon of Bend took that $250 prize home and won the day’s race. Tim Johnson claimed the series trophy.
I took home a pair of very wet and muddy boots, some videotape, and inspiration for the song “Head Down”, which is the score for this video. Eric Todd Keeney provided additional footage.
Hillsboro, Ore. – The final race of the Season for River City Bicycle’s Cyclocross Crusade earned double points for the riders and you could tell by the way they were racing. Both the women’s and men’s category A races were very competitive with several lead changes each.
It was a fast and level course at the Washington County Fairgrounds but water from last weeks rain created a monster-slog section through the rodeo arena. I was able to cover the entire course on my bike and decided to ditch the tripod for the Men’s race and really concentrate on following the leaders as much as possible. I pieced that footage together to create start-to-finish race video of the Men’s category A race and I’m interested to hear what you think about this type of coverage. Please make a comment on the video.
I want to thank River City Bicycles for sponsoring this video (not to mention being the title sponsor for this series and owner Dave Guettler came up with the title of the song for this video). My eternal gratitude and respect goes out to the Cyclocross Crusade promoters, sponsors, and all the officials from the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association.
Video, Edit, and Music – Dan Kaufman
Here are the results for race 8: Cat A: 1 Kevin Hulick Vanilla Bicycles 2 Sean Babcock Team S&M 3 Molly Cameron Vanilla Bicycles Women A: 1 Rhonda Mazza Team S&M 2 Wendy Williams River City Bicycles 3 Emily VanMeter River City Bicycles
And the Cross Crusade/OBRA Cyclocross Championships: Cat A 1 Jason Sager SagerSports.com 2 Sean Babcock Team S&M 3 Chris Sheppard HPChrio Bike n’ Hike Giant Women A 1 Wendy Williams River City Bicycles 2 Emily VanMeter River City Bicycles 3 Rhonda Mazza Team S&M Subscribe to our Video Podcast feed or at iTunes
iPod/Downloadable /mpeg4 Version Portland, Oregon – Apparently the Halloween Races in Astoria was not enough insanity for this year’s Cross Crusaders. After some excellent traditional cyclocross racing at Portland International Raceway the bike-fun crowd went wild for single speed.
Thousands of spectators watched as Sue Butler took away honors for the women’s A racers and the prize for unofficial women’s single speed world champion. Men’s SSCXWC honors were awarded to Drew MacKenzie who hails from the Great White North. Prizes included a Vanilla SpeedVagen, a Pereira Cycles custom frame not to mention gold Speedos and required championship tatoos. Also, Raleigh Rainier frame went to the Sit-Up Champ.
Special mention goes to Ryan Trebon of Bend who won the men’s A race, and the regular single speed race. Trebon, a top cyclocross racer, was told he had to win all three races in order to take the SSCXWC. He may have been handicapped on the raceway, as well.
The song “Steam Powered” was written especially for this race.
Music and Video by Dan Kaufman Video Sponsored by Bob's Red Mill
ASTORIA, Ore. – If you didn’t bring a costume to last Sunday’s Cross Crusade race you may have placed better but you also got heckled. The weather was perfect for camping, outrageous outfits and two days of racing at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds.
Video, editing, and original music by Dan Kaufman. Additional Footage by Eric Todd Keeney.
PORTLAND, Ore. I have three videos for you today. The first by Todd Keeney at Cross Crusade Race #2 in Wilsonville. Well be heading down to the Halloween races in Astoria this weekend and hope to see you there. Otherwise, stay tuned for another Halloween cross video later next week.
The second video is footage of Sasquatch, regarding the Quest for The Grail and the final video is a ridiculous detour request in Vancouver, Washington.
Music for the Villebois Race is by Todd Keeney and friend. The music at the end is Whistlestop by Roger Miller.
Portland, Ore. - As promised, the first race of the Cross Crusade was wet and muddy. There were a record number (1263) participants at Alpenrose Dairy with loads of fans and plenty of wipeouts for them to watch.
I wrote the song Double Crossin Me just for this race and had blast syncing it up to the dirty footage.
Next scheduled CrankMyChain.tv cyclocross video is for the Halloween race. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring a race/music video dan at- pdxk com.
Portland, Ore. - River City Bicycles Cyclocross Crusade race #1 is this Sunday at Alpenrose Dairy. Good news race fans, it looks like we may have some mud!
Come on out and say hi if you see me.
Also, you can watch and buy the 2006 and 2007 Race videos at CrankMyChain.com .
So far, this year, were covering three races and were looking for sponsorship for as many more as possible. If you are interested in sponsoring CrankMyChain.tv please contact me at dan at pdxk d0t c0m.
What you get: Race 7 at Hillsboro - Cyclocross Means Mud Race 5 at Barton Park - Quick Edit Race 4 at Tillimook - Halloween Crusade - Top Ten Women - For Brett Race 2 at Horning's Hideout - A Breath of Fresh Pain Race 1 at Alpenrose - Now I'm Rollin' - Quick Edit
PORTLAND, OR - It's November. It's gonna rain. There is a press conference today and a rally tomorrow to make an appeal for all to come together and work for change to make our streets safer for ALL users including cyclists.
Sunday it's the last stop of River City Bicycle'sCyclocross Crusade. We'll also throw out another Badass Challenge to those who wish to ride out and race. It's double points for racers and it should be wet and muddy. Hooray!
ESTACADA, OR - Four contenders competed for the "Baddest Badass" purse at Cross Crusade Race #5 Sunday.
Tony Tapay had a strong showing in the single speeds and has been declared Baddest Badass. He was followed closely by Badass Tad Bamfod who rides a fixed gear bike.
Jonathan "Badass" Maus who co-hosted the live feed from Barton Park hit a rock and slid out (see the Barton Quick Edit). He fell back a few spots from his strong showing last week.
Greg Sanders also ran into some issues during the race. He did complete it, though, and can also wear the title of Badass, but he can't wear the purse. At least not this week.
All Badasses rode out to the Cyclocross Crusade and completed their race. It's not easy.
Coverage of Barton Park and the Badass Purse is brought to you by Sellwood Cycle Repair.
ESTACADA, OR - We set up a live feed from the Cyclocross Crusade Race #5 yesterday at Barton Park. Here is just a taste of what we got from our vantage point in the gravel pit. Jonathan Maus kindly wipes out in front of the camera and we get to see Shannon Skerrit and Carl Decker Battle for 2nd. Get your official race results at CrossCrusade.com.
We'll be live at this Sunday's CrossCrusade race at Barton Park in Estacada and we're throwing out another badass challenge. The Barton Park Badass Challenge is Sponsored by Sellwood Cycle Repair
ASTORIA, Ore. - If you are looking for a slick cyclocross racing video, I can't help you here. All sorts of rules have been broken and I suppose that's part of the Halloween spirit. So... Happy Halloween!
ASTORIA, Ore. - It was another amazing Halloween Cross Crusade weekend. Sadly, though, we were missing avid Crusader and cyclist Brett Jarolimek who was run down and killed on a Portland street. Friends such as Kris Schamp and Brad Ross remembered Brett by speaking about him and his passions and then leading a memorial lap.
There is a memorial ride 5PM today in Forest Park starting on Thurman Ave - more details soon.
Wearing white t-shirts emblazoned with the words “No Blind Spots”, Cross Crusade founder Rick Potestio and race director Brad Ross said losing Brett Jarolimek was like losing “a member of the Cross Crusade family.”
Yesterday in Astoria, hundreds of cyclists took part in a silent memorial lap in Brett’s honor. The lap was led out by Brett’s friends and his Team Bike Gallery teammates, many of them weary from the road after driving to Idaho for his funeral yesterday.
Some of Brett’s friends had made copies of his race number (800) and passed them out for all of us to wear in his honor. Below the number was a winged figure on a bike and the words, “Brett Jarolimek 1976-2007. We love you. We miss you.”
The silent lap was a somber, yet powerful way to say goodbye to Brett and to remember what his life, and his death, mean to our community.
These past two weeks have taken a toll on many of us. And, while some things will never be the same again, especially for the families and friends of those we’ve lost, the undeniable spirit of the Cross Crusade will live on.
Brett, who dressed up as Captain Underpants at the Halloween Cross race last year, would surely have smiled at the abundance of spirit on display yesterday.