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For the 2nd year in a row, TAI has the Oregon State Criterium Champion in the mens category 3: Bill Warburton; and we also added the womens category 4 champion: Marca Murphy. Bill will be moving on to a cat2 now after 4 podiums in the last 4 races.

The season is winding down and it’s time to think about new memebers for next year. If you’re interested in joining TAI Cycling, please email bill at taicycling.com with a race resume by the end of this month. We will make selections in September.

In the last race of the High Desert Criterium Series, Brandon Dyer, a freshman cat2 rider from Bend, had a bad crash that left him with a broken jaw and wrist. He’s expected to make a full recovery soon so we wish him the best and fastest recovery possible! Thanks to all the people who helped Brandon out!

The Vancouver Courthouse Crit is one of the best of the year with a technical course, a great location, lots of primes and good prizes! We were happy to have Spencer Bushnell win the cat3 race there in 2007 and we’ve managed to do it again for 2008 with Bill Warburton taking a couple primes and the win after attacking with 1 to go.

We had a full team in the 1/2 race and managed to be active throughout the race, sending attacks and covering moves.

Thanks to North River Racing for a great event!

Here are some photos from Ryan Ness and Bill Warburton of the races:

TAI riders shared first and second place spots on the Men’s B podium at the conclusion of this year’s Alpenrose 6 Day track event. On the last day of the event, Jeff Standish and Casey Deck ” were able to gain a lap on the whole field and so our teams moved into first and second place.” Nice job, and it’s worth noting that Jeff started this immediately after finishing Elkhorn, so he’s been racing for 9 days straight!

Baker City may seem like an unlikely spot for such a cool bike race, but the Elkhorn Classic really is one of the most fun stage races around because of the support from the community. We’ve been sending a team to Elkhorn for 5 of the 7 years and this year we had 7 riders in the cat3 race, and Andrew Boone riding solo in the 1/2’s. I’m sure he was wishing he had a teammate when he was in a 95 mile break on the last day, but Brandon Dyer will soon be joining him as a cat2 after his 3rd place overall finish this weekend.

Congrats to the whole cat3 team for riding smart and helping Brandon finish the weekend as the only Oregon guy on the podium! A cool side note: the trophies were made by Chris Cole, from Bend, who used to work for Bend Bike N Sport and is a good friend to the TAI Team.

More photos from the race are here.

Above: Spencer Bushnell leads the 1/2 race on the bell lap at the 1st ever Albany Criterium (photo: Ivar Vong)

Some Podiums

Jeff DeWolf - Kings Valley Road Race cat4/5 3rd place

Ericka Luckel - Deschutes River Valley TT Festival cat3/4 - 2nd place: Stage 2; Stage 3; 2nd place GC

Carl Hoefer - Estacada TT Sr. Men 4/27 - 2nd place

Jeff Standish - Eric Kautzky Memorial Track Race cat4 - 2nd place

Spencer Bushnell - Mt Hood Cycling Classic Hood River Criterium cat3 - 2nd place

And Some Wins!

Spencer Bushnell fought hard for a good win and upgrade to cat2 at the Eugene Roubaix!

Casey Deck was patient with his weekly sprints until he finally won the last two Downtown Hood River Criteriums!

Ericka Luckel sure can time trial and won the opening stage of the women’s 3/4 Deschutes River Valley TT Festival!

Brian Mack had an awesome bike toss at the line to win the cat4 race by a hair at the State Road Race Championships!

Pam Archer won the 19-39 sport class at the Mudslinger!

And some special mentions:

Derek Stallings was on his way to [most likely] win the final stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in the cat2/3 Hood River Criterium but took himself out with 2 corners to go. He can’t be disappointed because he and the others from the team all put in fantastic rides in the hardest race on the OBRA Calendar!

And then there’s Brandon Dyer finishing 5th GC in the cat3’s at Mt Hood in his first year with a team. We look forward to a lot more good results from Brandon!

Scott Gray is back to riding his bike after a serious fracture of his lower leg while alpine skiing this winter!

(finish camera photo: Brian List, OBRA)

Bill and Brenna were in Shandong Provence, China, for a couple weeks and came home just before the earthquake struck Sichuan. When we were there, the mood of the country was celebratory in anticipation of the Olympics this summer. “Beijing 2008″ and “Go China!” were the cries everywhere we went. Being cyclists, we fit right in with the masses and bought some bikes for $11 each and set off riding all over Qingdao on our single speed cruisers.

We were visiting a former TAI Cycling member, Turner Gutmann, who’s teaching at a university with his wife, Sara. Turner was invited to participate in a cycling tour from Qingdao to Beijing ahead of the Olympics to promote cycling, awareness of cycling and the main sponsor — a milk company. The ride organizers put on a Bike Talent Show Series over a few weekends in various locations and the winners of the talent show were put into a lottery to win a spot on the 7-day bike tour, along with a new road bike. (more…)

We’ve had lots of high quality racing already this season and it’s only April!

Piece of Cake, Kings Valley and the Icebreaker Criterium all saw excellent turnouts of TAI riders in the fields and our riders have been making key moves in the races — the winning results, however, are still proving elusive.

Piece of Cake -- some riders from Bend and Portland meeting up after the race

A new addition to the Bend team for 2008, Jeff DeWolf, scored his upgrade to category 3 after placing 3rd at Kings Valley. Congratulations, Jeff!

Adam Blanchard was on the podium with a 2nd place finish in the 1/2 race at the first Estacada Time Trial of the year.

Casey Deck was on the podium at the 1/2 opener of the Port of Hood River Criterium series.

For full results, check www.OBRA.org.

Congrats to Pam Archer for her 3rd place finish in Sunday’s Banana Belt #2. Check out this photo from the line:

Pam getting fired up at the start of the season!