Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge Monday, July 21, 2008

Anissen "Nissy" Cobb of Portland (in red) races in the Category 3 Women's Miss-and-Out event at the Alpenrose Challenge July 20 in Portland. Cobb went on to win the race that drops the last rider every other lap.

I took the opportunity to go out to the Alpenrose Velodrome this afternoon on the third and final day of the Alpenrose Challenge, the largest purse on the American Track Racing Association calendar.

I realized when I got there that it was the first sporting event I'd shot in about two months! I was a bit rusty, for sure.

It's always fun to go out to the velodrome, especially when there is a big event going on. I only had about an hour and a half to spend there, but I wish I could have stayed.

The Alpenrose Velodrome buzzes with activity July 20 as it hosts the annual Alpenrose Challenge. The three-day event drew cyclists from across the United States and Canada who competed for a purse of more than $12,000.

The women's miss-and-out event (right) was fun to watch. About 15 women started the race, and then every second lap, the last rider across the line is taken out of the race. Once there were just three left, it's a sprint to the finish.

I also saw a couple of sprint races—two of which were very close—and the Masters Keirin qualifier.

Travis Smith of Calgary, Alta., (left) thrusts his bike across the finish line just ahead of Portland's Eugene Chacherine in a men's sprint. Smith stayed back until the final straightaway, where he sprinted to the finish line about one inch ahead of Chacherine. (One other sprint race was even closer: the announcer said the difference was "a tread-depth!")







Shelly Olds of Los Gatos, Calif., races for the PROMAN Professional Cycling Team with a smile on her face in the Miss-and-Out July 20 at the Alpenrose Challenge in Portland.

Here is my blog post from the one time I went to the velodrome last year. At the bottom of it is a link to the first time I went.