VeloSapiens MTB
Racing
going for speed
Results and Upcoming Races
It's over
YeeHaw. After 15 straight weeks of incessant cyclocross racing, the season
has finally ended. Since I know no one really cares that much about how
I did, I'll be brief
Surf City Finals
The last race of the Surf City Series was held on Dec ?th at San Lorenzo
High School in Felton. I was feeling pretty good, and the course was definitely
to my liking, with a couple of tricky sections where I felt I could make
up some time.
One of the tricky sections involved a curb, followed immediately (like
8" later) by a short, steep, loose rise that many riders were dismounting
and running up. It wasn't too hard to hop the curb, ride up the hill, make
the left turn at the top, bunny hop the small barrier there and continue
on with a 10-15 yard gap over anyone who dismounted. Well, actually, it
was too hard, so about my 2nd or 3rd time up it in warmups I missed slightly,
and slammed my rear wheel against the curb, flattening the rim most impressively.
Luckily for me, this was about 5 mins before start time, so I had plenty
of time to run grab my mtb and make sure there was air in the tires and
stuff.
Naturally, since I had spent the earlier part of the weekend visiting
and nightriding with my old Sacramento homeboys, I had my stout, gettin'-about
wheels and serious off-roading tires on my mountain bike, instead of my
ultra-light race wheels, with narrow, smooth, fast racin' tires. The chunky
wheels and slower bike assisted me in reaching the first barriers in the
middle of the pack, which isn't exactly where I like to be. I typically
am about the fastest guy in the Vet class when it comes to dismounts and
hurdles, but instead of hitting these at full speed I had to slam on the
brakes and slow to a crawl to avoid smashing into all the old, fat, slow
guys who used their cross bikes to get in front of me in the smooth and
flat first quarter mile.
After that, things got better, and I ended up 3rd, in front of series
winner Anton Mcready for only the 2nd time all year. I think I might've
been able to challenge for the lead if I'd been riding my cross bike. Oh
well. I took 3rd in the series too. I tried to stay and watch the A's race,
but it started raining, and I was cold and hours from home, so I bailed.
East Bay Finals
The last two races of the East Bay series were held the weekend before
xmas. I won them both and took the overall title in A's. Whoopee. It was
less rewarding than it should have been because the organizer's of the
Central Coast Series (including Keith DeFiebre, who I trounced on Sunday)
scheduled many of their races to conflict with the East Bay series, drawing
many of the good riders in the Santa Cruz area.
Saturday's race in Livermore, was flat and fast. We had a huge pile
of sawdust and stuff that some folks were dismounting, but most of the
A's and many of the B's figured out how to ride over. Local junior honch
Sterling Magnell took off like a rocket, as usual, and I passed him after
a bit, as usual, then I dropped him and soloed away to a richly deserved
victory.
Sunday's race was also in Livermore, in a business park that has some
vacant land still. It was about a zillion degrees below zero, at least
by California standards. The night before it snowed at sea level in Santa
Cruz, Marin and Sonoma counties. Naturally, since race promoter Bob Leibold
is a sadistic madman, he routed the course through not one, but two mudbogs,
one of which had about 6 inches of chilly water in it. To make matters
worse, some jerk (might've been Casey, but I don't know him) moved the
cones right as we started, unexpectedly forcing us to go through the very
worst part of the second bog. Since it was below 30 degrees, I really wanted
to get off and kick his ass.
Sterling did the fast start again, and he and I and Keith rode together
for a few laps until I started to pull away. It was torture just finishing
the race. My feet were so cold that I sprained my ankle and didn't even
realize it until later that evening.
Norcal-Nevada State Championships
January 3rd in Reno was the big finale. Lucky for me a couple extra guys
turn 35 in '99, so they dropped down to my class. Much to no one's surprise,
Larry Hibbard won easily, followed by Doug Grattan, John Senkier
(who won the Big Bear NCS race), my BlackMarket teammate Mark Howland,
Paul Gossi and me in 6th. For what it's worth, if I'd just raced Seniors
instead, I would have come in 4th with my laptimes, and won some cash.
The old guys class is getting out of control.
'99 MTB Season
Click here for the '99 NCNCA off-road sched,
covering NorCal and Nevada. I'll do my best to update it, provide web links
where appropriate, and make my notes as to which races are cool and which
ones suck ass.
Cool Mtb Race
14 Feb 99
This race is usually a soggy mudbath. I've done all 6 of them now.
I got 27th in beginner class in the first one, since then I've been on
the expert podium 5 straight times. I'll be back there this year, just
because they have cool t-shirts. Hopefully the dry weather we've been having
since Xmas will continue. Check out the NCNCA sched for more info, and
enter early because there's no race-day registration and they always sell
out.
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mark weaver