Friday, July 28, 2006

Stuff that sucks

I'm racing the XC portion of the Downieville Classic and I just dicovered that the bottom pivot on my Santa Cruz Blur is completely shot. So I now have the job of calling every bike shop from SF to Tahoe to try to find a replacement.

Hope everybody elses Friday is going better. See you in Downieville this weekend!

mountain biking in yellowstone np
Can't remember what I did to break that damn pivot.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Good video recap of gravity events from Norba at Mt Snow

Monday, July 17, 2006

If you haven't seen Off Road to Athens, you need to.

Congrats to Sue Haywood for winning two national championships

Wanted to give props to Sue Haywood for winning the Super D and Short Track national titles at Sonoma last weekend. Great to see a east coast rider coming to California and kicking butt.

06_pro_w_sd

MTB National Championships at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA

Attended the MTB Nationals in Sonoma this (very hot) weekend. To be honest, when I heard the championships were being moved from Mammoth Mountain to Sonoma I was pessimitic about what the event would be like. I have to say that I was impressed at what they put together. The event was very spectator and participant friendly, even in the 90+ degree heat. The courses were well designed and there was ample aid stations.

The only event I competed in was the Super D. Since I haven't raced in over a year, I was hoping to use this event to warm up for the nationals at Mammoth (which were canceled) and the Downieville Classic but I had to work with what I was given. First complaint I have is that there was no shuttle to the start. So after a three mile climb to the staging area we had to wait in the hot sun (Sonoma has no shade by the way) until we finally got to line up. It was a Le Mans style start which means I had to start in the back (I suck). After loosing a peddle on the initial decent I was surprised to find that the cable to my rear derailleur had snapped (fun). The course was mainly fire roads with a few short climbs so not having any gears was not that bad. Was able to pass about five guys on the way to the finish. After waiting over a day for the results to be posted I found my time listed as 0:00:00 and my placing as 84 (there were only about 20 guys in my class). Everyone that finished behind me were given DNFs. So was rather disappointed in the time keeping element of the event but other than that it was a good time.

See you all next year in Vermont!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

MTB Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma this weekend

Will see you all this weekend at Infineon raceway in the heart of wine country for the MTB Nationals. I will be racing the Super D and short track events because I haven't had the chance to qualify for XC or DH. It is supposed to be over 90 degrees this weekend on the course so that should make things more interesting. So stay hydrated and Good Luck!

Check out http://www.cmclassic2.com for more info.

Friday, July 07, 2006

I may have prejudged bay area mountain biking

Since relocating to the Bay area about a year ago I have not been impressed with the mountain biking. After riding several trails (aka fire roads) in Marin and East Bay I had come to accept that Bay area Mountain Bikers were nothing more than road riders taking a break from the shaved legs and body suits. This outlook has changed since I visited Soquel Demo forest this weekend. It is no Whistler but have to say it was a lot of fun. Fast, steep, somewhat technical single track descents with fireroad climbs that will have you not feeling bad about eating that big breakfast. Also met some great riders down there. Nice break from the hippies and tourists I seem to always run into in Marin.

So in short, the Demo forest is where it is at as far as Bay area MTB is concerned. If you haven't been there, check it out.

This must be why the French can't even when their own tour!