Ride the World Cups #2

Saturday afternoon Rob Evans put on the second of 3 track races benefitting the ProMan UCI track team. It was a very cool event, with 3 points races, a raffle, DJ Snead spinning vinyl

Rob was pretty happy that he got to race, too...100 laps of pure points race fun...

a great bbq featuring ribs, sausages and burgers

Niki and Kristina sold raffle tickets and awarded some great prizes

Shelley was pretty happy about something...must have been the fact that her favorite mechanic (well...second favorite mechanic) finally showed up at a race and did something to her bike! hmmmmm, maybe that's the look of sheer joy you get when you find out that Ben JM is doing your race, too...

Ben was pretty stoked too...or maybe he was gagging 'cuz his helmet broke and he had to race in my slightly sweaty Giro...

There was some great racing as well. Michael Hutchinson was drilling it in the A race

So was Steve Palaez, who i think is the entire Phillipine National Mens cycling team

See, i told you Shelley was pretty happy to race w/ Ben...

I did my first mass-start track race ever, and managed to tie for second in the hotly contested C race. Five of us got away about half way through, and managed to not crash ourselves out and give the race away.

Dorking out

At the USGP races in Portland back in November Rachel and I were pitted under the Thule tents so graciously provided by Eric Wallace. Also under those tents were Stu Thorne's Cyclocross World racers, and the SRAM tech folks. Stu is a really smart guy, and has been around CX racing for years. Being such a smart guy means that he knows how to make his job as easy as possible. Cross racers at the elite level are a fairly psycho bunch, and tend to get pretty twisted up over things like tire pressure. They (Rachel excluded) always seem to want to change the pressure by a pound, or even a half-pound, thinking this will give them the edge they need to win. It's pretty much a pain in the ass to run around w/ a floor pump and a pressure gauge, changing pressures all the time. In an effort to make my life at the races a bit easier, I followed Stu's lead and got one of these...
Actually, i got one of these first...it's pretty cool, battery powered, rechargeable, nice little digital gauge on the back that reads to 1/10th lb accuracy and it pumps a cx tire up to pressure in just a few seconds.

I didn't really read the box all that well, but as i was leaving Sears, i thought "man, this thing is pretty light..." , which it was because it didn't come w/a damn battery. Or, a charger for said battery. Soooo, i went back to Sears and tried to find the correct 19.2v battery, which they did have in stock (for $24.95) and the stupid charger (for $54.95) which they didn't have in stock. Due to my normal excellent pre-race planning, this was taking place 2 days before leaving for CX nationals. No way I was showing up w/o this damn thing, I had to have it. I wasn't going to give up this easily, so i kept looking around and found this...

A nearly-as-nifty-as-my-handheld-tire-inflator 19.2v cordless drill. Which came w/ the proper batter (also 19.2v) AND the damn charger. For $74.95, which means (if you were paying attention earlier) that I got the battery, charger, AND a damn drill (w/ bits and screwdriver attachments) for $5.00 LESS then the battery and charger would have been if purchased seperately. Dohhhh...

I am now a slightly happier and much cooler mechanic. Probably be the only guy at the upcoming track World Cup in LA w/ a cordless tire pumper-upper thingy.

New Years Day mountain ride...

Got together w/ some friends and rode yesterday. Rode, and rode, and rode. We (Eddy, Cory, Niki, Sam, and Julia) met at Paradigm and headed for Eldridge Grade. We bumped into Rachel Lloyd and some guys part way up, and they rode w/ us for a bit. Cory and Julia split off at Northside trail as they had to get back to their respective kids, so we kept on climbing up to the top. After reaching the top of the mountain, we put some jackets and vests back on and took off down Railroad Grade, and stopped at the West Point Inn. There were a ton of people hiking and a few people riding on the south side of the mountain. After a short break to fill bottles, we rode down Old Stage, and headed for Coastal trail. Super scenic, fast, smooooooth single track was really fun, but a bit windy. We jumped on Highway 1 and rode to Muir Beach, and then went up Green Gulch (where Sam worked on her wheelie/fall over in the bushes trick) and then Coyote Ridge. Down Miwok, and up Panaramic Hwy to the Mountain Home Inn, across Gravity Car, up Railroad Grade a bit to Hoo Koo e Koo, down the Kentfield Coasters to King Mountain single track finished up our 4.5hr ride. I'm feeling a bit sore today...only been riding for an hour or 2 at most lately, and that was only my 3rd ride on the new Yeti which is a bit heavier than my CX bike, and the 10lb camelback full of stuff helped too! It was a great ride w/ great friends!