NMBS Race #3 - Castaic Lake

Last Sunday, a good group of people including Mike, Miles, Jacinda, Dave and Nor rallied for the Castaic event. Here's a timeline of the race which resulted for me in a DNF (again). At least my hr got up to 178 -- for a minute or so. I now officially hate Castaic.



A few shots of the Pro Women and Expert Men starting out plus Miles on a sweet section of single-track w/ no one else in sight.









Podium pics of Miles and Jacinda.





Milo was a bit chapped that the 1st place rider in his class (sponsored by Sho-Air) won by 9 minutes. Hmmm, sandbagger perhaps?? Jacinda basically rode the last lap with no rear brake after the outer edge of her rotor broke off d/t wear. Nice!

Looking forward to Santa Barbara in two weeks.

Castaic Lake XC Course Pre-Ride

Rode with Mike and Miles from Milo's house in Valencia to Castaic Lake where next weekend's XC race is running. Did one lap around last year's course to get re-acquainted. If everything stays the same, the biggest potential trouble spot is a section of the last climb that is covered by a ton of tree/brush clippings.

The six plus mile XC loop covers roughly miles 10 through 16 on the elevation profile shown below. The prominent spikes equate to pretty steep climbs, all of which will be interesting on the second of two laps.



In last year's final race of the season at Castaic, DNF'd after a mechanical at the end of lap 1. Weak.

NMBS Race #2 - Firestone Classic

Drove up to Santa Ynez last weekend for the Firestone Classic. Met Jacinda and her friend Dave on Saturday for a slow motion pre-ride of the 13 mile XC course. Camped out...



... then woke up early Sunday for an 8:15 start.



Had a lot of nervous energy racing Sport for the first time. After a frenetic and dusty start, passed a number of riders in the first few miles but got passed by many more. About 2/3 through the first lap, got stung by a bee in the face. Nice...

At the end of lap one, started feeling a second wind. Was able to turn a fairly big gear and actually gain back a few lost positions. Too little, too late though. At 17+ miles, reached the start/finish again and was surprised to be done. Kind of anti-climactic as I was expecting at least one or two more miles.

Here's an elevation/hr profile and link to data on MotionBased.





After some drama, ended up finishing 33 out of 45 riders in the Sport 40-44 class. Dave beat me by under two minutes coming in 29th.

Here are a few more random pics from the weekend.



Jacinda sharing the stoke with her friend Dan who's just about to finish first in Expert 30-34.



A 1/4 mile into the Pro Men's XC race. In first through third at this moment are Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (on a 29er), Geoff Kabush and Ryan Trebon. Kabush would end up winning, beating JHK by a second.



Pro Women churning up a ton of dust, much of which would end up on and in my car.

Sea Otter Classic: 04.13.07 - 04.15.07

Headed up to Monterey over the weekend to check out Sea Otter for the first time. Upon arrival, took a few pics of the crazy dirt-jumpers and walked around the trade show where every manufacturer from huge to small was present.






Saturday AM did the XC race along with Alfredo Alforque and hundreds of others. The 19 mile course started out on the Laguna Seca race-track then headed off on a mix of fire-road and fun single-track. Finished 14th out of a field of 137 in the Men's Beginner 40 - 44 category.

See below for the course elevation profile and a link to details on MotionBased.





Alf's friend Jose who oversees fork manufacturing at Fox raced downhill on Saturday PM. In treacherous, muddy conditions, he placed 2nd out of 22 in the Men's Beginner 35-39.



Stuck around for awhile on Sunday to watch the pro downhill and XC races and take a few pics. Here are snaps of Steve Peat, April Lawyer and an unknown other ripping up the DH course which dried nicely from the previous day.





All in all, a super-fun weekend. Will definitely be back next year.

Backbone Trail Ride

Rode Westridge fireroad to Backbone to Sullivan paved road to Disneyland and Squirrel Cage today. Backbone going down into Will Rogers State Park is in perfect condition.

NMBS Race #1 - Bonelli Park

Raced the Team Big Bear season opener in San Dimas today with Nor, Carlyn, Andrew and Nor's cousin. The course was non-technical and relatively smooth, perfectly suited to a hardtail. Rode the Klein which worked well and came in 1st out of 8 in Beginner 40-44. Click on the map for details.



Here's a podium photo. Could be my last one ever.

Different Mammoth Video

Something's wrong. The clip in the previous post which I uploaded yesterday got severely shortened somehow. Here's a different clip showing a run from the top of Chair 5 to the Canyon Lodge parking lot. This one should be almost 5 min in length.

Spring Day at Mammoth - 03.11.07

Hit Mammoth over the weekend with Scott Schumacher. Temps were in the low 60's both days -- more like May than March. Snow was a bit soupy on the lower part of the hill but nice and firm up top.

Here's an admittedly lame clip shot w/ my still camera on a top-to-bottom groomer run from Cornice Bowl to Stump Alley.

Unfortunately, my camera memory ran out part way down. Oh, and the audio dropped out too when I converted the file. Nice...



Interestingly, the GPS worked pretty well up here (except for in the gondola building). Click on the map image for partial info from Sunday.

Sycamore Canyon Ride - 03.04.07

Rode up at Sycamore Canyon north of County Line today. Mileage was on the short side but there was a fair amount of climbing involved. Click on the MotionBased map graphic for details.



The Guadalasco and Overlook single-tracks were in great shape. With its swooping, bermed turns, Overlook could be one of the most fun sections of trail in So Cal. Here's a pic from last year.



Temps today were in the high 70's with some cloud cover. The ocean was about as flat as I've ever seen. Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands were quite visible in the distance.

Tour of California Race - 02.25.07

Stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California road race wound 105 miles from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita yesterday. Checked out the finish going through Miles Helfrich's neighborhood of Valencia and shot a few pics.


Atmosphere


Team Discovery's newest addition, Ivan Basso.


The final sprint. Juan Haedo from CSC jumped right after this photo was shot and won the stage in the last 50 meters.


Trade show girls.

SuperBowl Sunday Ride - 02.04.07

Did a pretty standard ride up Sullivan Canyon, over to Rusty Car and down the Westridge singles this morning. Temps were in the high 70's which was a welcomed change.

Click here or on the map for a synopsis.

12 Hours of Temecula MTB Race - 01.20.07

Rode on a four-man team at the 12 Hours of Temecula race on Saturday. Temps were butt-cold during the early morning and night and high-50's at their peak during the day.

The woman in the white, green and black kit on the Ellsworth Truth in the front row is Monique Sawicki. She beat all soloists, male and female, completing 11 laps in just under 11 hours. Unreal...





The 10+ mile course was in great condition and super fun. Click here or on the image for my lap 1 data on MotionBased.



Here are a few pics of team-mates Nor, Peter (demo'ing an Intense 5.5) and Andrew. Fastest lap of around 58 minutes was turned by Peter on a Gary Fisher hardtail with a non-functional Rock Shox fork and a book rack.

Paseo Miramar - 01.13.07

Today was beautiful but nipply cold and windy. Rode Sullivan Ridge to the Hub to Eagle Rock and down Paseo Miramar. Click here or on the graphic for ride details.

Garmin Edge 305 GPS - 01.08.07

Had to score an Edge GPS after seeing how cool the thing is from Mike McCarthy. Unfortunately, had problems with the heart rate monitor out of the box. After speaking with someone in customer support today, a new hr strap is on the way.

Meantime, click here or on the image for a MotionBased overview of the Brown Mountain/El Prieto ride from yesterday. (Unfortunately, a lot of the red towards the bottom represents out-and-back road miles.) Provided the new strap rectifies the issue, will report on how the hrm works.

New Ride - 12.15.06

Instead of a new Turner 5 Spot, decided to get a cyclo-cross bike. It's a 2006 Bianchi Cross Concept with a carbon fork, Scandium main triangle and carbon rear triangle. Components are Ultegra, Truvativ and Easton, the wheelset is Cane Creek. The 48/39 chainrings are perfect for the local hills and fireroads.

Backbone Trail, Malibu - 11.25.06

Rode out and back on Backbone from Corral Canyon to Zuma Ridge fireroad today. Single-track was in great condition as usual.




A fire blew through the area just north of the dirt parking area awhile ago as evidenced by the blackened trees.