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.