Today was the Ft. Ord CCCX race! I raced 13 and under.

I did this race last year and got first place. Although my competition was not significant that year, I still had a great time.

But back to the current CCCX race.  I started behind a lot of adults but…

After some internet surveying, I felt that the Low Gap course was going to be fast.

Even though it was 43 miles with 5.6k of climbing, I felt there was going to be some really fast times.

I had originally planned on riding it on my XC hard tail, but I was doing some drive train changes and I could not get it done in time. And after surveying the course, my gravel bike seemed like a better choice anyway.

The weather was good, slight clouds, probably about 50*F at the…

I felt pretty fresh as I blasted off from the start tent on my DH run Sunday morning.  I started 9th, with a ghost racer behind me and Ryan Gorman in front of me, so I didn't anticipate any company.  I had recovered from the vision problems of the day before and made it to the start line with glasses.

I pushed hard on Sunrise and came close to my fastest time, keeping it up down the fire road and across to the single track.  I had reduced the rebound damping on  my fork to 11 clicks…

My start time was 12:12:30. I decided to play it safe and run a heavy tube in my rear tire. I have only ridden the downhill course 4 times in the last 15 years and never with out stopping so I had no splits to meet. I did do Sunrise fast a few days before with Jim, so I had a goal of under 8 minutes to the fire road. We were leaving every 30 seconds and I had 2 teenage riders in front of me. I started my Garmin 30 seconds before my start so I could just focus on getting out as fast as I…

At the end of every season of mountain bike racing, there is the Downieville Classic All Mountain World Championship.

Though racing starts for me in March, I always try to tailor the last half of the season to have some fitness left for this NorCal testpiece.

This year found me in less than peak form, but eager to compete in the All Mountain category once again.  I had raced a Trek Fuel EX for a few years, with some good results, but this year I returned to a cross country race…

This is probably my favorite race of the year; and one of the best weekends of racing out there. I had missed the race last year through injury while doing a practice run the week before, and so was glad to be back in Downieville racing again, injury free, and feeling in good form.

The Downieville Classic consists of a cross country race on the Saturday, and a Downhill race on Sunday. Some racers choose to ride the XC event only, but racing the DH only is not an option. If you want to…