Jim Hewett's Blog – April 2017 Archive (4)

Cathy, Simon and I were very excited to do The Lemurian Shasta Classic again.  Last year was the first year for those two, but I had raced this 28 mile single loop course many times.  Simon would be racing the 8 mile short loop, and cathy once again doing the long course.

We traveled up Friday evening and had a chance to preride Simon's course, which shares common trails with the start and finish of our course.  For him it is pretty much a gravel climb of 800 ft to the slightly…

Cathy, Simon and I left early on Friday to make it in time for me to race the Short Track at 11:15 on Friday.  The course was very short and flat, with various sections of loose and slow materials ranging from pea gravel to sand.  I guess around 85 people started the race, and I had a pretty good first lap, coming through the finish about mid-pack.  I soon felt the effects of my hard start, and I was overtaken by 20 or so racers over the next few laps.  I think I completed 5 of the 8 laps…

I had heard good things about the Nevada City Dirt Classic races.  Friends had told me that they were fun courses with a well-run grassroots feel.  I had them in mind when I was building my race calendar for 2017, and their designation as the 3 race series that would determine the USAC California state champion sealed the deal.

Mark GIbson and I drove up past Auburn and into the state forest to throw our hats into the ring in our respective classes, and for a little more training…

We were back at Lake Sonoma for the Bike Monkey SoNoMas race, this time doing a longer loop around the lake counter-clockwise.  The field was a bit different this time, a few of us from the Lake Sonoma Grasshopper race a couple weeks earlier (Carson Benjamin, Barry Wicks, and me), with the addition of more fast xc guys and some very strong roadies.  I'm not sure why this race tends to draw guys who are usually more inclined to race on pavement, but Ted King, Peter Stetina, Sam Bassetti, and…