April 2016 Blog Posts (25)

Lemurian Shasta Classic 2016



My fourth cross country race and let me tell you, this was no picnic. My last three outings, The Grasshopper, Napa Valley Dirt Classic and Sea Otter, certainly put me to the test. At the end of each race, I swore nothing could ever be more difficult. But today I quickly learned The Lemurian was its own beast. A monster with climb after endless climb and a twisted desire to tease and lull one into actually having fun on its swoopy wooded single tracks…

Cathy, Simon and I made the journey up to Redding for this classic single loop mountain bike race.  Team mates Bill Surges and Danny Macnaughton were also there to test themselves on the challenging climbs and descents of the Whiskeytown trails.

I've raced this many times, getting second overall a couple times recently.  This year, my modified training plan had me in late base training, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I felt like I could go pretty hard all day, but not really hard…

Staying true to the level of intensity The Shorty brings, race 2 was probably my most challenging to date... but the reward was worth every last calorie burned off!

Team mate Otis stepped up from the B group and recruited several NorCal riders to join us in the A's. The A open group was 12 deep and Sean Melchionda joined the ACME team riders in A 35+. When I saw Sean roll up, I knew there'd be trouble! In a polar opposite to last week where merely 5 riders bolted off from the start,…

   So, back for another spring of local short track MTB racing put on by Jim Hewett at Acme Bikes, San Rafael.  Or as I named my Strava ride after this race, "Welcome Back to the Pain Cave".  I've been doing this race for a number of years in the 35+ B Class.  I had always been able to wind up the old ticker and let it rip for 30 minutes, many races having an average HR over 180!  But last year, age 51, trying to stay ahead of Acme team mates Mark Ingwersen, Greg Alsterlind and Mark Buell…

My favorite race of them all. Once again, Jim of ACME Bikes set up a fun event for all ages. This year he added the 35+ to the A class(6 laps) and I was up for the challenge. In the last year, I have made good friendships with the top 35 + guys from last year and I was excited to see if I improved after spending so much time riding with them. The B and C's seemed to have very good turn outs but the A's were down to 5 at the start. My class featured the king of this race, David Benjamin,…

This is the event that pulled me into racing XC! It's local, quick, challenging and incredibly fun. ACME bikes deserves major props for keeping this event going since it caters to just about anyone who likes to ride and builds a fun community of like minded riders. Thank you ACME!

After several years riding with the B's and motivated by fellow ACME team mates I entered the new A 35+ category. This would add a sixth lap to this already grueling sprint race. In past years Dave Benjamin,…

Though I am in the early phases of my training for the season, I made the trip down to Sea Otter to take my licks racing in the pro short track and xc races.

The weather was not brutally hot, just hot.  The field would be considered quite strong to very strong;  over 100 racers, including some top international contenders and all of the top North Americans.  Cathy Chevron and my son Simon came down with me and provided support.

Friday's short track race was a bit frustrating,…

Enduro - Open Men 18 & Under

I arrived to the Sea Otter venue at 7:30 AM on Thursday, and I thought I had plenty of time to get a few practice runs on the first stage. Unfortunately, the packet pick up took so long that I only got one quick lap in before the pros went off. I got shuttled back up, and spun around until my start time.

The first stage doubles as the DH course, mainly…

It was good to finally be able to do the states' biggest cycling event, after waiting at the side lines the previous years.

Going into the event, I had seen the start list and realized the field was absolutely stacked, despite this being only a cat 2 race. With kids such as the cx national champion (Ben Gomez Villafane), the JV D1 NorCal leader (Tyler Sargent), and my friend from San Marin who is tied for the series lead in Freshmen D2,…

I was not going to write this but my friends actions changed my mind. I have been looking forward to this race for months now. I entered this back in 2004 as a beginner and had multiple mechanical failures that made for a long, frustrating day. Now 2016 on a better bike ('16 Trek Top Fuel) and better conditioning, I was ready . My pre-ride set the stage for Sunday's race. It took more than an hour to finally find the course (no help from the staff). Once on the course it became clear that…

   This was my 6th year at the Sea Otter Classic.  The first year doing the road gran fondo with my then 8th grade son, Carson (single speed Masi), then progressing through CAT 3, CAT 2 and the last two years in CAT 1.  I was stoked for this year's edition as it looked like the organizers had finally changed up the course to include more single track and I was going to see Carson race Pro Short Track and Pro Cross Country as a U23.

  For the race I set up my Highball with a Bontrager…

  As I write this my legs ache from a special blend of residual cramps, poison oak, mosquito bites, and minor scratches and gashes. Nothing significant- no blood transfusions, but I am sure I left a trail of DNA along the Sea Otter course. What a difference a week makes! The rain and mud at Napa Valley produced gooey hills of liquefaction, but at Sea Otter I experienced the dry, hot,and shifting sands of the Kalahari. Hence the cramps.

  I felt the race began at 4:00AM Sunday morning.…

What a messy, muddy day! I drove up to Angwin, the start of the Napa Valley Dirt Classic, with several nagging thoughts in my head, mostly irritated that it was raining, and that it had been raining for the last 24 hours. Would this be a disaster of a day? I pulled into the Pacific Union College parking lot and it was raining and 49 degrees. What was I doing? I wasn't fired up for this race. Got my race number, put on my Acme jersey, got bike ready. Did some warming up and headed to the…

Napa Valley Dirt Classic



The Napa Valley Dirt Classic on April 10 was my second cross country race as a team member of Acme Bikes and my second cross country race. We started the morning with some heavy drizzle (rain) but by warm ups and race time the rain decided to give us all a break, as if the weather knew we had a big enough challenge ahead without the added chill and poor visibility rain can bring.



I lined up in the back with my Cat 2 ladies and watched as our…

My first race last year as a Cat 2 was my first as a Cat 1 this year. Two things that stand out to me about this course:  going down "Sand Hill" and climbing "Heartbreaker".  I was back on my Top Fuel with Maxxis IKON 2.2 tires. It had been raining and figured it would be muddy out there, but it turned out to be worse than I thought. We had 2 top racers and mechanics in teammates Shiloh and Jim of ACME and I forgot to ask about tire pressure in the mud. I guessed and upped mine to 5psi over…

  This was my first race since Downieville. After Downieville I noticed that I had a dull ache in my left testicle which I attributed to numerous crashes or near misses. When it didn't resolve I had it evaluated and found out that I had testicular cancer. I finally have something in common with Lance Armstrong! Although the surgery is more psychologically invasive than surgical, it still involves cutting abdominal muscles and a 8 week recovery period. I opted out of the optional chemo since…

Sometimes it's good to change up a training routine.  Obviously, on the day to day level, as your body responds more readily to fitness gains with new stimulation, but this year, I have decided to make some changes to my annual training plan.  For many years, I have been excited to start base training, usually a few months long, in November or December, thereby coming into peak racing form for the April races.  The challenge has been building for another peak later in the season, around…

  Continuing my season of trying to race into shape, I convinced myself to head up to Angwin for the NVDC.   It had rained the day and evening before and a light rain was falling as I pulled into the parking lot next to teammates Greg Alsterlind and Mark Buell.  Team Acme Bikes was out in force with approximately 9 riders.  

   The start was uneventful and I seemed to be mid pack at the mud hill run up.  Once on the fireroad along the airport I could see Greg up ahead and used every…

Going into the race, I was excited that I had been having some good training rides and this would be by my first time testing myself in the expert division. The age group categories were 35-44, and 45-54…I am actually 44 and didn’t fully understand that I would be racing in the 45-54 as my birthday is later this year…I’m babbling…let’s get to the race.

Fortunately, I was able to…

It rained most of the day before a little unexpectedly, and some at night and in the morning. So the course was pretty muddy, but not trashed in really anyway. It was a great day to race weather wise. Mostly foggy, beautiful and even a bit warm.

I've done the race something like 7 or 8 times and it's a great one. Was bummed a bit to see the turnout real low, especially in the Pro class, but hey, I have the day off work and I'm alive and it's a great day to ride, etc.,  so was still…