June 2011 Blog Posts (5)

After missing out on the Skyline XC race this year, due to a “healing” thigh hematoma, I was looking forward to participating in the restart of the Annadel XC race in Santa Rosa.  Due to weather the race had been rescheduled from Sunday the 5^th to the 25^th, and would fit perfectly with my training ramp up for XC Nationals in mid-July.  The night before race day, I went online for location information and noticed the start date was listed as Saturday the…

It had been nearly 30 years since the original Grasshopper had been held at Annadel State Park. It took years of perseverance by Carlos and other dedicated Bike Monkeys to get this event off the ground once again. This time it was for a cause.  The money made by the race this day was to be given to the State Park to thwart off the threat that it might be closed due to the State's Budget Crisis.

An entire city block of downtown Santa Rosa was shut down to accommodate the 600+…

This race marked two first for me, It was my first time riding in Boggs and my first time doing an 8 hour race.  The trails in boggs loved up to their reputation, fast, flowing, and fun.  I never got tired of riding any section of that course. After preriding on Friday, the only thing I was uncertain of was weather I was going to be able to eat properly throughout the race.  This was my first experiment with Perpetuem and it left my stomach feeling like I swallowed a 2 pound led…

This is positively one of the most fun and challenging and race courses I've ridden. A whole lot of strong riders showed up for this race, and with an age group of 19-39 cat 1 I knew it was going to be tough goings. As usual the start line was jam packed and sure enough about 20 seconds off the line everyone hits there brakes and through the dust I see a rider rolling off the road and bike lying in the middle the fire road.  Thanks to the shouts of other riders I was able to avoid the…