Shiloh's Blog (30)

Skyline is my favorite local race.  The course never lets up.  The climbs are steep, tight, and technical and so are the descents. I think I have been doing this race for the last six years.  My best finish at Skyline was a while back when it was a state championship race.  I got first in my class and third overall,  not too many people showed up for it that year. Anyways, I love the race and I'm in great shape now but my crash at the rockhopper has left my wrist sore.  I'm forced to ride…

The Rockhopper Classic is held in Vacaville on a dry exposed hillside.  Three laps, about 26 miles and 3800 feet of climbing total.  It's a great course for racing. With fireroad sections for passing, steep climbs for crushing fools, and flowing singletrack decents. But I wouldn't recommend riding there in over 80 degree heat, it was about 95 degrees. 

This race was also a state championship race which seemed to mean very little.  Racers showed up so that they could qualify for…

The Tamarancho Dirt Classic is just  a few miles form my front door so there are zero excuses for passing it up. This race is mostly singletrack with very few places to pass cleanly.  Aggressive riding can pay off.  Bike Monkey organized the event this year and they did a good job of spreading out the classes to reduce the amount of lapped riders. 

The start line was packed with many strong pro racers, and many racers who I have gotten comfortable mixing it up with at the Summit…

Coming into this years NVDC I'm in my normal decent racing shape.  So I got to the start line 10 minutes before the start and ended up squeezing in at the back of the pack. I was just gonna have to get past as many people as I could before the single track.  Off the line we were charging hard, no one wanted to give up any spots, I was out of breath quickly, and thought I might pass out at the run up.  I had a chance to catch my breath while drafting up at the airport, but I also was able to…

I've made the Stafford  Lake race my yearly cross race.  Farm walls, transforming hay bale gardens, and stair run up are among the obstacles that I do no training for.  Nothing like a CX race to remind me I wont stay in top shape riding four hours a week. 

I started at the back of the pack and sucked dust right off the line.  I took about 90 seconds for my lungs to sting, I haven't opened them up like that for quit a while.  Going up the run up I believe I was in second to last…

I've been hearing rumors of a single track trail system, build by mountain bikers, coming together up north.  I had done a little riding up there before and love it, so when I heard Murphy Mack was putting on a hundred miler, I thought, What better way to explore the trails then with a marked and aided race course. 

Murphy reserved A large camp ground in a redwood grove, about 20 minutes from the star finish area, For racers to stay if the wanted.  I picked up my race number there the…

So what's a Lemurian? People keep asking so I interneted it. It has something to do with a lost land under the sea in the Indian ocean.  But that's silly so I'm just gonna tell people it's a super rad bike race.  The race is one big 26 mile loop with two serious climbs sandwiching some lush flowing single track.

The mass start. I thought I had a good position, about five rows back.  The gun went off, things got crowded, I got by bars tangled for a second and when I looked ahead I saw…

We got some of the best conditions I've seen for this race in the last couple of years and a lot of strong riders showed up to race.  

I got my usual bad start and was winded after riding the first hundred yards.  This is a race where it is important to get a good start, but you also have to be able to finish strong.  Going past the airport I could see that there were at least 20 riders ahead of me.  I convinced myself that they would all crack on the final climb.  

I slowly…

Here I find myself again, testing out the ole racing legs for my first race of the year.  Conditions were the best I have ever seen them at Cool, very little mud, and no rain in the forecast.  I decided to race in the pro class simply because, what the hell is the difference if we are all leaving at the same time and riding the same miles.  Sure I wasn't going to win or even podium but I always compare my time to pros anyways.  

Once the race started things spread out pretty quickly…

A good finish last year earned me a chance to preregister for the all mountain class.  It can be tough to get in so I took advantage and signed up. 

The race start had changed from a mass start of the combined pro and expert classes to separate starts for the two classes.  This made me think I could roll up the start line just a few minutes before go time, and still have good start position.  I was wrong. I ended up abut fifteen rows back from the line which I'm sure slowed me down…

Another fun local race. It is a bit of a shame that it didn't bring out more riders.  Although the cat 1 class had some of the regular strong riders, the rest of the field seemed to be lacking.

I started this race wondering if I had fully recovered from last week's TS 100. I had done a few rides since, none more than about an hour and a half, so I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel.

Off the start line and into the first section of dirt I settled into fifth place. By the time I…

So I decided to do it again, 100 miles from Soda Springs to Auburn.  Sizing up the competition on the start line, I thought, looks like I should be able to make the top ten. Then Tinker Juarez rolled up and I thought, well I'll be happy with a top 20 finish. Thankfully, Tinker didn't attract a large crew of pro endurance racers.  It actually seemed as though there were fewer pros this year.  Oh well if you can't run with the big dogs, you better stay on the porch, right?  There was no point…

I've been feeling pretty good on the bike the last few weeks. And was excited to get out and race for the first time in a month.  The technical climbs and descents make this one of my favorite courses. Conditions were loose, rocky, dry, and dusty.  Every time I finish this race without tearing a tire open i'm surprised. 

We got there early, which is a good thing because my legs felt like poop and needed a good warm up.  I got a good warm up in than a nice cool down at the star line…

One big loop, lots of single track, lots of climbing, an ice cold lake to swim in afterwards, and it's technically challenging. I have been hearing stories about the awesomeness of this race for years, and I've finally decided to get out and race it.

I don't know how or why but I somehow signed up in the pro class. No big deal, though.  Category can't affect my time.  I heard that the mass start was gonna be a cluster of mayhem.  But it wasn't that bad.  Downieville's start is much…

My older brother called me up last week and asked me if I wanted to do a dual slalom race.  I thought about it for a minute. I hadn't done a dual slalom race sense 2005.  What the hell, I told him, I'll give it a shot.  My Brother, Auric, has been racing with the Santa Cruz collegiate mtb team.  This was the final race of the collegiate season, there had been an xc race the day before and there was a short track race the next morning just before the slalom.  I didn't race the short track and…

I've kept from doing this race in the past because I heard it was all on fire roads.  This year he added lots of single track so I thought I'de give it a shot.  The trails we raced were awesome.  the only reason that course isn't as popular as Downieville is because the accessibility sucks.  

The race organizer warned that this was going to be the toughest race we have ever done and for me it was. dew to poor tire choice I got a flat within the first 40 minutes of the race.  A bunch…

After missing last years Downieville Classic, I was excited to get back on the awesome trails Downieville offers.  The extra snowy winter we had caused rumors of snow tunnels and 20 minute hike a bike sections through two feet of snow.  but that was not to be, the course was simply shortened. the sunrise trail and the baby head section were cut out. The climb was the same and the decent used the upper part of the down hill course.

       I have yet to learn my lesson at the start line…

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…