Danny Kelly McNaughton's Blog (7)

Perfect weather for the race. Absolutely perfect. 

I lined up a few rows back this year to remind me to take it a little slower on the first climb. Last year I was pretty fit and 6 full lbs lighter and was in the front group for the first 1/3 of the climb and I think going off full gas and attempting to be a front runner contributed to my crash on the 2nd to last descent where I knocked the wind out of myself and could never recover to finish the race strong (last year I was…

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…

Lined up mid pack, cuz I'm always fussing w/ something before the race. Weather was perfect, overcast, coolish and gonna get perfectly warm in a few hours.

I was relaxed on the climb and sifted through most of the folks to the front pack of 30-35?  We went across the bridge and hit the climb to the single track and I put in an effort to get around 3-4 guys (i remember passing Bartels).  We entered the single track super fun minutes long section. Now I'm behind some folks that are…

The Lake Sonoma XC course is super fun and difficult. The Bike Monkey guys have been using the same loop for a number of years now. Despite that, it hasn't grown old and boring for me and I've done it almost 10 times in the last 5 years. In 18 miles, one gets worked pretty good. 3,400ft of climbing? A great taste of what SoNoMas will be like.

The course had some muddy spots this time, so that shook some things up and made times slower.

On a mini pre-ride, I got pretty muddy and…

This "race report" is a little late.

I was given the day off work to go up to NAHBS (handmade bike show) in Sac. Sunday Feb 28th, so I figured I'd race the TBF Granite Bay Folsom Lake XC race that morning. It was called "Mountain Bike Madness". The TBF people have different names for all their races on the same course-madness, celebration, classic, gold rush, etc..

I was able to get a whole 8.5 mi lap in before the race and it reminded me that the course is really fun…

The grasshopper races are awesome. Really tough, but a great atmosphere, nice people, beautiful roads, etc..

I thought I had a great bike setup, trek/fisher paragon 29er alum hartail w/ salsa cromoto rigid fork on stans crests w/ 1.9's. And it was, the start climb went well and the descent down Willow was fun until I hit a drainage rut that I didn't see AT ALL and dented my rear wheel and it turns out cracked a rail on my saddle and broke the plastic body in half.

That rattled…

Met Jim @ Fontana for the ProXCT and was certain I would get punished and lapped and I didn't get lapped but got a real good beatdown by the real deal. 49th(and I think there were 90 total,1-2 DNS and DNF's included). I highly recommend to anyone who wants to push their MTB racing, to go to the "national level" races cuz they will certainly do that. Especially if you don't give up and go to more than a few (even a few will help you improve at the local level). Yeah, I had alotta fun and it…