CCCX #3

Hills, Thrills and no spills...but MORE HILLS!!!

Wow, what a day! Bri started things off with a bang in the morning race where she rode off to victory and just extended her lead with the passing of each hill! Despite pushing so hard that she tossed her breakfast all over her lap, she never missed a pedal stroke (how many guys are that core!) en route to another visit to the top step of the podium!

Making a special appearance in the morning race were our friends Michele and Jerry who were tuning up for the Sea Otter...nothing gets you ready for racing like going racing! And boy did they get off to a great start with 2 podium finishes! Pre-riding the course Michele had a rough and tumble way of it, but in the race she pushed hard and was rewarded with a solid 3rd place finish among the girls! Jerry raced his SUPER clean and white retro Santa Cruz (Greg and James would definitely be jealous of this bike!!!!) and despite a sore back from a bungee jumping/skydiving/sumo wresting injury (or something like that...) the week before, he persevered to a solid 5th in his class, too! Nice work guys!

In the sport event, the competition looked fierce! Steve, Frank, Brett, and Bill looked like they were pedaling their hearts out. Brett improved from his finish last week thanks to some added climbing on the course and he looked good the whole event...and in what seems to be a theme, he got sick AFTER the race. But solid job! Steve and Frank missed the podium this week, but as I learned not every week is rainy and muddy..errr....rosy and happy??? But, we are using these races to improve right? So as long as you gave it your best effort, then you can't complain too much right? I didn't find out how Bill did yet, but I do know that I worried I would miss his bottle hand off (I am kinda like a butterfly and get SOOO EASILY distracted...), but I nailed the bottle trade and hopefully he turned in another solid finish.

The Expert/Pro race got underway with the COOLEST bike in the race DEFINITELY belonging to Mr. Linder...and even though it was Bike Race Sunday, he brought his Bike Friday, folding mountain bike, complete with 20" wheels and pretty much laid waste to the course! I will get a picture posted soon, but I've NEVER seen LITTLE wheels spin so fast and Jeff was legitimately RIPPING on that sucker!

As for the rest of the crew, Alex killed it today and went by me like my chain fell off. I tried to stay with him but there was no hope. James said he was stoked on how the Maverick tackled the course much better than last time on the stiffie...no doubt due to the spiffy new parts! Plus, he gave me some GREAT tips on how to get my bike half as clean as his! I am pretty sure that I could eat off James' drive train with no ill effects...

Greg was flyin' on the Pinky and ended up 3rd overall behind a hard charging 1-2 punch. For the short time that I saw those guys they were just throwing hammers at every wall they came to! Full on, out of the saddle sprints up EVERY hill it seemed like! Gnarly!!! Mark looked really good too...Bri said he just seemed to be gaining on people the more the race went on and I hear not only did he turn in a good effort today, but also got 2nd on the Tuesday night right on the new tubulars. Tubular!

Nathan and Travis both said the course was tough. I think they left whispering something about riding fun trails at Coe!!! More to come later in the week...but off to bed now...