SC MTB TT -- Finally!!!

While, I know you have all been absolutely on the edge of your seat to find out who took the time trial Saturday morning, I must apologize. A recent bout of "yard work fever" had me spending all of my free time hacking away on the back forty until...well I guess my "aggressive" yard work habits might be a bit more than most are accustomed to. What can I say, if it's a dirt bike, a mountain bike or a yard tool, I ride that sucker like I STOLE IT! Unfortunately for the yard, that resulted in a broken shovel, followed by a broken hula-ho (sp??) and then another broken tool that I don't even know what it's called. I then proceeded to use the "handles" of each tool to battle the weeds. that resulted in 3 perfectly good handles turning into 7 shreds of wooden splinters...Ooops! Oh well, the weeds are down and the yard is coming along! Ok, onto REAL FUN!

Pulling into the parking lot in Soquel we were met by Pro Joe, Big Talkin' Brett, and Steve Kelley. That added to our group of me, Bri and Shelly. Looks like the group would be small in size but large on quality! As we rocketed up the hill, 3 things instantly became apparent to me...

1. Steve Kelley is under-rated. The guys rocks!
2. The dirt was still damp in SC. NOT, optimal for speed and TT records.
3. My tires were all wrong for speed. Perfect for traction, but wrong for speed!

As I passed "Sand Point" I was ready for the "steeps" and finish. Well, unfortunately for me, my memory served me incorrectly...again (It has been about a year since I did the climb!). While I thought the finish lurked at the top of the "second steep" it is more like 10 minutes from the top of the "second steep" followed by the aforementioned "steep's" little brother's and sister's who wreak havoc on exhausted legs and gasping lungs! Daaarn iiiitttt!!!!

Fortunately, the top was soon in sight and I gasped one final breath of air across the finish. Ahhh, now the fun begins! Our tribe re-grouped at the top and Steve Kelley (read: Mista Bad Ass!) dropped into Demo' we had to get back to work. Descending some of the best trails in Santa Cruz in absolutely "ALL TIME" (as AC like to say) dirt was truly epic. We could do no wrong. Bri and Shelly were cleaning rocky descents that would have most of my dude friends puckering and looking for the alternate route!

Brett and Dad were shredding single track and although I forgot how many "climbs" there were on the way "down" it went well. I do remember hearing "How many more times do we have to push our bikes uphill, when we are SUPPOSED to be going DOWNHILL!!!" on more than one occasion. Fortunately, I had forgotten, so it wasn't a lie when I kept repeating "Oh, this is FOR SURE THE LAST TIME!"...only to have 4 more equally diabolical little ditty's still waiting! Good times! The final decent into the chilly stream water was the perfect way to end the day and freeze our toes on a brisk Saturday morning ride!

As for the times, they turned out to be good...actually GREAT in some instances. Come out and do the TT, then you earn the right to become privy to the highly anticipated, yet deeply classified information.