Tahoe 100

I'm in. This may be a really stupid maneuver on my part, but I have plenty of friends that have known me through my racing career that could point out similarly idiotic "whims" that have led to both great outcomes and those that you wish you had never encountered in the first place! If this Roadie poser can do it...

Regardless, this race was NEVER really a "whim". Last year I thought "man it would be cool to ride 100 miles on my mountain bike". I still think that today. However, this race kind of went off the radar and then when the blip reappeared it was mostly in the form of the 50. Well, thank Jeff Linder for being the catalyst in reigniting my passion here. The guy is a legend and how can I let him suffer alone for the day right? Plus, I KNOW I can ride 50 miles. Riding 100? Well, I could just as easily cramp into oblivion and fall on my face right? You gotta love the "unknown" allure of it all, or at least you gotta love it if you are me.

Anyone else wishing to test their endurance should click here soon, because I understand it is filling up. So far, I've suckered the speediest Smurfette in the kingdom (Shelly Monroe - as if you didn't know!), the aforementioned, multi-time 24 hour solo champ (Jeff Linder) and my buddy Travis who scoffs at sissy rides and is on the fence pending some family obligations. I'm not sure how my name ended up in the same breathe as these great riders, but that's why they invented Red Bull right? Wings. I'll need 'em!

The countdown is on...16 days to build some endurance!

COE TT - HUGE Success!

Wow, Bri and I were fortunate enough to attend the South Valley Bike and Run Club's (soon to be SVEndurance...wooo, that will be easier!) Henry Coe Time Trial event from Morgan Hill up into Henry Coe, down to Gilroy and back home through Harvey Bear - only a 40mile jaunt through some of the most rugged terrain that California has to offer, I was looking forward to good times! Bri was passing on the event due to a nasty break out of poison oak. But she still ended up riding with her friend Jenn from the CCCX series until the itching got to bad...or maybe the hills too steep? No she wouldn't let that stop her!

Having not attended one of these events before we showed up early just in case there was a SNAFU...not even close! There was coffee, food, water, ALL THE COMFORTS of home just waiting! Plus, they had all my sign up stuff done from the on line entry and I think I maybe just signed my name one time! Sweet! As we began getting ready people started rolling in and Shelly (who raced the San Ardo road race...road parade??? the day before) came up with Nathan. I was definitely worried about these two as they had pre ridden the course and I had NO IDEA where a few of the twists and turns went. Oh well, how confusing could it be right?

As we lined up for the on time 9am start Travis was already throwin' down the INTIMDATOR - BIG TIME...or should I say BIG WHEELS? He had a spanky Specialized 29er that seemed to be custom made for the course. Hmmm, hope I brought my A game...

Not even 5 minutes into the event and I made a wrong turn that cost me enough time that Travis and Nathan (whom both started a minute or two behind me) were riding right up my rear tire. Great. At least I won to the first checkpoint! Only 4 to go! From their the 3 of us took off up the hour long climb that is East Dunne. If you have ridden in Morgan Hill you may have had the "pleasure" of suffering like a dog up this beast. It's tough. There are false summits, exposure to the sun and a pitch or two that is so steep that most roadies weave and on the MTB, well let's just say taking Gramma for a walk might be necessary...

Nathan launched a brutal attack at the bottom and Travis and I tried to keep him in sight as we rolled past a full on cheering section of cute girls who all knew our names! This is what I am talking about!!! Thanks Alyssa and Julia!!! As we settled into our "tempo" we were already breathing hard, dripping sweat and catching the brave riders who started in front of us. At some point in the delirium I managed to pedal hard enough to open a gap so I just tried to go with it. I topped out, ate a Hammer Gel and took off down the fire road desperately hoping I could navigate through the remote Henry Coe Park without a map or the benefit of a pre ride...

The only thing I knew was we were hitting a trail to "China Hole". That became my mantra. "Chiiiiiiiiinnnaaaaaa Hooooooolllleeeeeeeee, ooooohhhh, whhheeerrreeee art though?" I was calling to her and it must have worked because I nailed the corner and was rocketing down the singletrack hoping to pick up time on a nasty, loose, cliff side single track that I had never ridden before. Hmmm, is this a good idea? Evidently the first, second or maybe even third high speed skid off the steep edges should have warned me that riding over my head on a treacherous trail in a desolate area was not a good idea. But who are we talking about here? Yeah, you already knew that logical thoughts were NOT on the forefront of my brain...especially when I am trying to stretch an unknown amount of lead!!!

At the bottom I got lost. Great. Wander around. Yell for help. Campers!!!! YES!!! They were able to point me in the right direction and I got rolling just as Travis got to the bottom, too! OH MAN, IT WAS ON! Pure fear and adrenaline fueled my climb out of the Hole from China and as I crested to the canyon and pointed my bike towards Gilroy I remembered Nathan giving up one of his course tid bits "it will take about an hour to get through Coe". Not knowing where I was, I had about 20m to hit that mark and it turned out to be spot on! Waiting at the next check point was Gary and he was kind enough to refill my bottle before I headed off for the last hour or so to the finish.

One more bout with the map had me thoroughly frustrated and I could see Travis hunting me down - AGAIN! This time I thought it better to ride with him than try in vain to read the sweat skewed lines on my map! We rolled through Harvey Bear and dodged a few crazy horses (those things are BIG!!!) and made it out the other side where I only had one choice. Pedal Hard.

Travis started 90 seconds behind me, so I had about 5 miles of road to try one last ditch effort. Another gel and it was time to suffer. Badly. In the end I think Travis and I just barely made the finish before puking our guts out and we both set new "fast" times for the course with me just getting the edge by a few precious seconds. Whew!

Nathan came roaring in for a hard earned 3rd place overall finish and Shelly started practically last and had to pass a ton of people to finish just inside the top 8, first girl! She will point out that she was the ONLY girl, but that's because all the others were SCARED!

With SVEndurance's electric scoring we new everyones' result right away and as you can see from the pictures, even though everyone was plumb tuckered out, we all enjoyed more soda's, sandwiches, and fruit courtesy of this great new club! I was impressed!

Congratulations to all who finished this brutal ride. There was nothing easy about the relentless climbing, warm temps, rugged trails and sheer distance! Great job! Next year, I will try to keep a little extra in the tank so I can enjoy the bounce house!

Driving home we saw this wrecked car being towed. Perfect metaphor because that was and IS me post race. Completely WRECKED!!!

National Anthem.....trumped!!!

So this is Brianne, you will probably be able to tell since my stories aren't as awesome as Brian's. I sang the national anthem at the Historics today, it was probably one of my best performances yet. But that wasn't the highlight of my day! Of course not, Brian had to trump my singing with out-running a cop. I was screaming and yelling at him, freaking out. Anyway, he will write a blog about that later, as for now here is a video of my singing. Enjoy.....

Revised Race Schedule

So I just love it when my perfectly laid plans are uprooted and turned into a quagmire of muck. Case in point. September and October were filled with fun weekends of racing. Pretty much perfectly spaced to maximize fun, interesting venues and calibre of events. Well, the SoCal guys decided to move State Championships and the last UCT race and no my nicely thought-out plans are just a little ball of poo poo. Great.

The new schedule looks like this:

Tahoe 50/100 - September 12

Bonelli Park XC and Super D State Championships - Sepetmeber 19/20 respectively

NorCal Round #7 OR State Championships - September 26/27 weekend.

So, while I have been known to hit "double header" race weekends in the past, it was typically at least within a few hour drive, certainly not the 12+ hours it would take to make it from Whiskeytown to Big Bear. Now the dilemma is this:

Super sweet, rocky, fun "core" mountain bike trails in Whiskeytown. Complete with awesome lake backdrop for kayaking and swimming

OR


Drive through the hell hole known as LA in order to race the prestigious State Championships on a decent course at altitude.

Decisions. Decisions.
I am pretty sure I know which way Adam Craig would lean and since I base all of MY decisions off of HIS decisions (hence my sweet bike!) I think I know...but...well...who knows for sure?

Which way are YOU leaning?

High School Girls...

Don't obsess over their weight as much as so-called men in tights on bikes. You have it straight from the horses mouth right here...ok, actually via Adam Craig, but the comment still holds since he is regurgitating what Geoff said in regards to his World Cup win which is essentially:'

JUST GET SKINNY.

I love Adams' response...guess I just need to spend less time at Gramma's house! ha! Oh, and did you see that little blurb about AC trying out an SRM? Holy cow! Imagine if Adam honed his natural talent and abilities even more. Worlds next year should be good.

If I get much skinnier, than I will need to buy a whole new wardrobe...guess that just means sweet new fashion pictures will have to be taken...

Howell Mountain Challenge

My contacts are burning, I'm tired and I want to watch a movie, so pretty much I am red-lining the whining right now. BUT, some of our group was able to put down the WINNING, which I figure more than off sets my whining...The quick and dirty is:

Bri finished her first sport race...and it was a toughie! Temps in the high 80's to low 90's and a course of 20+ miles for her was waiting and she was a bit fearful of some pre-race demons over some of her past experiences here. NO PROBLEM! She paced herself off the start and rode a smart and consistent race to finish what was a very challenging event. Much better than her other 2 events here!

The team also had some success in the old man's class and the women's expert class, which just adds more evidence to the argument that Pro Joe and Smurfette make that "Oh yeah, I only ride PART TIME...I'm not REALLY training". Since this seems to be both of their mantra's I would say they both must be doing something right as they both pedaled away to convincing victories! That's it. More candy and couch time. Less pedal time!

Alex, Chris and Travis all competed in the large 35+ class. This year they went with big "cccx style" classes, whereas last year it was more of the "standard" 5 year age group classes. Despite the big groups Alex bested his time from last year by quite a bit and other than a few crashes (Come on we are talking about ALEX here!) rode a VERY strong race. I would say his "worlds" training is on schedule.

Chris paced me off the start and I was able to sneak away during the race and eventually catch up to Travis who had a strong start, nice work! I put down a typical "Butler Redneck Dirt Bike Cheater Line" pass on him in the woods and was pretty pumped that I still remember how to get through the trees. At the finish Chris and Travis both pedaled in strong but I think Travis is looking for a bit more "cush" in his future!

Brett and I did our typical "slow" starts and while Brett rode to a similar time as last year, I was a bit worried about conquering the 3 laps required of the experts. With the heat (Dontcha just love Monterey Fog for training...) I was a tad cautious, but by the end I had definitely achieved my goal of going molecular. I don't think there is a cell in my body that didn't get punished today.

Big congrats to my NorCalPal, Clint Claussen. He won like his 100th race in a row! Ok, not really, but the guy is riding great and he was battling for the overall placings today. Nice job!

Ok, candy and movie time! Hopefully, more pictures to come later in the week!

Santa Cruzin'

Last weekend we were trying to figure out a good place to go and practice riding in a bit of heat (Monterey has been moderately warm at best) and on trails similar to what we would find in Angwin next weekend for the Howell Mountain Challenge. Hmmm, Santa Cruz? Perfect!

We picked up Chris M. and headed towards Nicene to meet up with the Miracle Racing Crew of Stacy and Cyndie who were ready for some fun, technical trails! But, this is Nicene and you've gotta earn the burn here, so we pointed upward and headed onward!

Out of camp the girls were WAAAAY too fast to keep up with as Chris and I pedaled our big rings violently in vain. Fortunately, their initial assault was reconciled with the knowledge that hurting our fragile male egos was not proper trail etiquette and they sat up. When we caught up to them Bri tried to take me out on at least 17 different occasions over the course of 200 yards! FEISTY!

From there it becomes somewhat hazy, but according to eye-witness accounts it went down like this:

Chris and Brian had a hoot! There were some sweet passes, some irritated users (Ha! Take that suckers! We will ruin you if you get in our way!...hmmm, anger management) and generally a great trail ride for us.

The girls topped the climb just in time for a romantic meeting with Cyndie's Hubby and I left a sweet 8 foot dirt heart in the trail, but Bri missed it as I didn't draw it in the shade. Oh well, next time I will think before I create sweet trail art...

I understand that the girls had an adventurous decent with many a tree aiding in stopping out of control vehicles when the brakes simply didn't posses the adequate juice. Bri had a sweet line through the tree's that worked just find about 1 month ago but newly downed trees and bushes brought her to an immediate halt with puncture wounds to the finger as Stacy and Cyndie quickly learned "hey, girls, just follow me" might not be what its cracked up to be!

After a few more encounters with immovable objects (really, PLEASE try to avoid tree's in the future!!!) they made it safely down to the bottom...and just like the conclusion of every great ready, they were READY TO EAT!

Bri had to wait for the "slow boys" but I had been fantasizing about burritos filled with cheeseburgers and smothered in nachos and fries for the better part of 2 hours! Needless to say we found food and consumed a proper post ride meal of 10,000 calories!

Now if we can avoid hitting tree's, stay hydrated, and pedal hard we should be ready for the Howell Mountain!