Thought of the day:

...if you are riding a single speed and no one sees you, are you still cool?

Merry Xmas!!

CX Nationals was.....chillin'.....

Sums up my weekend...what a great couple of races.  Didn't know whether to bring the CX bike or my boards to the SS race Friday morning!  Thanks Scott!The coolest was Marja took 9th in the NCAA Division I National Championship Race!!  More to come, with pics!  It was a long drive home today...

CX Gods...

...so what have I done? Seems I have angered the cyclocross gods this year! DNF in the forst race of the season, hurling in the woods...a great race at McClaren on my SS, then a dismal evening uder the lights for my first race on the Redline (I could blame the gears, but i won't). I followed that race with a good race the following morning in Folsom. After that came Golden Gate Park where I totally missed my start, but that wasn't my fault...oh wait it was.

No worries, put some new treads on both bikes in preparation for Nationals in Bend where it was last forecast to be 34 for a high with snow all week, and took them out to the RodeoCross in Folsom on Wednesday night. Now I have to admit, I had never run this tire setup tubeless (Specialized Captain CX Pro) and I wanted to see how hard I could ride it w/o rolling it off the rim.

Race comes, great start, and after 2 laps I was sitting in 5th and we had a good size gap. Lap 3 the gap is actually getting bigger. I was riding my SS with a 39x18 and I was happy to be hanging with the lead A racers. Lap four, coming into the stadium I run over a barrier, remount, make a hard left to ride up and over a steep pitch and "BUUURRRRPPPP!!!"

"F&^%#" I slipped....and Cameron was right there watching, literally a couple feet away!

"What the heck was that DAD!?" Cameron yells out as I am dropping an F-bomb in front of him....lucky me he was louder than me and he was wondering about the Stan's love sauce that now covered my right leg!

So again, the CX gods strike...well if you haven't figured it out, I have been racing this CX season by the seat of my pants and really not paying attention to details...like when my start time is, helmet, tire pressure, etc. The frustrating thing is I was moving Wednesday night and actually felt good....relatively speaking for a CX race of course.

Just trying to keep up with Marja's performance Wednesday night. Marja put on a clinic, being forced to stage up behind a large field of Men's C's and Junior Men, she was in second starting lap #2 and took the lead starting lap #3 and never looked back. She won by a few minutes (keep in mind each lap took about 3:50) over the men.

Oh well, what can I do....pay more attention, I know, I know!! But I am looking forward to Nationals up in Bend. I am r acing the SS race on Friday, Scott the masters 45s, and then me the Masters 35 race on Saturday. My start position on the grid is around 100 for the SS race and 150 for the masters, so I have no pipe dreams of a Cinderella story, but I am excited as all heck! Cold, muddy, snowy conditions! Marja is racing for the collegiate National title on Sunday.

Most people wonder why we would drive over 8 hours through crummy weather to race for just 60 minutes...my guess..... they have never raced Cross...

So the Thanksgiving Ride tradition continues....this time Marja and I rode the newly established Arnold Rim Trail, above Arnold...in case you couldn't figure it out. I will be honest, due to the lack (or as we found out, apparent lack) of trails and descriptions I had heard of this trail, I expected a casual ride along some nice rolling trails.

We headed out from Marja's parents house and rode up to White Pines to hit the trail head. There was a little ice on the roads still so it was a nice winter ride. We started up a trail running along an old logging road cut, just as I expected, but then a sharp left started the days fun! What a gorgeous trail, single track winding through the pines and fast too! After a creek crossing, we started up a tough little switchback climb and the single track just kept coming.

It seems this area is criss crossed with old motorcycle trails that are now restricted. We rode a spur out to Cougar Rock.

The view was amazing, looking down toward Sheep Ranch and Mountain Ranch to the west and north while taking in the Sierra to the east. Once back on the main Arnold Rim Trail, the play ended for a bit with two sweet pitches that left me struggling on my 34x18. Legs felt great, just my t-rex-like upper body was flailing! I obviously need to either:

1. go to the gym and lift; or
2. ride my SS mt bike more!!

It was sad...anyway, once up that pitch we climbed casually until we hit yet another pitch that had me hiking. Marja was spinning the granny and made her way up most of the climb

at the same speed I was hiking in the steeper pitches.

The rest of the trail was bombing single and double track! And if you hear anyone say its all downhill from Arnold to Avery on the ART, don't believe'em! Luckily I have fallen victim to such descriptions in the past so we knew better.

I found a little spur that was actually labeled "more difficult" so we thought, well really I thought, we should ride the tighter single rack and it will certainly meet up with either Sheep Ranch Road or the ART itself. This was my "abridged" navigation I learned from my adventure racing days. That was the joy of adventure racing, at least on the team I raced with, we flew by the seat of our pants and we always "got close." Marja, luckily, didn't really know that part!! Reality was I was almost right, and Marja reminded me of the third boundary we may hit and that was the town of Sheep Ranch 1500 to 2000 vertical feet below us.

Somehow my "you are absolutely right, that's a possibility, but...." didn't instill a lot of confidence so we hiked out. I think I redeemed myself by bush whacking and hitting the trail right where I said it would be - 10% skill, 95% luck!!

The remainder of the trail was a blast and we were able to ride a county road (dirt) back to a neighborhood across highway 4 from access to Marja's parents place. The ride totaled only 19 miles, but the 12 miles that included the ART had 3400 vertical feet of climbing. Once IMBA adds more trail either up toward Big Trees State Park or down the hill its only going to get better.

Post ride was fun too, we headed out with Marja's dad to shoot a little trap. The first year I joined them, Marja really made me look bad, she couldn't miss! This year I was on fire while Marja was streaky at best with the shot guns. Then Tim pulled out the 22 and said he wanted to try and hit the trap with the 22. He nailed one after several tries.

Next, I went for it and I swear I nicked one! But alas, nada. Talk about frustrating! Marja reloads the 22, and she missed with a few shots and then nails one. Ouch my Man-Card in question again....then she hits another with the 22. Looks like I have to wait until next year to get it back. Maybe I can go shoot throughout the year to get some practice, she won't know!!!???

Both of us hitting the target...

Pics of the day....

There needs to be more of these signs posted, EVERYWHERE ...say on all the trails between Downtown and Granite Bay? Remember:

bikes don't poop

...if you can tell me where I took this I will buy you coffee!

The new wheels....if you have to ask you obviously are not having enough fun in your life!!!!

Pave it Damn it!!

I need to be a little selfish here. I know I should be happy for the "greater good" here, but I have to admit I am sad.

Marja and I were riding our CX bikes on some single track/double track trails that wind along some old RR tracks to Camino from my house. Trails are very hard to come by in the 50 corridor, its mostly private property between here and Echo Summit. So the trails I pieced together from the house were great for the CX bikes.

As we got as high as Missouri Flat Road, as we waited to cross it, I noticed a parking lot where an old dirt lot used to sit, "Hmm, what the heck is that for?" I thought to myself.....

Well, as we rode across I noticed the single track trail was now a paved bike trail...wow, what a bummer that was! This section in particular was fun and it dumped you out on an old abandoned RR bridge that was exciting to ride across...now, its like a freeway overpass across Weber Creek . The pavement continued all the way to Forni road, what used to be well hidden single track.

So, yes, I feel guilty for being so bummed out seeing as maybe more people can walk/run/etc on trails in the 50 corridor, but why pavement? Well, at least the first 13 miles form the house is still predominantly dirt, and fun at that. My concern is that they will eventually pave all of it, part of "Rails to Trails".... here's the funny part, the equestrians are none too happy with the paving either! Wow, maybe we should have worked together to keep the trails dirt! Hmmm, there's a novel concept! A lesson for equestrians and MTBers alike!

Remember....

bikes don't poop

Cheers!

Don't think I ever posted this pic, dunno who took it. This was in the Collegiate National Championship Short Track at Northstar back in October....Marja just rode passed this group.... Its a cool pic! She ended up 15th in the nation in her first ever short track race.