I went on a great Marin Headlands loop today with Dan. The weather decided to play nice and the conditions were great. Wet with some standing water but you just ended up muddy not cold. The ride went better than a week ago in "storm warning" weather. I like this ride, about 2 hrs with 4 solid climbs and the desent on Old Springs Trail is awsome. I had to post a pic of the single speed. This is one trick bike, I can feel the Mojo returning with every ride. If you have been thinking about a single speed do it-

I guess it's true.... If it doen't kill you.... you do get stronger ;)

Another GGP Picture

This is a cool picture. I'm chasing David Widmark towards the end of the race. We were going back and forth for the last few laps with Dave getting the better of me at the finish. Shizer!

I just got some great pics from the Golden Gate Park race. This is the start of the "B" race. From left to right: the Ritchey boy's Dave, Isaias, and Tim. Then, Chris in the background, Channing, myself... and Robert off to the right. What a race! Is there any better venue than GGP?  

Januray 1st San Bruno Hill Climb

New Years Day and the San Bruno Hill Climb are right around the corner. I have wanted to do this race for the last 2 years and haven't yet made it out there. I was looking up the times from last year. The course is only 3.5 miles long with gradents starting at 7-8% then pitching up to 10% for the finish. Winning times last year: Cat 1/2- 15:24(13.6mph) / Cat 3- 16:46(12.5 mph) / Cat 4- 16:21(12.8 mph) What does all this mean? I dunno.... If I don't stay out to late I might just make it this year. Even if I'm still in party mode :)

Ya never know...........

http://www.peninsulavelo.org/sbhc/2006_sbhc_ad.html

I was going through pictures from 2004 and came across a pic of my first ever Cyclocross race. This was the Golden Gate Park event. I borrowed Brandon's mtb, got out there and had a great time. Unlike this year the weather was perfect. Cool and tacky conditions....... 

Not quite a CX race but.....

Well at 6:45 am this morning Geoff called me and we agreed to pass on the 2 hr drive to Monterey in storm warning weather. I was disappointed to miss the CCCX race but it was to much to deal with. Neither Geoff nor I were in any points race so, no go.....

I went back to sleep but I was a little pissed about missing the race. I wanted to get in a ride. Well... rain isn't going to keep me from riding so I decided to pull out the single speed mtb and hit the Marin headlands solo. Going over the Golden Gate Bridge I was getting blown around a lot. I started thinking maybe it wasn't a good idea to be out. Pish- Posh!

I got up to the first bend on the pavement climb where it is normally windy, turned the corner and WHAM! I almost got blown over. I had to pull off the road and re-think the ride.

Not to be denied my ride, I waited a few minutes till the wind died down a bit and took off up the remainder of the climb. Phew... I made it to the junction that drops into the valley, where the wind would not be such a factor.

It was great. Nobody else was out and I had the trail to myself. Climbing up Miwok my legs were feeling pretty shredded from yesterdays' race and I had to take it pretty slow, but managed and dropped down Old Springs Rd. to Tennessee Valley. From there I decided to spin the road home. I was really hungry by this point and ate everything I had brought with me. On the way home I stopped at Starbucks for a doppio esspresso and a muffin. Yum! Then labored the rest of the way home.

This was as good a replacement for the CCCX race as I could imagine. Extreme conditions (rain and wind) 40Km ride with 3 solid climbs, in 2 hrs w/ an avg speed of 13 mph. I was happy it wasn't to cold. I'm tired but feel better about missing the race......

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right ?

East Bay Cyclocross Livermore

Race Report: East Bay CX Series #2

Date: 12/17/05
Course: Livermore Rodeo Grounds. About 2.5 Km. No pavement at all, some gravel roads, dirt, grass, sand and even mud! Oh and the 30+ stadium stair run!
Category: “B” Class
Field: 20
Teammate: Chris L.
Place: 3rd

This was the second and final race for the East Bay series (Velo Promo). I had a solid week with a great single speed mtb ride with Dan and Greg on Wed. in the Marin headlands. Tue. and Thurs. rest and on Friday I did some jumps on the rollers. I felt ok but I never really know how I’m going to feel until I do some jumps on the course in the a.m. warm-up. Today I felt pretty good and thought I might have a good race.

I rode over with Geoff from Squdera and we arrived with time to recon the course. They changed the route substainually from last year. All the long open “road” sections were basically cut in half. The barriers, the stair run, and the rodeo ring were pretty much the same. I ran into Chris (to my surprise) I didn’t know he was racing and spoke with him for a minute and continued my warm-up.

I got a sweet front row start (no call ups) and were’re off. I had a bit of trouble getting my foot clipped in but managed to slot into 4th wheel and planned to sit in and ride it like a crit unless situations arose to change the plan. On the 2nd lap Chris attacked from behind over the backside barrier section while I was in 2-3? place. Nobody could chase so I jumped the gap up to him and the 2 of us with a hanger-on started to gap the field. After some timetrialing, around the 3rd lap or so we had a large advantage and I was feeling good. I was stoked, we had the advantage and the 3rd wheel in the group seemed to be having a hard time on the barriers. I knew I was going well on the remounts and started to think about race winning moves. I asked Chris if he was feeling good and could attack, but he motioned no, so I figured we would just sit in at tempo and run down the laps. Right then I noticed I had something loose on the bike and looked down to see my front wheel skewer flipped open! I managed to reach down and close it but it didn’t feel tight and was concerned it would loosen again. Well somewhere on lap 4 while I’m sitting behind the unknown rider it came loose again and I was looking for a good place to pull over and tighten it up. We came around onto the long backstretch and I HAD to pull over. As I was tightening up my wheel (with my frozen hands) Chris zipped by and I tried to get up to speed and latch on, but having to stop took the wind out of my sails and when I looked up I was down by like 400 meters or more on 1st … 300 to Chris. Dam, I couldn’t believe I’d forgot to tighten my wheel when I switched’em out last night. I was just happy it didn’t fly off and put me on my head so I tried to catch up. Well by this time the light rain we had after the first lap now had picked up and it was a “real” CX race! So I put my head down and tried to close…..

I wound up 3rd and can’t complain. I rode a good race and Chris finished in 2nd, I was strong over the barriers, up the stair run and generally felt better. I was having a little bit of a hard time with my right foot not clipping in, but it was later reviled that a lot of sand had jammed up on the cleat and that doesn’t work to good! I was disappointed to see Geoff on the sidelines yelling at me. He broke a spoke on the first lap :(

I’m not sure where I placed in the overall. They were going to group all B’s together for the overall. Masters, Jr’s, Women B, etc….. I’ll find out later, they will mail anything I might have won. They had payouts down to 6th…..I might be getting something, maybe not……

Well, I need to get to sleep. CCCX on Sunday, stay tuned…………………..

Well this weekend It's back to Livermore for the final round? of the East Bay series on Saturday. I won round #1 at the Army training center so I will be giving it my all to make ammends for the sub-par performance I felt was put in at Coyote Pt. The venue has the ever so tough stadium stairs and a lot of barriers, if anything like last year. The pic is from last year, my 4th ever CX race and the first race on my then "new" Bianchi. I raced the C's and got 4th it was a good race for me.

Then Sunday it's off to CCCX #5 in Ft Ord. I haven't gotten my ass down to any CCCX races this year and I look forward to checking out how they do it "down south" See ya'll there !

Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige "Pro"B's Final podium 12/04/05. (1)Robert M, (2)David S, (3)Eric N, (4)Max S, (5)Nick H (6)Brian R, (7)Sean C, (8)Jim M, (9) Logan L, (10)James N 

BASP Round 3 and 4 race report

Race Report: BASP #3 and #4

Date: 12/3~12/4
Course: Coyote Point both days in opposing directions.
Category: “B” Class
Field: 30 on both days
Teammate: None but Josh rode in the C class
Place: Sat. 10th /////Sun. 9th Finishing 5th overall for the series.
Overall Results: http://www.pilarcitos.com/2005crossGC_4.htm


Sat. BASP #3

The course at Coyote Pt. is my favorite so far of any of the other races I have done. It has tight tricky parts, long road parts and a few very challenging barriers.

I got there early and did about 50 min of warm-up on the course. I felt ok, but after a week of taking it pretty easy I was a little concerned that I might not have done enough high intensity workouts before the race. To late to worry about it now, so I tried to focus on a good start and staying in the front.

I got my front row call up and at the whistle I got a poor start. I was pinched in, had some trouble getting my foot clipped in and got a little pissed off. So I popped out from the side of the group and sprinted around a lot or guys and slotted into 3rd wheel going up the hill with 3 barriers on top. I tried to dismount and my shoe was sticking in the pedal and I almost fell over! Feeling a little out of breath and worried about my cleats I remounted and continued the chase. I managed to hang on to the front group for the first lap and slowly faded, losing spots till the end and finishing in 10th.

I felt ok but I just could not push anything smaller than the 15 on the flats with any authority. I knew I had made a mistake not getting the “opener” on Friday before the race. I did the best I could and looked forward to Sunday. I usually go better after a race or hard workout so I figured maybe Sunday I would have some extra oomph J

The 10th place dropped me from 3rd to 5th so I would need something special to move back up in the overall…….


Sun. BASP #4 Final (Double Points)


After returning home Sat. I was not to happy with the performance of my Crank Bros pedals and switched back to my trusty Time ATAC pedals, washed my bike and did some minor adjustments. Overall the bike was working fine.

I woke up feeling a little stiff but not to shabby. I decided to run for 20 minutes to clear out the garbage left in the system and I felt way better afterwards. I ate some granola got some coffee and picked up Channing to head down to the race.

The course was run in reversed direction than Sat and I liked the layout quite a bit more. The only bummer was the sand run they use only on Sunday, was not the same as last year due to beach erosion. I warmed up on the course keeping the HR low and not overworking myself. I felt a lot better than Sat and thought I might be able to hang in if I got a good start. I got the front row call up and at the whistle I nailed the start perfect! I was slotted in 3rd wheel and planned to just stay with Robert and Logan who seemed to be on great form and placed 1-2 yesterday. At the top of the first climb I attacked at the parking lot and wanted to be first into the tricky tree section. I was going well and started to string out the group a little. Heading down towards the sand run I washed my front wheel and I lost the lead but managed to stay with Robert and Logan for 2 laps until I started to fade with the same issues as Sat. but not as bad. I fell to what was 7th place and knew I could finish there. I had a gap to the chasers behind and I was about the same speed as the 2 guys in front with a lap to go it was all about brining it home smooth.

On the last ½ of the last lap coming down the very bumpy downhill leading to the sand run I dropped my chain! The chain had gotten stuck between the chain catcher and the chain ring and I lost a place getting it back on. Off I go and into the sand and the chain dropped again! Another place lost. I got through the sand run and knew I had to make it to the pavement with my chain or I was going to lose more places. I managed to do so and finished 9th. (If I had finished in 7th I would have had 4th overall) so that was a little bit of a bummer but on the whole a much better race than Sat.

I was only down 40~ sec on the leader (when running in 7th) as opposed to 1:53 on Sat! Gotta get those “openers” before race day. I felt pretty good on Monday. I wish we had a few more races to do! I have to wait another 2 weeks for the East Bay final and CCCX race but will be much better prepared. In the end nothing beats racing to train for racing. I know I missed out on at least 3-4 races that the rest of the guys in the top 5 did make it too and it showed……

Well the season is over for some guys but not me. I have about 3 more CX races planned and then the Criteriums start in early Jan. Special thanks to Channing for loaning me his car on Sat, coming down on Sunday, and to Dad for trekking out to cheer on both days!


Nick Hanni Fusion Sport VP Director of Men’s Cycling

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Laffette Crit 2005

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