Harbor high Peak Season

Stella, at home in the woods on her single speed. One race was not enough for Stella, even with a 2nd place finish in the womens 'A' race.......she entered and finished the one hour single speed event.
Alex Work finding the full hour 'A' race a tougher plate of cheese than the 'B' race. All the same, he made it the distance and represented well.

Big Dean was a star today always riding in the top ten and finishing a season best 4th place in the mens A catagory.

Tim Watson rode a strong race and finished the full hour 35 plus mens race in the top five.

A. K in full flight on the last lap.

A.K. rode a hard race and finished in the top ten helping his overall series placing.

Simonswig

Who is this man ? And did he really fix the 1918 world series ? Guess again, it's none other than our homeboy Simon with a fresh growth of " I don't like my razor any more" .

Drizzle and dampness couldn't wipe the smile off of punk-ass D.J. Snead's face.
All the best intentions cannot make the turntables work without the all important output cord.....good thing it wasn't a paying gig...at least not in money. Way too many chips, slices of pizza and beers were the bounty at this event.
But really, it's about riding together in the elements and finding a commonality in mud splattered fellowship.

Special 'no camera' report on CCCX

Batteries go dead sometimes,this was the case Sunday at the CCCX in fort Ord. The camera may have been a dud but our team was on fire as the early B mens race was won by a bunnyhopping Alex Work , recording his first ever win on a bike. Next up were the masters A group with Tim Watson riding to 8th place and Frank Kalcic finishing his first A race in 18th. Julie Borthers came away with a bronze medal in the womens 35 plus group. The mens A race saw a fired up Aaron Odell leading from the gun and running away from the locals despite two bike changes. Dean Poshard helped early on with some good blocking and came in 6th , one of his best finishes of the year. Ben Dodge rode to 10th in spite of a couple mechanicals. Nick Purtscher started fast and payed for it but still held on to a credible 14th place. With a big part of the team at the Nationals this weekend showed the depth of this team-capeable of dominating the local races even with the bulk of the team elsewhere.

Show me de money

The team had people on nearly every podium for the day and for the overall series. All in all the pilarcitos has been a tremendous success for the HRS/Rock Lobsters and with a few less injured racers we would have taken the team title for the second year. Inspite of numerous injuries and absences , the depth of the team showed as the overall series was won in the 45B mens catagory by Tom Fox and the Elite women by Sarah Kerlin.Josh Snead,Aaron Odell and Aaron Kereluk finished 2nd,3rd and 4th in the mens elite catagory for the series , not leaving much room for anyone else on the podium. Frank Kalcic (mens 35B)and Alex Work (mens B)both improved on thier respective G.C. placings to make the podium on the last day of the series. Everyone raced hard and really battled not just to hold onto thier rankings but to improve as much as possible.

Oh, yeah....the team !

We had a literal fleet of master's men at Portland. Here are the results for the Sat/Sun. races. Elite Masters 35 plus:Matt Jordan Sat: 24th, Sun. 21st. Max Clifford Sat:35th, Sun: 38th. Evan Adams Sat: 40th,Sun:60th. Obra master's 45 plus: Alan T. Ott: Sat: 18th, Sun: 19th. Paul Sadoff Sat:50th, Sun:38th ( really a DNF but I got credited anyway) Steven Itano: Sun: 31st. Elite UCI women; Sarah Kerlin : Sat:16th, Sun:15th. The stories of these individual races must be told by the racers themselves. From the outside I saw some really valiant efforts and serious testing of our squad. I believe we made a sizeable impression on the weekend's events.

Everything as it should be

Heading north to the ultimate shrine city of 'cross is always a trip into a strange world of people who go out to either race,watch or both in snow,hail, rain and/or hurricane force winds. All who went were given more than they bargained for as the snow fell on Saturday and created a slippery mess that formed into clumps of frozen wads of turf that tore off countless derailleurs and clogged bikes making a normally hard race even more painful. Sunday saw warmer tepmeratures and deep soupy mud that got deeper as the torrents of rain came unrelentingly the whole day. Gusts of wind in the afternoon blew tents skyward and them sent them smashing to the ground, all the while the war drums were beating as the battle on the course got more savage with each passing minute. Many strong riders were not up to the test , walking off in silent resignation.....all the while the drummers pounded until the tent they were under was starting to rip from it's moorings, forcing the drum corps to leave. Spectators normally happy to stand in the rain and wind fled for there cars during the elite events. Photographers ran around trying to capture every aspect of the experience from the muddy riders to the shivering spectators. This was Portland 2007.

when the cats away the lobsters will play

While some of the HRS RL team was in Icy wet Portland, the down homes went out and crushed the field at CCCX.
Aaron Odell takes another first and Josh Snead snags the runner up spot.
Stella Carey rode away from the rest and took another win.

Congrats.

Read more:

HRS Team coverage Bay Area Super Prestige #4 - Cyclingnews.com

Good write up of last weekends epic battle..
"Once again the top two lineups dominated the Elite Men's standings but this time HRS-Rock Lobster and lime green jersies were in heaven as Josh Snead squeezed out a two point victory from David Wyandt to earn the very 1st NCNCA Cup."

Read More

Congrats Josh Snead for taking 2007 NCNCA Cup!
Wyandt for taking 2nd and Odell for 3rd! What a Sweep!
For ladies Sarah Kerlin gets 2nd and Stella Carey 5th! (full results)

PB250340, originally uploaded by cyclofiend.

The coach goes east

Yes, folks. Julie and Farid are moving to Lyons, Colorado. We will now have a team memeber in the rockies. Farid is not only a photographer extrodinare but he headed the Junior developement program at Hellyer park velodrome for the last twelve years. Many national champions have come out of his program and a few are making their living as professional racers. We will really miss the both of them but fortunately Julie will be racing a few select races over the next two months locally.

Golden Gate showdown

The final NCNCA cup race proved to be a large event with a really high level of racing. Our elite men were out-gunned by the Cal Giant duo of Justin Robinson and Andy Jaques-Mayne. After a starting line fall, Dave Wyandt did the amazing feat of riding from the back of the field to catch the leaders , Josh,Aaron Odell, Justin and Andy only to watch Andy attack midway through the race. With no help coming from Justin and Aaron Odell fighting congestion from a cold there was no bringing back Andy. In the end Justin out powered the three but didn't keep them off the podium and Josh retained his lead in the NCNCA cup and took home a ........beer glass ! Aaron Kereluk placed 9th and moved up in the overall series standings.In the elite Women's race Sarah and Stella did all they could to catch a flying Rachel Lloyd. Stella used all her power and almost detatched herself from the field while up ahead Sarah maintaned a steady pursuit. Lat in the race, three riders who were glued to Stella's wheel jumped away and caught Sarah but in the last lap Sarah was able to re-distance herself and keep 2nd. Stella came in 6th after a really valiant and hard fought race. Alex Work managed a 9th place in the B men, the largest field of the day. Frank Kalcic not only rode a solid race but fired up the BBQ and fed many of the team. Thomas Fox rode a great race and retained his race-leaders jersey for the 45 B group.

The wolf strikes again

The peak season 'cross race might have been put on a weekend where some people decided to take a breather. This was not entirely the case in the mens A race as Andy Jaques-Mayne showed up .
Dave and Andy distanced themselves rapidly from the rest as fatigue ,bee stings and mechanicals were taking their toll.
With a few laps to go Dave took charge and it was all over.
Aaron Kereluk came in at 4th, his best result so far this season.Similarly, Stella didn't find much of a challenge in the womens A race and rode alone to the finish after a few laps taking her third victory of the season.
Tim Watson had a fine result in the 35 plus division with a top 3 finish.

CCCX 4

Images provided by Farid A. Abraham, the Ansel Adams of cyclocross photography.....at least in my opinion.

Odell wins a race ?

Yes, the man showed that when he has an open course in front of him he can turn it on.
From the second lap on Odell rode a solo race with his two team mates Josh and Dave keeping tabs on mr. Robinson.
It all turned out great for Aaron as his lead shot up after the effective blocking of his team mates.With Aaron's win today it looks like the top three places in the NCNCA cup are HRS/Rock Lobster riders.

Sarah and Stella rode a tough race and went 2nd and 4th with a large elite women's field behind them. Stella re-inforced her second place in the NCNCA cup and Sarah climbed up in the standings as well today.

Tom Fox scored a 7th place in his first 45 A race.
Tim Watson rode strong and finished 7th in the 35 A group.
Alex Work continued his consistent performance in the B category finishing 4th and keeping at the top of the overall series standings.

Pictures of pain

MacLaren bumpy ride

This race was full of flat tires and all sorts of mayhem. Almost everyone had some sort of mechanical work needed either before or during the race. Nevertheless the team really performed as strong as ever and further cemented it's command of the team classification. IT was a race that humbled many riders who had success elsewhere only to be dispatched to the rear of the field.

In the elite races we had two on each podium with Dave Wyandt and Josh Snead 2nd and 3rd, Sarah Kerlin winning and Stella Carey 3rd. Alex Work narrowly missed the podium in a huge B field finishing 6th. Tim Watson and Frank Kalcic both looked good in thier respective masters races while Max Clifford suffered a puncture that spoiled an otherwise good performance. Matt Jordan suffered mightily as did Jeff Patton and Will Longstreth to finish on the bumpy demanding course while Michael Hernandez and Aaron Kereluk smiled while doing their laps.......incredible. Although I didn't get a picture of him, Thomas Fox won his 45+ B event going 3 for 3 in this year's series....seems he's just about got it locked up

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