Sunday, September 28, 2014

BASP I Candlestick Point

Nothing beats racing in a landfill with all sorts of tire-shredding debris all over the course and parking area. There were to be some badly timed flats for a few folks on this day. Ariel Raymon made it through the race without such bad luck and got 22nd in the Women's A race/
 Ellen Sherrill overcame a rocky start to finish on the podium in the Women's A race in 5th with Campbell Steers riding from a poor starting position up to 10th and Kelly Chang finishing in 13th.


 In the Men's A race Max Judelson would race near the front to crack the top ten in 9th.
Zac Stanley would have his hands full in his first race of the season but still finished in 40th.
 Brendan Lehman wound up riding strongly in the last laps to finish 27th with Kailin Waterman following in 29th and Ian Stowe coming in 30th.
 Alex work had his race bike seriously damaged on the way to the race by a deer hitting his truck and had to ride the A race on his single speed. Despite this and several crashes he finished in 25th place.
What we will never know is how Scott Chapin would have finished if not for an ill timed flat far from the pits. He was in the leading trio and looking like the strongest rider on the day. He would up coming in at 13th.

Monday, September 15, 2014

CCCX II Ft. Ord 09-13-14

This course was all about speed. There were no real hills , just a couple of run-ups and two sets of barriers. This made for some really fast and risky racing with a few folks being victims of the loose and sandy corners. Early in the day, Benoit Dubuisson rode a solid race in the single speed B category to get 3rd.Michael Schaller rode to 15th in the mens 45 B race in a big field. Matt Garcia improved on last weeks crash fest by staying upright and coming in 9th in the open mens B race.
Michelle Perez fought hard in a closely contended womens 45+ race and landed a podium spot in 3rd. Campbell Steers was near the front in the womens A race when an early crash took her to the back. She fought her way back to 6th, just a handful of seconds from the podium.
Rick  Ortenblad and myself had no crashes in the mens 55+ race and finished 4th and 5th .
 The mens A race was a fairly large field and we had five of our best entered . The start saw a repeat of last week with Alex Work leading out the field and later causing a split of 5-6 riders to pull away from the rest of the field. In that lead group were Scott Chapin and team newcomer Max Judelson.
 Alex stayed in front for more than half the race until another separation caused by an attack from Scott Chapin reduced the lead group to three. Alex and Max would ride together to the finish and not get caught by riders behind. Scott rode at the front and would wind up finishing a very close second.....two seconds behind the leader. Alex was 4th, Max was 5th. Kailin Waterman got a bad start but fought up to 9th with a very strong race. Brendan Lehman followed in 12th place , not liking the absence of hills but still staying on the lead lap. Ian Stowe in the mens single speed A race suffered with too small a gear but still came in 7th.

 Boston Transplant Max Judelson gets his introduction to local CCCX racing and finished on the podium.
 Max and Alex were only a few feet apart at the finish.
Kailin Waterman riding strong on the day with an elite top-ten finish.
 Three out of five podium spots in the mens A race were covered by our team-a great result.
Brendan Lehman near the end of a fast dry race-next week will be the deep sand of CSUMB.

Monday, September 08, 2014

Season opening weekend CCCX Ft. Ord Sept. 7th

 Just like last year the team started off with some great results in the opening weekend. Fort Ord is a dry fast course with some really loose sandy corners and that feature would effect the placings in every event. First person to get on the podium from the team was Benoit Dubuisson-second place in the single speed B race followed by Craig Ball in 8th. Matt Garcia had numerous crashes but still managed 6th in the open B race with Michael Schaller coming in 11th in the mens 45 B race. In the photo above Mark Michel did his first race for the team and finished on the podium in 4th in the 55+ mens race followed by Rick Ortenblad in 7th and me in 8th.
 Alexis De Zubria raced hard and finished 3rd in the womens B race. Michelle Perez had some early setbacks in the womens 45+ race but fought back to a second place.

 Campbell Steers debut on the team was promising with a fifth place finish in the womens elite race in a really top tier field.
Michelle Perez won this category last year and she is off to a good start or 2014.
Lexi is looking to improve on what was a very good performance last year.
Alex Work led out the mens elite race for the first few laps eventually finishing 4th and on the podium.
Kailin Waterman rode well despite having raced the day before in 95 degree heat. He would finish 8th in the elite race.
 Missing most of last season with a knee injury Brendan ' Shreddloxx' Lehman nearly made the podium finishing 6th in the elite race.
As always, Scott Chapin was a major animator of the race and went on to finish second in the elite race. Ben Dodge did double duty racing in the 35 A mens race ( 8th) and the elite race (11th).Dean Poshard did his first race in years and finished 14th in the elite race.
Newcomer to the team Ian Stowe finished 3rd in the elite single speed race with strong riding from the gun. Ian will be joining the elite riders on the team in upcoming weeks.
We brought 14 riders to this event and were a major presence . In the future weeks the team will be even more numerous at the races. There's a lot of depth to this team every year.