LACX

This just happened: Carter of Memphis ordered a bike. The bike got delayed by UPS and didn't arrive until today. He assembled it and got to his start at LACX in the single speed race with only 30 min. to spare. He won the race on his new bike......now that's a good test ride !

Rock Lobster cup III Cowboy loop, Wilder Ranch

The third edition of the team race was a big success- the volunteers killed it, the sponsors killed it, the spectators  showed up and most of all, the participants made it a great day. The race sold out nearly a week before race day. Our course setup day went smoother than in the past and the State Parks rangers were pretty happy with how things turned out at the end of the event.

Hand made medals from Campbell Steers and Alex Work-enough Clif bars for nearly everyone  on every podium ( and that's a lot of people !) some hand made trophies for the elite races and the relay race made by Jeff Traugott......it was the local flavor and energy that made it a great race.

 The hand made banner from Rick Ortenblad with the race sponsors logos gave the podium a real official look and showed all the people there who in the industry who made the race possible. The bumpy challenging course with nearly 300' of climbing per lap and two water crossings will no doubt become something of legend in the history of Santa Cruz cyclocross.

With racers coming from as far away as Los Angeles and Sacramento, this was not just a locals only show. The fields were pretty large and the women's turnout was bolstered by the free entry feature instituted by the masters of ceremony, Brendan Lehman. Women represented nearly 25% of the total participants.

Free massage was available for the battered racers after their laps. Two DJ's were on the course entertaining the racers and spectators alike.

 Here are the team placings:
Junior boys 10-14:  Nathan Vahlberg 1st, Dan English 2nd, Matt Tomkins 4th.
Junior boys 15-17:  Dylan Gong 1st, Brian Kalcic 2nd, Connor Kredo-Brown 3rd.
Junior girls 10-14:  Shantalle Tupaz 1st, Grace Kredo-Brown 3rd.

Masters 65+: Brent Harris 2nd, Mark Brown 3rd.
Masters 55+: Greg Foy 4th.
Womens B : Ciara Wing 4th.
Mens single speed B: Phillip Sims 5th, Scott Junker 7th.
Mens B: Carter Chappelle 10th, Kyle Taylor 13th.

Men single speed A: Ian Stowe 3rd, Chris Seymour 7th.
Womens single speed : Campbell Steers 1st.
Womens A: Caroline Nolan 1st, Amanda Schaper 4th.

Mens A: Max Judelson 6th, Noah Hayes 8th, Emmet Tuttle 14th.

 After having a different venue each year it is looking like the Cowboy Loop might become the home of future Rock Lobster cup races. The Parks seem good with it and judging by the day, the participants feel the same way. This race is not just a fund raiser for the elite team but also brings around $ 5,000 to the State Parks and some money to MBOSC. I hope that you can be there next year if you didn't make it this time.

Surf City CX !

Just a preview of the festivities.

West Sacramento Gran Prix

There's only going to be one UCI weekend in Nor-Cal and this was it-lots of racing over the two days. There are UCI points at stake  in the elite fields so the fields were high quality. For the non-elite racers USAC points were of value for seeding at the nationals. This made each race fast and each field huge.

Day 1: Juniors started the day in the early morning.
Boys 9-14:Nate Vahlberg 3rd, Dan English 5th, Mac Tomkins 10th.
Boys 15-18: Brian Kalcic 5th, Conner Kredo-Brown 7th.
Girls 9-14: Grace Kredo-Brown 3rd , Shantalle Tupaz 7th.
Girls 15-18: Ciara Wing 1st.

In the men's 35 C race Carter Chappelle got 2nd . In the 45 C Ben Tomkins got 22nd.

In the women's A field Sarah Jordan got 8th.

Men's open B race: Max McFadden 2nd, Emmet Tuttle 3rd, Noah Hayes 10th ( they are all juniors) Damien McFadden 29th, Kyle Taylor 38th, Carter Chappelle 40th, Brian Kalcic 50th.

Men's A race: Ben Dodge 13th
35+A men: Ken Dick 5th.
55+ men : Paul Sadoff 37th.
Single speed men: Rick Ortenblad 20th, Eric Nelson 39th.  

In the Elite UCI Women's race Caroline Nolan crashed out, Campbell Steers came in 26th, Mary Maroon came in 28th.
In the Elite UCI men's race Max Judelson was in the points at 9th, Andrew Juiliano had two bad crashes but still finished at 25th, Brendan Lehman hit a tree but still came in 28th,Kailin Waterman finished at 40th with Dean Poshard finishing 52nd.

Day 2: The second day saw some great racing from the team again.

Girls 9-14: Grace Kredo-Brown 2nd, Shantalle Tupaz 3rd.
Boys 9-14 : Nate Vahlberg 3rd, Dan English 5th, Mac Tomkins 10th, Ayden Uusitalo 12th,Cullen Keefe 14th.
Boys 15-18: Dylan Gong 5th, Brian Kalcic 8th, Conner Kredo-Brown 10th.
Men's open C: Dylan Gong 1st.
Men's 45 C: Ben Tomkins 19th.

Men's open B: Kyle Taylor 23rd, Dylan Gong 45th.
Men's 35 B: Carter Chappelle 9th.

Single speed men: Ian Stowe 11th, Eric Nelson 12th, Rick Ortenblad 21st.
Singlespeed women : Mary Maroon 1st, Mei Peters 3rd.

Men's 55+: Greg Foy 5th, Paul Sadoff 28th.

Men's 35 A: Ken Dick 3rd, Ben Dodge 13th.
Men's 45 A: John Vahlberg 30th.

 Here's the single speed trophy won by Mary Maroon-something to remember the weekend with.

 Day 2 would see our UCI elite women fare better than day 1. Caroline Nolan bounced back from the previous days crash to ride to 7th and some UCI points. Campbell Steers had a strong race coming in at 17th. Mary Maroon doubled up and finished 33rd.

 In the men's UCI race Andrew Juiliano decided that the previous days injuries would keep him out of the day 2 race. Max Judelson rode another strong race finishing at 11th. Brendan Lehman had a breakthrough performance finishing 16th. Kailin Waterman came in 43rd. Dean Poshard was taken out by a crash.

 Brendan Lehman on day 2 in full flight. Below, Kailin Waterman also rides in the UCI race.

 A great showing from a great team. We are looking forward to more weekends like this where we can represent for the sponsors and the bay area.

CCCX V Manzanita Park

 A hot day greeted us at the race course so the Chardonnay came out of the ice chest in the heat of the dusty afternoon. The team showed up in force and continued the tradition of strong performances at CCCX. Hard to believe that it has been 13 years since the team was formed. Names have changed over the years but the same vibe still exists-race your bike, empty the tank-have a good time and represent. That's what we do-if we are having a good time than everyone in attendance will notice that what we bring is a very positive energy to a very competitive sport.

 Early in the morning the juniors shredded like the have been all season long.
Boys 10-14:
Nathan Vahlberg 1st.
Dan English        2nd.
Boys 15-18
Dylan Gong         1st.
Nathan Horst       4th.
Manny Offonso II 7th.

Girls 10-14:
Shantalle Tupaz    3rd.
Girls 15-18:
Ciara Wing            1st.

 In the B mens Rick Ortenblad got 5th in the single speed race .

The 35 + A men saw some great riding from Ben Dodge who came in 3rd. Ken Dick is showing some speed as well , coming in 6th.
In the men's 45+ A race John Vahlberg continues his solitary journey coming in 27th. This season he's our only 45+ rider so I hope that he doesn't get too lonely out there.
In the mens 55+ A race it's the Greg Foy show again with another win. Detlef Adam had a great race coming in 4th with a podium.
In the 60+ A race we had a trio of riders with me in 4th, Rick Ortenblad doubling up in 7th and Mark Brown in 8th.

I the women's races we had some great rides with Sarah Jordan coming in 6th in the elite race, Ciara Wing doubling up in the B race coming in 4th and Kathleen Bortolussi winning the 45+ and getting a bottle of wine for her efforts.

 The men's elite field was large again with over 30 racers. We had 5 from our team with riders present in all parts of the dusty peloton.
Max is back !  Max Judelson in his second race of the season showed why he is one of Nor-Cal's most strongest coming in 2nd. Kailin Waterman might be nearing 40 years old but he rides like one of the youngsters-he came in 16th. Eric Nelson improved greatly from last week to come in 24th followed by Ben Dodge in 26th and Eric Brown in 30th.

We are now about 1/2 way into the season and already the team has had much success. We owe much of that to our great sponsors-at this race we distributed the goods from Bob's Red Mill that will feed the team for the rest of the season and beyond. Clif Bar has provided us with great pre-race energy food. The Chardonnay ? Well, that just fell out the back of a truck-or something like that.

CCCX IV Manzanita park

This edition of CCCX was a very fast, dry course with some  fairly large fields. Our team was arguably the largest at the race with riders in nearly every category. The early races were dominated by our juniors.
Boys 10-14: Nathan Vahlberg 1st.
                     Dan English 2nd.
Boys 15-18: Nathan Horst 2nd.
                     Brian Kalcic 3rd
                    Manny Offonso II  4th.
Junior girls 10-14:
                    Grace Kredo Brown 1st.
                    15-18
                    Maya Fors      1st.

In the mens B open race some of the juniors decided to participate with some impressive riding.
Max McFadden  1st.
Emmet Tuttle     3rd.
Caleb O'Hare     7th
Nathan Vahlberg 21st.
Dan English        22nd.
Kyle Taylor DNF'ed with a mechanical

 Our women's team was equally impressive with Campbell Steers coming in 4th in the elite race followed by Allison Peck in 7th.
Eleanor Mendoza crashed out of the B field while in the top-5.
Kathleen Bortolussi looks to have the 45+ sewn up with a win .

 In the master's men we are lucky to have some really solid riders. In the 45+ A field John Vahlberg continues to improve coming in 25th in the largest field of the day.
Greg foy is very much the man setting the pace in the 55+ A race with another win. Detlef Adam continues to solidify his overall podium spot with an 8th place.
In the 60+ I had a decent ride coming in 5th with Mark Brown coming in 7th.

The 35 A race had no less than 3 of our riders with Kailin Waterman leading the charge in 7th, Ken Dick in 8th and Ben Dodge in 10th. This was another very large field.

There was a good sized single speed A field and Ian Stowe was always in the action finishing a strong 4th with Kailin Waterman doubling up and still coming in 9th.

The men's Elite race was a real breakthrough for Brendan Lehman. He led the race in a small group that got smaller as the race went on. Brendan pretty much pulled pace until two laps to go. He still finished 3rd, his best showing in at least 5 seasons of racing CCCX. Max Judelson's debut race was this day and he finished 10th in the large field followed by juniors Max McFadden in 17th, Emmet Tuttle in 23rd. Eric Brown continues to ride strong at CCCX with a 26th place followed by junior Caleb O'Hare in 31st and Eric Nelson in 32nd.

History in the making !

Yes, this is our home race that the team will put on for the third year in a row-the Rock Lobster cup III at Wilder Ranch, Santa Cruz, Calif. go to bikereg.com and sign up or just get to Wilder on Sunday the 22nd. to check out the festivities. It will be a really challenging loop with 288 feet of climbing per lap. You'll have to bring your 'A' game for this one-the ground is really bumpy and descent is sketchy-all the things that make for a great race. Hope to see you there !

CCCX roundup races II & III

 CCCX II was a hot and dusty affair-for some reason I did not get many photos of the day but there was a lot to be happy about.
Starting with the Junior boys, Nate Vahlberg and Dan English continue their dominance going 1st and second.
Manny Affonso got a podium with a 5th place in the junior boys 15-18
Lindsay Schmidt won her class in the junior girls 15-18.

In the master men John Vahlberg got 20th in the 45 A race.
In the 55 A race Greg Foy showed that he is the man making the pace with another win. Detlef Adam got a podium at 5th.
In the mens's 60+ I was able to squeek onto the podium at 5th and Mark Brown came in at 7th.
In the women's A race Campbell Steers rode to an impressive 4th in spite of just flying back from China a couple of days before.

 The Men's A race was a huge turnout.  Brendan Lehman got a great start but was very jet lagged and had to pull out of the race after a few laps. We still had representation with Eric Brown coming in 15th, Kailin Waterman in 16th , and Ben Dodge doing his second race coming in 17th.

 CCCX III was not as hot or dusty but it was typical bumpy and dry early season Nor-Cal cyclocross.
The racing was tough and the fields were pretty big.We had a lot more representation at this race than the week before.

 The juniors stared the day with some great racing.
In the boy's 10-14 we had a mob with Nate Vahlberg in 2nd, Dan English in 3rd, Coleman Renfro at 5th and McEwan Tomkins at 7th.
In the boy's 15-18 Manny Affonso had a great race finishing in 2nd with Peter Vahlberg coming in 6th.
In the girl's 10-14 Brook Horvai rode to 2nd and Ciara Wing had a win in the girl's 15-18.

 In the women's A race Campbell Steers got on the podium in 5th with Sarah Jordan coming in 8th.
In the women's B race, new addition to the team Eleanor Mendoza came in 2nd with Ciara Wing coming in 5th.

 The open B men's race also saw a new addition to the team-Kyle Taylor came in 11th in a very large field.
In the 45 B race Michael Schaller also got 11th.
The Masters A men also saw some great results with Ben Dodge leading the charge in the 35+ coming in 5th.
In the 45 A race John Vahlberg came in 22nd.
In the 55 A race Greg foy and Detlef Adam continued with their podium performances with Greg in 2nd and Detlef in 5th.
in the 60 + I just made the podium in 5th.