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 !