Pilarcitos II Coyote Point

Sundays race was a twisty, loose dirt power-sucking contest that really demanded a lot from every rider. The course was perched up on the hill at the park.....formerly just a short feature in previous races , it now contained the entire lap. Crashes and flat tires were common. Sean Coffey suffered a flat in the A single speed race, Matt Jordan as well in the elite men's race but the most noteable flat was on Scott Chapin's bike while he was getting a good gap on the elite mens fieldIn spite of losing a lot of time he rode back up to 10th place. With Don Myrah driving the pace at the front , there was little chance for anyone to get away but with about four laps remaining, Josh Snead escaped and stayed away until the finish with Dave Wyandt and Chris McGovern getting 3rd and 4th.Aaron Odell and Aaron Kereluk were also in the top eleven. Once again, the teams depth made it possible. In the Womens elite race Jill Fattor showed that she can really excel in the twisty loose dirt , barely missing a podium spot at 6th , with Sarah Kerlin and Stella Carey 7th and 8th . The very best on the west coast were there driving the tempo but they never got too far from our top three. Ryan and I were kept busy in the pits and at the repair stand-it seemed like a good number of the bikes were new and weren't fully dialed in. Kathleen Bortolussi made it to the podium with a strong 2nd place in the 35+ division and Tim Watson had a high (3rd)finish in the mens 35+A. Brett Lambert was 4th, hampered by a rider who twice t-boned him in the early part of his 45+ A race. Jeff Traugott rode to an excellent 10th in a very competetive 45+ B race, maintaining his top-10 overall position.

CCCX III Toro Park

Toro Park near Laguna Seca posesses one of the steeper paved climbs in Nor-Cal cyclocross and the climb proved to be decisive. Folks who raced the previous day in Fairfax for the most part suffered today , but there were a few exceptions. Scott Chapin went to the front and battled with the Cal Giant duo of Justin Robinson and Cody Kaiser. Scott wound up second to Cody but did outlast Justin while Josh Snead finished 4th after the previous days win and Kevin Crossley in only his second elite race finished 7th after passing most of the field. The Saturday race didn't seem to blunt the sprint of Brett Lambert for his win in the 45 A group.....his third win in a row. If not for a last lap spill our own Jeff Traugott would have gotten a medal today-maybe next time !

Stella Carey rode to a strong 3rd in the elite wones race while Jill Fattor finished just off the podium in 4th.
Sarah Kerlin was feeling the pain from the previous day but still managed 6th.

Kathleen Bortolussi proved that she is perhaps the fastest 35+ woman in the series and continued her winning ways.

Erin Dunn wound up on the podium as well in the womens B division after a strong ride.Sean Coffey rode to 4th place in the single speed A division , narrowly missing a podium spot.

Rock Lobster Race Headquarters @ Surf City #1

We definitely have a strong presence at every race we attend. Great job everyone! See you next weekend.

Timmy!

And More Pics of Surf City #1 (Soquel High)

More Pics of Surf City #1 (Soquel High)

Surf City #1 Pics (Soquel High)

Here's some photos courtesy of Timmy!

Madison USGP

Photo from Nikki. The first two rounds of the USGP were in Madison Wisconsin this year and everything seemed to be coming together for a great race weekend. Matt and Sarah were in town, the ground was wet and it was everything a big time race could offer with the home town feel.

Saturday, as much as I was hoping to ride the wave of a good performance in Vegas, did not go as well as I had hoped. After a good start and riding with the group of guys I had hoped to be with, a rider washed out in front of me in a corner. It threw me through the tape and onto my back. As I gasped for air and listened to the announcer, I knew there was no way for me to get back into the race and be competitive. I called it quits and went and heckled the guys on the run up.

Sunday was a new day and I had an hour less of racing in my legs than everyone else, so I was excited for the day of racing. At this point my goal for the day had become as little as not falling over and as the rain rolled in 15 minutes before start time, even that was looking slim. I'll take falling over in the rain over a parched course any day though. My start position did not change too much and as the rain cleared we were rolling into the coral.

My start was once again pretty good, and by the time I was rolling through the barriers, I had somehow made it even better. Anytime I am on Justin Robinsons' wheel I feel like I am in good shape. I was once again in the group I was hoping to be riding with. And then I slid out in the 180 out of the pit row, lost that group and sat in no man's land for the majority of the race. But, when the announcer broadcasts about your fall, it is kind of a clue that you are doing well. For a couple of laps I gave high fives as I rode the steep hill out of the hairpin turn. That was pretty fun.

I battled it out with a few guys for a long time, but for the most part it was just steady riding. As the laps came down, the leaders were catching up. With three to go, I didn't think I had much of a chance, but when I rolled onto two to go, I knew that if I pushed as hard as I could, I would be able to fight for the lead lap. So again, I was making a first lap effort to make it onto the lead lap and it paid off. Rolling across the line for 33rd.

A weekend of racing back in Chicago before I head down to Cincinnati for a crazy weekend of UCI racing.

Mc'G' in the lead

Chris McGovern was in front the whole hour of the race battling Don Myrah. It was an epic battle complicated by the many lapped riders causing traffic in the closing laps.

Pilarcitos I Mclaren park

Here are some start line photos that I took. Of course, the results of the race have been slow in getting sorted out but from what I knew, Stella Carey got 3rd in the womens A race and we had Michelle Perez in 4th in the womens 35+, Kathleen Bortolussi 2nd and Jay Melina 4th in the womens B race. Jill Fattor was 6th in womens A's. In the mens A race Chris McGovern led the team in 2nd, Josh Snead 3rd, Scott Chapin 4th, Dave Wyandt 6th and Aaron Odell 7th....possibly. Brett Lambert rode to a solid 3rd in the mens 45 A race.Looked to Me that Jeff Traugott was top ten in the 45 B race. Alex and I got to make some noise at the top of the runup.....I'm sure people might have some comments on that.

More Pics from CCCX #2

Pics from CCCX #2

CrossVegas!

Midweek, late night racing in Vegas in front of a huge crowd is always awesome. Add in a whole bunch of beer and a mess of European strong men and we have us a bike race.

It is nice to get out to Interbike and be able to stop by and say thank you to all the industry folks who help out the team. Sean at Easton / Bell, Larry at Mavic, Sheila Moon, Brooke at Gu, Chad at Shimano, Chris with Chris King. All great people working for great companies. With a 9 PM start time (11 PM central) we didn't stick around the show very long before we headed back to the hotel for a little rest.

The start coral was huge, the highest number I saw was 112. Unsurprisingly though, I seemed to be surrounded by pretty familiar company. There isn't much to think about on the line, just make sure you are in the right gear, and then go as fast as you can. With the pop of the gun, we were flying down the straight away. It was just as aggressive as I remembered from last year and I put every ounce of myself into the pedals for the first couple laps.

Three or four laps flew by. I was in a strong group of ten or so guys. Guys who were beating me last year, so I felt pretty good about how things were going. The pace was fast yet manageable, I was riding right were I wanted to be. I grabbed a couple high dollar hand ups in there, I was having a blast, and positioned well, 35ish.

Then disaster, I say it over and over, "I go through the barriers as fast as I can, if I go down, I am going to go down hard" and it came true. Something happened where my front end dropped just slightly and it hit the second to last step and immediately shot my bars up into my face. It caught me right above my right eye. I heard the "crack", saw the flash and went down like a ton of bricks. It hurt, the kind of hit I didn't spring back up from. I got back on the bike, but was in a fog, pedaling just enough to keep the bike moving. Lost close to 15 spots before I realized I needed to be back at race pace by the time a fast approaching group caught me if I was to have any chance at staying in the race.

I rode a lap or two solo before I got sucked in by the chasing group. It was a nice reprise from the solo effort but the group didn't stay together long. With three to go the leaders were closing fast. With two to go, it was going to take a first lap effort to stay in front of the leader, so I went for it. All this way, 56 minutes in, a head butt from the bike and I'd be damned if I was going to give up now. It was close, close enough that the podium girls already had lipstick applied and ready to kiss. I did it though and finished on the lap with the leaders. Raced as hard as I could. And as I'd find out a day later finished 53rd. Then onto the plane and back to the midwest to meet up with Sarah and Matt for the first round of the USGP in Madison.

CCCX 2, The Wolf is back

The Wolf is back.....and Buckethead.....and Odell. Josh Snead pretty much continued what he was doing last year-that was winning the local races. That, however is not the whole story as our elite men's team took four of the five available podium places: Josh Snead 1st, Scott Chapin 2nd, Aaron Odell 4th and Dave Wyandt 5th. New member Jason Rahwles went from the back of the race to a top ten showing why he is a great addition to the team. Jill Fattor might be eligable to race with the masters women but getting 4th in the Elites she proved that she might be too fast for that class. Luckily we have Kathleen Bortolussi in the Masters to take 1st in Jill's absence. Michelle Perez got a respectable 4th in the womens masters and Erin Dunn rode to 2nd in the C's on a borrowed bike. New member Kevin Crossley won the men's B's showing that he is just about ready to ride the A catagory. Brett Lambert got 2nd in the men's 45 A group in spite of a couple of bike changes. More photos should be coming....this is the only one I took as I was busy with the pit duties.

CCX1 Photos by Brent the elder