Some like it hot, some not- Surf City UCSC

102 degrees greeted the 200+ brave riders at the Surf City UCSC CX race, pretty much a re-creation of a nationals course from several decades ago. Courses then were quite different so the addition of some really sketchy parts made for interesting racing. The amazing thing was that the red cross tent was not busy at all.....seems that people paid attention and managed tp keep the rubber side down- no small feat on this course. the absence of rain and the hot air made for a dusty and dry day with never enough water handups. That said, people did appreciate the uniqueness of the event and of course the view of the bay.

Early races started with the juniors. Noah Hekkert got 3rd in the 9-14 age group.

In the masters 35 C race Patrick Lewis got 10th. In the masters 35 A race Eric Brown got 3rd.

In the masters 45 A race Carl Hekkert got 7th. In the masters 60+ A race Greg Foy came out of retirement to get on the podium in 5th , followed by Rick Ortenblad in 6th and Paul Sadoff a distant 7th.

The women of the team showed up in record numbers and if it weren't for them, it would have been a pretty low turnout. The women's A podium was nearly a sweep for the team with Dani Moreshead winning , Mara Valcarcel 2nd, Hannah Solberg 3rd and our Pennsylvania team mate Clem Nixon in 5th.

In the womens single speed Maddie Ortenblad got the win with newcomer Keelen Senkier getting second in her first race. Chloe Ortiz got the win in womens tracklocross. In the womens masters 45+ Sarah Jordan got 2nd with Kathleen Bortolussi getting second in the womens 55+. 

Men's A field had Max Judelson traveling up from So-Cal to take 4th with Anthony Griffin Yeh coming in 8th , Nathan Delaney in 11th, Enzo Sapojnikoff in 12th and Kailin Waterman in 14th. 

In the single speed mens A race Dylan Gong got 4th, Gene Selcov 6th, Matt Miller 7th and Kyle Taylor 11th. In Tracklocross , fixed gear specialist Isaac Estrada got the win with Gene Park coming in 2nd. 

The team raced well but also did the heavy lifting along with other volunteers to create a course where one had never been-back in the '70's and 80's other parts of the campus were used for the CX races so this was a real challenge to find a long enough lap to really have a proper race. At one mile, this course was short but with all the obstacles and the searing heat it was a very long mile. Will it happen again next year ? Time will tell.