Vallejo Velocity

 

This course had not been used in at least a decade so only a few people on the team had experienced riding there. Memories were fuzzy and the photos on the race website didn't really show how brutal of a course it would turn out to be. Steep hills. two long flights of stairs and deep turf greeted the racers- some suffered mightily while others shined on the challenging track. 

The team didn't have quite the numbers present compared to the first race but all who showed up made it a race in most cases. Kathleen Bortolussi got 3rd in the women's 55+ race. Noah Hekkert took a commanding win in the junior 15-18 race. His father Carl got 4th in the men's 55+A race. New team member Justin Robinson doubled up , racing the men's 45+A race and getting second. Later in the open A race, Justin finished 8th. Also doubling up was Max Judelson with a win in the men's 35A race and a 6th place in the open A race. Also racing in the open A race was Dean Poshard who finished 15th. Eric Brown was also in the men's 35A race and finished 5th. Jim English finished 4th in the men's 55B race. 

Diana Drew took the lead in the women's A race and never looked back, getting the win. Not to be outdone, Hannah Solberg took the win in the women's single speed with Maddie Ortenblad finishing 3rd. Also in the single speeds, Patrick Lewis got 3rd in the men's single speed B race. In the men's single speed A race we had a mob with Matt Miller battling for the win followed by Kyle Taylor in 6th and Connor Hormel in 7th. 

In the men's open B race Finn Cunningham came in 6th with Nathan Delaney coming in at 11th. In the men's 60+ A race we had three racers- Paul Sadoff finishing 8th, Rick Ortenblad 10th and Manny Affonso 11th. 

All in all, this was a good day for the team with five wins and many podiums. I think our team was the largest group at the race , even with lots of team mates not able to make the trip. Lets hope that this race will continue next year as it might be the most challenging course of the season and it offers a uniquely painful experience - might just make the other races seem tame !

Shoreline shredder CX, BASP race # 1.

The season opened with a cloudy windy day on a pretty barren hillside on the SF bay. This was the first race of the season and the debut of the 2026 pink team kits with two new sponsors : Tom's Well service and Sweetgum Environmental. The team showing was pretty good for the first race and hopefully the promoter was happy with the turnout. I know that our team was probably the largest group at the race .
 

The morning started with the juniors and we had two but only one was racing in the junior category. That was Noah Hekkert and he rode to 4th in the 15-18 year old race.

Masters men raced next with Eric Brown getting 5th in the 35+A race, Karl Hekkert getting 4th in the 55+A race . In the 60+A race Paul Sadoff got 8th, Rick Ortenblad 10th and Mark Hubbell 12th.

Men's single speed B race had Patrick Lewis who rode to 2nd and the first podium of the day.In the women's B race Heather Bybee came in 5th.

In the women's 55+ race Kathleen Bortolussi came in 2nd and got the second podium of the day.

The men's B field was very large and we had four riders. In 6th was Jeremy Schloss , Kai Yee ( RL Juniors) rode to 7th, Nathan Delaney 10th. Finn Cunningham was there but did not appear in the results. This happened in a couple of races -not sure what happened but hopefully the results will get amended soon.

In Women's single speed Hannah Dillard got the first win of the day with Maddie Ortenblad coming in 2nd.

In the men's single speed A race Matt Miller got an emphatic win , his first SS-A win . Kailin Waterman came in 5th. Shyam Salem raced but did not appear in the reuslts along with a few others. I did witness his finish and he rode a strong race so hope the results get completed to show the full field.

Last races of the day were the elites and Diana Drew rode to 2nd.

In the men's race and early flat derailed Brendan Lehman -he got credit for 14th. Dean Poshard finshed 12th. 

All in all, I would say that this race would have been a pretty small event without the presence of the team . I know I'm not alone in saying that this course might be the harderst track of the season so getting this first race done is a very good thing. If the team continues showing up in good numbers this will speak well for the health of the sport -a sport that is coming off of a number of difficult years. I hope that we all can continue to do our part-of course, as long as everyone is having a good experience. 

Next stop- Vallejo. 

Welcome a new sponsor to the team: Sweetgum Environmental

 Yes- there will be a couple of new names on the team kit. This company is based in Plant City, Florida. The head of the company is a customer who has a few of my bikes out there and reached out to be part of the team family. I'm really happy to have a new name on the kit and hope that the exposure helps with this and all the team sponsors. 2026 is looking to be a busy year for the team as there's a bigger BASP race calendar and we are looking to have a larger presence at the Pan Am games . The nationals are coming back to Fayetteville and I hope that we have as much success and fun as we had last year .