Nationals day two - men's 70-74

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The first day of racing was at least good for one person on the team- that would be me in the 70-74 age group. Last year from the back row I managed to ride to 18th. This year from the same third row position I made it to 10th, my first nationals top-10. The course was as it was the day before- fun and challenging and not everyone's cup of tea. I did see a few crashes and some pretty random errors in riders around me and tried to capitalize on others mistakes as I knew they would do the same if it were me making the errors. Luckily, I had a nearly error free ride and was able to put the power down the whole 5 laps. If the nationals are here next year I am tempted to return as they did a super job of making a fun course and a very low key, low drama environment. 

Nationals - day one- course recon

Ready or not, the nationals starts tomorrow but today was the first chance anyone racing had to see what the Fayetteville edition of CX nationals had to offer for a race course. I did not get any photos of the course but will later this week. I was too busy doing laps, hoping to find that illusive 'flow' that makes for less wasted energy and more fun. After 8 laps, I think I'm about as close as I'll get in that regard. First lap felt slow and ungainly but it did not take long to start understanding each feature of the course and how to keep efficient so that when the energy needed to be there, it would not have been wasted elsewhere on easier parts of the course. There's enough tight turns for little bits of rest but having good balance will be key to making it over some steep little humps in the course without having to put a foot down or dismount. 

For me, there will be just two dismounts- the first is a steep off camber hill that I found faster to run up than to try to ride and possibly topple over or have to do a clumsy dismount. The second is a pair of planks  on an uphill that are the tallest I have ever seen- I'll be amazed if anyone can jump them , but of course the best racers always do. Most of the course is dry and bumpy turf, not unlike California courses-I heard people complaining about the bumps but to me it was nothing compared to Surf City or the old Rock Lobster cup races. There is no mud and it looks like there isn't going to be for the whole week. The race course would be so much more challenging if it rained-it would make for epic world-cup conditions. I guess we won't be experiencing that this week but I'm sure most of the riders are thankful. 

Tomorrow is my turn to see what I can do on this course. Wish me and the team luck- 

One feature not on the course but nearby is the local waffle house. I noticed it as I was leaving the course....maybe Friday morning we will pay a visit.

 

Nationals roster

Off to the nationals tomorrow in Fayetteville, 

Ark. We have a small but strong team showing up this year and many podium opportunities. We have the return of Caroline Dezendorf who will be racing in the 35-39 age group and in women's single speed.Max Judelson and Andy Wulfkhule will be racing age group, single speed and elite. Enzo Berghout will be racing in UCI junior men 17-18 . I'll be racing age group 70-74 and we will have Steve as the pit man again as in the last few seasons. We also will have guest star and former team mate Dan English at the house and he will race in the UCI U-23 class. This means that we will have someone racing every day of the event so Steve and I will be busy in the pit. Unfortunately my Sister who was part of the pit crew has Covid and will have to miss the trip- this is really unfortunate but she hopefully will be back next year to pressure wash bikes and keep the racers rolling. I'll be reporting from the field daily so expect some writings soon. I'll do a recon of the course Tuesday. The weather looks to not be classic CX weather until the weekend when theres going to be some cold temps and maybe rain. Stay tuned.......

 

Nutty 'cross- or should it be 'Muddy 'cross' ?

Participation of the team at CX events this season has been pretty selective as some events on the calendar are part of the BASP series and are thought of as 'must do' races  while others not part of the series are sometimes overlooked - this race was definitely not overlooked as the number of Rock Lobster riders at Muddy Cross was very high. We had riders in most of the categories and many podiums, a few wins and some BASP overall winners as well. Riders like Gene Park were on the podium 2-3 times ! Since this race was the last in two race series the podiums were numerous and maybe a bit confusing. I'll report on as many as I can but you'll have to look up some of the figures from the BASP overall and Cyclo-Circus . 

On the day the results were as follows:

Junior men 10-14

Noah Hekkert        1st

Junior men 15-18

Pavlo Tkach    2nd

Women's open B

Allison Peck    1st

Keelan Senkier   7th

B Women 35+

Mei Peters    2nd

Men 35 A

Eric Brown    1st

Men 45 A

Carl Hekkert    10th

Men 60 A

Paul Sadoff     3rd

Rick Ortenblad    4th

Men B Single Speed 

Jeremy Schloss   2nd

Men open B

Nathan Delaney    4th

Kai Yee       8th 

Men Tracklocross    

Gene Park      2nd

Men 55 B

Jim English       6th

Men single speed A

Connor Hormell    2nd

Kyle Taylor     6th

Josh Becker     7th 

Matt Miller     11th

Women pro elite 

Caroline Dezendorf     1st

Diana Drew       2nd

Hannah Solberg    4th

Maddie Ortenblad   5th

Men pro elite 

Nathan Barton      4th

Brendan Lehman    8th

Kailin Waterman    11th 

BASP series winners:

Noah Hekkert  men's  10-14

Eric Brown   men's 35  A

Paul Sadoff    men's 60   A

Maddie Ortenblad   women's pro-elite

All in all, I count a total of 25 riders- that's a mob and I think that we collectively made it more of a race. The following photos will back this up-glad everyone made it and hope that we all show up again next season.

 

Lembi park Sacramento CX races #4 & #5

Two very different courses greeted the team this weekend- the first on Saturday had some mud but had a fair amount of fast turf and paved sections with only a couple of dismount sections. Sunday was completely different with deep mud, a bit of rain and some real hard slow sections of deep bog. The second day was not unlike 'cross crusade courses in Portland where the real mud is found. 

While a lot of the team decided to miss this weekend, we still had a fair amount of participants and lots of podiums. Here's the Saturday results:

Men 70+  A&B       Paul Sadoff     1st

Men's open B..Nathan Delaney       4th

Men's single speed B  Jeremy Schloss  2nd

Men's single speed A  Connor Hormel   4th

Men's open A     Eric Brown          7th

Women's open A     Caroline Dezendorf  1st

Sunday at the mud fest we had one more team rider show up and a true cyclocross experience of the most classic nature was on tap. The lap times were a lot longer than the day before and later races were so difficult that there were no smiles to be found on the riders- that is until it was over !

Here are the Sunday results:

Men's 70+ A&B  Paul Sadoff       1st

Men's open B     Nathan Delaney   7th

Men's single speed B  Jeremy Schloss  1st

Men's single speed A  Connor Hormell  4th

Women's open A  Caroline Dezendorf  1st

Men's 40+  A   Kailin Waterman     2nd

Men's open A   Eric Brown     7th 

This was my bike after 4 laps on Sunday. It got worse as the day went on and the few riders that had spare bikes had an advantage. 

Saturday was sunny and short sleeve weather - Sunday was cold with some drizzle and the conditions more like classic Nor-Cal winter CX. I have to say, all the good press that this course has gotten is well deserved- the race was well organized and went smoothly and the two courses over the weekend were examples of what good course building is all about. There was some off-camber, a short sand feature, a set of barriers, some steep kickers that became running sections on the second day when there was little traction. Each day was a completely different experience for the racer. I think this one has to be on the calendar next year. 

 

Mare Island BASP race

I'll go out on a limb and say that the Rock Lobster team was the largest and most successful team at this event by far. We had racers on nearly every podium and many wins. This was not even the full team but still a pretty large group as the team is really attempting as a whole to complete this BASP series and take as many overall titles as possible. The casualty of the day was Decker Krogh who had a hard crash in the last couple laps of the men's B race while in the leading group- lets hope that he heals up fast and gets to race more this season. 

Junior men 10-14              Noah Hekkert     1st.

Junior men  15-18             Pavlo Tkach        1st

Men 35 A                           Eric Brown         3rd           

                                         Gene Selcov         7th

Men 45 A                        Carl Hekkert          4th

                                  Kailin Waterman         7th

Men 60 +                     Jim English               1st

                                    Paul Sadoff                3rd

                             Rick Ortenblad                 4th

Women B           Allison Peck                       1st

Men B                 Nathan Delaney                10th

                              Kai   Yee                         26th

                          Decker Krogh                   DNF

Single Speed men B   Jeremy Schloss           2nd

                                   Patrick Lewis              6th

Tracklocross Men        Gene Park                  1st

Women A                     Hannah Solberg         1st

                                  Maddie Ortenblad         2nd

Single Speed men A      Matt Miller               3rd

                                      Connor Hormell        5th

                                     Kyle Taylor                 6th

Men A                  Brendan Lehman                 6th

 

Surf City CX weekend , Bonny Doon

Back in the early '70's a few people decided to start a CX race series in Santa Cruz- little did they know that it would survive longer than any other CX series in the country. Since its introduction , the race has had the best and worst of times , every few years being passed on to a new set of promoters - like an old car with 200,000 miles and bald tires-a new person takes on the race and thinks "Hey, it still runs so lets have a try keeping it running !". It has been this team's job to keep it running now for about five years . Yes, it still runs and this year it runs very well. 

Over the weekend at least 600 folks registered for the many categories and some of the fields were very large-the men's B field approaching 50 riders. Its hard to say which day was more epic as the weather turned rainy and true cyclocross conditions happened in what is normally a hot and dry time of year- it was very much like 15 years ago when we really did have rain and a season befitting CX.

The team had many participants, some coming from as far as Truckee, Bend and Los Angeles. It was a good size group and though I didn't hear anyone talking about it, this edition saw many of our team on the top step of the podium. Here are the results of the two days of racing.

 

Saturday race:

Junior men 15-18

Pavio Tkach   4th

Matthew Werner 10th

Abe Bachar         11th

Men's C    

Enzo Sapojinkoff   3rd

Junior men 9-14 

Noah Hekkert       1st

Men's B

Caleb O'Hare        4th

Finn Cunningham 7th

Decker Krogh       12th

Jim English           35th

Matthew Werner   40th

Men's singles speed B

Patrick Lewis         5th

Chris Seymour       9th

Joe Fabris              14th

Men's 45 B

Eric Werner            12th

Men's 35 A

Max Judelson           1st

Eric Brown               6th

Men's 45 A

Fred Mills                 4th

Carl Hekkert            12th

Men's 60+

Paul Sadoff               8th

Women's A 

Caroline Dezendorf  2nd

Diana Drew               4th

Mara Valcarcel          6th

Maddie Ortenblad     7th

Dani Morshead       9th

Women's B

Keelan Senkier         2nd

Women's single speed

Hannah Solberg        4th

Women's C

Scottie Junker          8th

Women  35+

Kate Hochler            1st

Women 55+

Kathleen Bortolussi  2nd

Men's A

Enzo Burghout        7th

Nate Barton             8th

Max Judelson         10th

Men's single speed A

Matt Miller              6th

Kailin Waterman    7th

Jeremy Schloss        8th

Kyle Taylor             10th

Fred Mills                16th

Men's Tracklocross

Isaac Estrada             1st

Gene Park                  2nd

Sunday races:

Junior men 9-14

Noah Hekkert           1st

Junior men 15-18

Abe Bachar               1st

Matthew Werner        2nd

Men's B

Andrew Yee                7th

Finn Cunningham       8th

Decker Krogh             10th

Kai Yee                       11th

Men's single speed B

Chris Seymour           11th

Men's 45 B

Eric Werner                 8h

Mens 55 B

Jim English                  6th

Men's 35 A

Max Judelson               1st

Erice Brown                 4th

Men's 45 A

Carl Hekkert                 7th

Men's 60+  

Paul Sadoff                    4th

Women A

Caroline Dezendorf        2nd

Diana Drew                    6th

Women B

Keelan Senkier                2nd

Single speed women

Maddie Ortenblad            1st

Tracklocross women 

Dani Moreshead               1st

Women 55+

Kathleen Bortolussi          1st

Women's  C

Scottie Junker                    10th

Men's A

Nate Barton                        5th

Enzo Burghout                   6th

Max Judelson                     8th

Men single speed A

Matt Miller                          7th

Kailin Waterman                 8th

Jeremy Schloss                   12th

Kyle Taylor                         14th

Men Tracklocross

Isaac Estrada                         1st

I count 11 wins for the team over the course of the weekend. That counts for a lot but what really counts the most is that the team contributed to an event that has endured decades of changing fortunes and personalities. There have been many great days, some triumphs, some dust-ups among friends but the show goes on and this time it was a really big show. It ain't dead yet........