Los Olivos, CA - US Cup West #5

(picture courtesy of John Goodman Graphics!!)
I secured the Cat 1 30-34 US Cup West Series with a win last weekend!

I didn't feel well for the entire week after Sea Otter and was a bit run down, but was able to recover in time for last Sunday's race. I have fallen off my early April peak, but was able to pull together a good race.

I am looking forward to road races for the next 3 weekends (103 mile San Luis Rey RR, 91 mile Berkeley Hills RR, Ventura SR) followed by the CA State ITT Championships. May will be a hard and busy month. See you out there!

Sea Otter Sufferin'

Sea Otter was last weekend. Race report follows in "bulletized" format.

Sea Otter is a long race consisting of 2-19 mile laps making it the longest dirt race of the season.

Sea Otter is either hot, cold, rainy, windy, or otherwise unpleasant. This year it was hot.

I lined up on Sunday with an unusually large 30-34 Cat 1 field. The announcer mentioned my name for some reason and stated that I had the fastest Cat 1 time at Fontana. Nothing like setting expectations!

The announcer also called out Chris Jones, Team Type 1 roadie pro.

Interesting, I thought. This will be hard.

I set the pace on the road section of the Laguna Seca course before the turn onto dirt.

I attacked the dirt road climb and Chris and one other guy came along.

I don't know if Chris was really planning on working hard after several days of road racing, but our "breakaway" companion started talking shit and Chris took that as a signal to hurt us. He did.

I was the first to fall off his blistering climbing pace and our companion held on for a while and then cracked.

I caught and drop rider #3 and decided that I was riding for second, but ended up catching Chris in the singletrack.

Chris indicated that he wanted to win the "GT Gold bike competition" which would go to the rider who pulled the fastest lap time. I told Chris I had no interest in the competition and wouldn't sprint him if I was able to hang with him on the finishing 5 mile climb. I hung with him and he crossed the line first with a time of 1:16:49 (my time was 1:16:49:2) for the best 2 times of the day.

The temperature was increasing and I was feeling like crap since Chris had me climbing a bit out of my comfort zone.

I decided that I would set the pace on the climbs hoping that Chris would be content with my pace which he was for the first half of the second lap. Then, for some reason, Chris went down in a single track section and I picked up the pace.

I rode alone for the remainder of the race but ran out of water and started cramping with 5 miles of climbing to go. I was sure that Chris would come flying by me on the final climb, but I was able to punch and massage my left hamstring sufficiently to make it to the finish. I was hurt at the end.

My second lap time was a full 7 minutes slower than my first lap and my overall time was one minute slower than last year. No complaints, though.This is what I looked like at the finish. Yes, I suffered a bit and was looking, umm, "worked".

PB & OSLB

I was able to knock 22 seconds off my monthly goleta TT best time: 21:57 at 328W and 27.42mph. This was with my new UCI-legal position which gets my handlebars and saddle in compliance with UCI regulations. I wasn't sure how this would impact my power and/or aerodynamics, but the results are encouraging so far.

OSLB pilot going well this week!

On another Note: The group that I was riding with at Copperopolis on Sunday finished between 9th-22nd. I should have hung on for another 10 miles!!

Crack-ilicious Craperopolis

Copperopolis RR - 5 laps of bumpy, hilly, and tough 21 mile loop

Platinum Rider against Astana (Levi), BMC (Scott Nydam), Team Type 1 (Chris Jones, Ken Hansen), Cal Giants (6 guys), Rock Racing (1 guy), Bissell (4 guys), ZTeam (Nate English + 3), Garmin Chipotle (1 guy), and another 100 crazies.

Lap 1 - Stayed towards front of pack (top 10-20) and watched Nate English pull us around for a lap. Levi and Nydam were on the front too. I felt good.
Lap 2 - Stayed towards front of pack (top 5-10) and climbed the long climb on Levi's side. Looked over once and saw 420W on his power meter. He is 15 lbs lighter than me. Do the math! The climbing was hard and fast. I did pass him once on the steepest section of the climb. Maybe he was taking a pee, or a nap.
Lap 3 - Still feeling good and riding towards front. Top guys (Levi, Nate, C Jones and a few others) hit it hard on the steep part of the climb and I fall off the pace. I watch about 15 guys ride away and end up in a group of about 20 after the damage is done.
Lap 4 - Feeling pretty good about riding strong in the second group on the road with Bissells, Cal Berries, Ken Hansen and a few others.
Lap 5 - Started to feel dizzy and tired. Grab a neutral water bottle in the feed zone and drink most of it by the first climb. Our group is down to maybe a dozen or so and watch most of the guys ride away from me on the climb as I fall apart. 3 guys catch me at top of climb and start drilling it on the flats in the cross winds. Crack again. Out of water. Out of food. Seeing things. I hit the course mid point after 95 miles and pull over and ask a race volunteer for water. He goes to his van and I lay down on the hot pavement. I stay there. He offers me a ride to the start/finish, a coke, an energy bar, and an apple. I graciously accept it all.

DNF. Still proud of how I rode though. Tough SOB of a race.

Double Down

What a great weekend of racing! This weekend was my first attempt at the “double” (40k TT the day before a Mountain Bike race) and it went well. I typically do a pretty hard “leg opener” the day before I race, but a 40k is one hell of an opener!!

Piru 40k TT –

I haven’t done a 40k in 20 months as I swore them off in 2007. These efforts are very hard and I had “saddle issues” after my first two during the summer of ‘07. I am training at least once a week on the TT bike this year which has been helping to build fitness and get the body to adapt to the sustained effort and position. My road goal this year is to compete at Master’s TT Nationals in Kentucky and contend for top honors! The race on Saturday went well in that my power was good (309W average for 56:48) and my general comfort on the bike was better than ever. It was windy as shit and I averaged >33mph on the out leg and <23mph on the back leg for an average speed of 26.1mph.

US Cup West Round #3 – Sagebrush Safari, San Diego, CA –

Mountain bike racing is making a comeback! Again there was a great showing out in the desert for round #3 of the US Cup West. The course was awesome! 4k-ft of climbing and lots of fast single track descending meaning that the course was custom made for a well-rounded mountain biker (not a climber’s course only). The 26 mile race featured a tactical start on pavement for about 4 miles with the first mile being relatively flat before pointing upwards. I went hard from the gun and strung out the field a bit and then attacked a few times to try to help get a lead group going. After the attacking we were in a group of 3 and then I went again on the climb to solo to the finish. I am happy with my climbing form now and am building for Nationals in Colorado in July before upgrading to Pro. My time yesterday would have placed me 8th in the Pro category of 33 finishers.

Next up is the 109 mile Copperopolis road race this Saturday and the Sea Otter mountain bike National next Sunday.

Life Update

Wow! It has been 2 months since I have updated this thing. I was starting to think that perhaps this was no longer an effective means of communication, but I recently realized that my small handful of blog visitors still want to know what’s go in my silly little world. Just yesterday I got nearly a dozen emails from my Dad and friends back East with the usual “What’s up? How did the weekend go? Race results?”.

So, how about a bulleted list of updates!!?

•Training Camp - My Dad, younger brother, and friends from NYC and Boston came to visit in February for a “training camp”. We did two back-to-back 20+ hour training weeks and logged some awesome base miles. We also ate well and went out and had a few fun nights on the town.
•Tour of California – I got a call from my Platinum team boss a few days before the ToC Solvang TT asking if I wanted to race the amateur TT race the morning before the popular Pro race. Teammate Brian Cook and I both agreed to fly the Platinum colors and tackle the beautiful and challenging Solvang course. I could talk about the course, the weather, the spectators, the climbs, the family and friends, the power output, the results, etc. I won’t because the only thing I remember is this.•Mothball and UCSB Crits – There have been two local crits in Goleta. Nothing spectacular to report. We went around in circles, missed key breaks, and avoided crashes. Cookie, Seth and I finished in the Top 15 in both races. Certainly nothing to write home about! In more exciting news, our teammates in the Cat 3 and 4 ranks have been racking up awesome results – See the Platinum website for race reports from Fast Finisher Ronny T and Monster Derek who have been flying.
•Sky Diving – Stupid. Awesome. Exhilarating. Terrifying. Unforgettable.•Keyesville Classic – This was my first mountain bike race of the season on my new hard tail. I loved the entire experience and was able to take my first win of the season.
•Chester’s wedding – Our man Chester got married in Palm Springs last weekend. Seth, Ben, Smitty, and I made the trip down to witness the lovely Gillmore couple tie the knot. The ceremony was beautiful, sweet, emotional, and enjoyable for all. The 4 of us (not Chester!) went for a 3.5 hour ride in the hills the following day. We faced 50+ mph winds at elevation and Smitty got blown into the guardrail twice. No injuries, but a scary and memorable experience for us all.
•Fontana National – The US Cup hosted a National Mountain bike race in Fontana, CA yesterday. I cannot express how cool it is that Sho Air through Scott Tedro’s leadership was able to keep this National series alive. The first two US Cup races of the season have been a huge success with phenomenal participation and venues reminiscent of those in the mid 90’s. Awesome. My early season form was good as I was able to post the fastest Cat 1 time of the day. My current plan is to continue racing Cat 1 through Nationals and then upgrade and play with the Pros later this year. Why not? http://www.outsideallday.com/ Check out this link! The first video had great coverage of the 120 man strong Pro field!! Wow, you have to watch the first 3 minutes. The second video has coverage of my race up the first climb.
•Up next - Holy Busy! I will be doing 3 mountain bike races in April as well as the epic Copperopolis Road Race in Milton, CA (109 mile P/1/2). See last month’s article in Velo News where Copperopolis is highlighted as one of the most challenging and epic races in the US. I have an exciting side project that I am working on that I am not ready to blog about, but will be working during April. The Platinum team will do the Ventura Stage Race in May. I am hosting a bachelor party in Vegas with 18 guys in June. I will do the Masters TT Nationals in Kentucky in late June and the Mountain bike Nationals in Colorado in July. In August I will spend 2 weeks in Greece serving as the best man to my best childhood friend. Jason and Soula will tie the knot is Thessaliniki and then we’ll visit Santorina, Ios, and Mikonos islands and then conclude our travels in Athens. How about September through December? I don’t know, but I am sure it will involve bikes, adventures, and maybe even an Everest Challenge revisit. ‘Cross anyone?

20.000 Pounds

Words just cannot describe.

Mothballs 2009

Road race Numero Uno. I have been on business travel for 2 weeks and was sick for a while so I almost skipped out on the local Goleta criterium, aka, Santa Barbara World Championships. The P1/2 race was stacked with a dozen racers from Team Type 1 and Rock Racing's defending National Crit Champ. The race was 75mins and averaged 29mph. I thought I would get dropped but was able to hang and even ride towards the front. Teammate Seth put in a huge dig and created a gap about 45 minutes into the race and I counter attacked creating a 5 man break that stayed away for 4-5 laps. That was fun...NOT!! Ended up 14th on the day. Cookie got 11th, Seth got 15th, and Chester, Smitty, and CWalk finished in the pack.

Pictures courtesy of John Goodman Graphics

Week of Extremes & Gloriousness

I spent a healthy and active few days at home in Goleta last weekend. I was highly motivated to spend time outdoors and train on the road and mountain bikes. I was coming off of two 20+ hour training weeks after my Asia vacation and was looking forward to a productive weekend before embarking on a 2 week travel block with work. The weather reached 70 degrees both days, I did some long rides including a phenomenal mountain bike ride in the sweltering heat up in the SB hills, and I went to the beach and pool swimming in Montecito. It was a glorious weekend.

Fast forward one short week. I was sick all week and was scrambling to prepare for my business travel. I flew cross country while sneezing and wheezing the whole way and blew my nose through my meetings. I reconnected with friends on Friday in Boston and went out for dinner and drinks while covering wedding planning for my best friend’s August wedding in Greece. Yes, with this new development I officially add best man planning duties to my To Do list for the next 7 months. I am both very excited and honored. And maybe a bit worried!

Okay, so we have covered the “health extreme” in one week: very well to not-so-very-well. Thankfully I started to recover Saturday morning and embarked on my “activity extreme”: very warm riding in SB to very cold riding in CT. Although probably ill advised for health reasons a group of 6 of us (including my Dad and my favorite CT riding partners) went out for a 3 hour road ride in 30deg windy conditions. I wore more layers than the non-SoCal softies and coughed up phlegm the entire ride, but enjoyed the cold fresh air nevertheless. This was followed by a great “family night” and a big meal. A less intelligent sub-set of the previous day’s group went on a 2 hour mountain bike ride today in even colder weather conditions (8deg at 8AM, 19deg when we started the ride). The 12”+ of snow that has fallen over the previous few weeks had been packed down by hikers and we were able to ride 95% of the trails, but only intense focus and huge anaerobic efforts ensured that the bike stayed on the 8-18” ridable swath of “trail”. It was a glorious weekend.

I gotta say that my Dad is pretty great. On the rare occasions I visit he is an organized madman who facilitates multiple planned bike rides requiring special warm gear and tuned bikes & family gatherings with siblings/nieces/nephews. Without his awesomeness I wouldn’t be able to fit in all this activity in a 26 hour visit! He is coming to Goleta for 16 days in February and I will have to return all the favors with unlimited leg breaking riding and Platinum bars.

Super Sunday

75deg January day??!!Cross it!!
Post ride swim

Asia Trip '08/'09

Prof. Smitty and I backpacked in Asia for 2 weeks over the Holiday break and visited Hong Kong, Guangzhou China, Ho Chi Minh Vietnam, and Nha Trang Vietnam. We were in full-on tourist mode and soaked up the local culture and cuisine. No bikes. We didn't ride for over 2 weeks!!

Kansas City Cyclo-Cross Nationals December 2008

A full month has already passed and I cannot post a detailed race report since I have forgotten all of the painful details.

I finished 8th place in the Masters 30-34 and 47th in the Men's Elite. I met 2 of my 3 goals: Finish Top 10 in the Masters race and finish better than mid pack in the Elite race. The 3rd goal was not to get lapped. Ryan Trebon passed me on his last lap like I was standing still. He is a full time Pro. I suppose I can live with that! Next year? Podium in Masters race and hold off Trebon.

Love 'Cross! I am very pleased with my local results (2 Top 3's, several top 5's) as well as 'Nats. Can't wait for '09 'cross season!

'Cross Race Reports Orange, Glendale, Palmdale!!

I have fallen behind with my race reports!

3 weekends ago the State Championship was held on a very technical and demanding course with tons of cornering, multiple hard runups and a competitive field. The field was larger than any other race this season and Ned Overend even showed up. At 50 years old, the mountain bike champ is still very strong and drew a larger than ever SoCal cross scene that included live music, a huge number of heckling fans, and strong support all around. I had a front row spot due to my series standing and got a great holeshot and ended up in a lead group of 4 with Ned. I was racing strong and felt pretty good (after cracking the previous day), but subsequently crashed and had difficulty recovering before falling back (& crashing twice more) and finishing 11th overall. This was my worst finish of the season, but I chalked it up to some bad luck and tough competition.

Last weekend debuted my favorite Socal 'cross course to date. It was a great balance of hard technical sections with two runups that were rideable for many of the Elites, a sandpit, and several long power sections. I again got a good holeshot and made it into the lead group. The two strongest guys (Brent and Sid) attacked and I settled into a chase group of 5 consisting of all of the remaining top guys in the series. I attacked during the third lap and was bridging up to Brent and Sid while the remaining 4 chasers fell back a bit off my pace. I was thinking that I was riding too aggressively, but felt great and smooth and so decided to work hard to get up to the lead 2 and see if I could pull out my breakthrough ride of the year. Just as I was about to claw back on, I flatted in the stream crossing and dropped out. My spare wheels were in the back of my car. I grabbed a beer and spectated. It wasn't meant to be.

Yesterday's race was held in lovely Palmdale in the desert near my least favorite road race of the season (Devil's Punchbowl). The course was the flattest and least technical course of the season and favored power riders, but there was a dirt section that comprised about 1/3 of the distance with 3 loose corners, 2 bumpy descents, a power climb and a short run up. I got the holeshot and lead for the first lap. There was quickly a select group of 5. The course was fast and windy and so the repeated attacks were successfully marked and we stayed together for the first 30 minutes. Brent attacked mid race and I was able to counter (barely) while the other 3 guys fell off the pace. Brent surged again and I couldn't match his pace and then rode solo for a lap before deciding to play it a little more tactically. The chasing 3 caught on and we took turns pulling for a few laps. Jason (6th in series) then pulled us around for several laps while attacking on the short climbs and out of some of the corners, but didn't get away. My plan was to attack on the paved uphill before the dirt section on the last lap since I found that I was riding the corners slightly better than the others. I timed my attack and hit the gas. I immediately had a gap and Fritz (second in series) was about 10 meters back while the other guys were spreading out. Fritz nearly caught back on but I heard him slide in one of the loose corners and I hit it again creating a bigger gap. I was going all out and suffered to the line but was able to hold onto my lead for my best result of the season: 2nd.

I feel good going into the Kansas City Nationals next weekend. I am racing the 30-34 Masters race on Saturday and with the Elites on Sunday. Bring it on!

Vegan Thanksgiving

Brought together by a common lifestyle, 7 transplants from the Far East gathered together for a full-on Vegan feast. Awesome.
Thanksgiving in Paradise.
Pre-dinner activities
The crew cooking away!
So good!
Pile o' potatos
Dr. Smitty at head of table
Happy and full

First UCI Race! SoCal #7 "Hansen Dam"

Today I raced my first UCI race and finished 10th. It started uber-fast, but I was able to hang with the lead group for a lap and a half before settling into my own rhythm. I suffered really really really bad. It felt so damn good. I think.

I can't thank the heckling posse enough. They stepped up their game with mooning, flashing, and other debauchery while motivating me to keep going when I wanted to stop, cry, and die.

Marian, your heckling presence was dearly missed.

SoCal 'Cross #6 "Hansen Dam" 8Nov08

Chris Jones from Team 1 showed up and attacked today's bumpy course to give local hero Brent a run for his money. Again I was able to make the selection and held my own in a lead group of 6 for the first half of the race. I even lead all of lap 2 which probably wasn't the best of strategies given that I was out of my league up there! Finished 5th place.

Tomorrow I will race my first ever UCI Elite race.

SoCal 'Cross #5 - Best One Yet!

Okay, so the SB-posse weekly training might be working. KimT busted out another top 3 finish in the 3/4 category and I think I have convinced her to double it up and do both the Elite 1/2/3 and 3/4 races next weekend. All that training on the weekends with the local boys has got that girl some power. Marian played with the boys in the single speed and also raced with the Elites and both Steves and MLuke ripped it up with the so-fast 45+ group (teammate BLangSr got 2nd after months of illness). KimL came out for moral support and I have to say that the cheering and spectating and inappropriate banter and heckling ("Ride it like you got a pair", "honkey", "stop suckin'", etc) was awesome and motivating while I was racing. I pulled out my best Socal cross finish to date with a 5th after leading for a lap and a half and then bridging up to the lead group mid race before falling off the pace. Not sure what I was thinking, but it was fun, and it felt damn good. And our very own BLangJr is actually training and eating like a bike racer and pulled off 8th place after hanging in the lead group for a while. Okay, 'nuff race reporting, let's share the day in pics. Picture credit goes to Randy and KimT.
Some of the SB Posse spectating the Elite Men's race
My best finish of the year was in the photo contest where I got beat by Jason Lowetz my numero uno 'cross enemy! Ok, not really, but I got second in this for the "Whip it, Whip it good" entry.
Prof. Smitty rode over from Goleta to hang and spectate.
Marian looking strong and sporting the look, a look, her look, something.SteveyB manning the grill and hanging post raceKimT in her "Don't get in my way, or I will take you down beyatch, look.Langtown looking GQ before the Elite race where he hung in the lead group for a few laps.Yeah, I take this shit seriously.Leading lap one. Sid on my wheel. Braap.I pretty much find that I climb better with my eyes closed.

My groin hurts.

'Cross Triple Z - DrillZ, SkillZ, IntervalZ

Twice a week we are holding 'Cross training sessions on the Bluffs overlooking the Pacific in Goleta, CA. I have been pleasantly surprised at the attendance. We started 3 weeks ago and have had 7-10 'crossers show up for 75-90 minutes of training. The sessions have been diverse and have including "hot" laps, run-up drills, barrier practice, and intervals. Tonight is "race night" and we are doing 4 hot laps. The lead riders will have to do run-ups until the last rider finishes and then the last rider will do 10 pushups per run-up. We also do dinner one night after the training and eat veggie food, drink beer, and watch 'cross videos.

The regulars are SethZ, KimL, KimT, MarianH, SteveB, SteveS, PeteS, MarkL, and RandyT. This has been great for fitness, comraderie, and race day commuting. Kudos to the Kim(s) for trying their first race last weekend and finishing 3rd and 8th in the 3/4 field.

Others are welcome to join in on the fun: Ellwood Bluffs on Hollister on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 5pm. Be there.

Totally Wrecked

I travelled this weekend with the quickly growing Santa Barbara posse of 'cross racers (lowdown on that later) to SoCal Cross #4 "Spooky Cross" and Urban Cross #2 "Black Cat Cross". I don't know if I will be able to recover sufficiently any time soon to muster-up the energy for full race reports, but here is the abbreviated version.

"Spooky Cross" was a night race at an awesome park in Torrance, CA. The course was long and super fast with lots of grassy turns. The Elite Men field was stacked with ~50 riders including newbies from all cycling-walks-of-life including Australian National Champ and Pro Racer Sid Taberlay (who has been putting the smack down on the US scene all year) as well as Cat 1 roadies from the 5 Star fish crew and Cal Berry Giant squad. I finished 9th after coming on strong at the end and working my way up to 7th before rolling my tubular on the last lap. It was a great and exciting night of racing.

16 hours later and I am lined up again, but this time with a smaller group of 11 racers including Sid again, the always super fast MNoble, and a bunch of 5 Star Fish guys. Despite stuggling with the longest, sandiest, steepist run-up section ever, I was able to pull of a 3rd place finish.

I will post some pictures later and scribble more about the SB 'cross posse.

SoCal 'Cross #3, "Storm the Beach", Camp Pendelton

Progress! My first 'cross race two weeks ago was a complete nightmare. No power, no shifting, only pure sweet suffering. A few intervals and 'cross drillz later and things are starting to slowly turn around.

Today's race was down at Camp Pendelton which is a full hour south of LA. I made the crazy early trip (5:00AM departure) with teammate Steve Bertrand and new local 'cross friend Marian Hunting. I didn't race this event last year and had no idea what was in store.

We arrived at 8AM and my race wasn't until noon. I watched Steve and Marian race strong and headed out for my recon laps. The course was long at 4km with 4 seperate sandy running sections and an obnoxiously long suffer-fest-trek across the sand adjacent to the ocean. This section could make-or-break your race as the sand was too deep to ride fast in the dry section and hard enough only at the water's edge. The trick was to surf the edge of the water to keep the rolling resistance low without getting wet. Yeah right!

28 Elite men lined up at the start and we were off. I quickly found myself in a lead group of 7 and was feeling pretty comfortable on the long fast power sections before the sand. I lost time in the first sand section and fell into 6th place (about 5secs back) and stayed within striking distance for the first 3 of 6 laps. I tried to close the gap on the flats and then would lose a bit in the running sections. I finished 6th. And no, I didn't stay dry as waves crashed into me (and my poor bike) a half dozen times. My bike is toast!

The course was one of the hardest courses I have ever seen. Lots of running and a super hard section along the ocean made for a real tough 'cross experience.

Two more races next weekend: Spooky Cross and Black Cat Cross.

Till next time.

12Oct08 Big Bear Fall Classic - Trip Report

Team boss Todd Booth, Steve Silva, Mark Luke, HeyRon and I got together at 5:30AM yesterday for our Booth-dictated early departure. Todd has claimed that his key to success is not warming up for mountain bike races yet he prefers to arrive 2-3 hours early for our races!! This is a common theme and one of many Todd-isms that we have grown to love and enjoy. Never mind a detailed race report or the multiple Platinum Individual SoCal Championship Series Winners (~10 in total!) or the Platinum Team Competition Award, the focus of this trip report will be on the Top 5 "Todd-isms"!

#5 - Todd hates to stop for coffee, pee breaks, food, etc during these road trips. I had to wait 3 hours yesterday until we arrived at Big Bear to get my Starbucks coffee. I was miserable, grumpy, swearing, unhappy, sick, and basically in no shape to race as a result. When traveling with Todd, bring your food and drink, a bottle to piss in, and a laptop.

#4 - Todd doesn't warm up, but yet arrives to races with enough time to spare to lose his bike.

#3- Todd likely kisses and hugs his bikes before going to bed at night yet "misplaced" it yesterday at the race. Come to find out he had ridden it to the bathroom and walked back to the car without it.

2- Todd washes his bike immediately after the race. He does this fully dressed in his dirty kits. He brings a hose to Big Bear because there is a house with a faucet that he can use to thoroughly wash, wax, and spit shine his rig. Not kidding.

#1- Todd doesn't drink coffee. He drinks pink man-smoothies and then gets hit on by motorcycle guys in leather chaps. Hot.

Ok, so enough having fun with Todd. I guess at least a short race report is in order.

The race yesterday was a huge success for Team Platinum. Several teammates secured their Series Championships and Team Platinum won the Team Competition. A number of racers also braved the low temps (high 30's, low 40's) and a tough 'n hilly course to finish on top of the podium. My experience was a little more dramatic. The start was exciting and I got to race with most of my teammates as the organizer elected to combine age groups 19-49. The group was fairly large and we started up the 2 mile fire road climb. I was originally thinking of riding conservatively and then quickly decided that I wanted to go off hard and was hoping to set the tempo up the climb if my legs obliged. Some new guy stole my tactic and led up the entire climb. I sucked his wheel for the first 80% of the climb and we were off the front. I started to fade and was gaped and passed by one other guy. I let them both go thinking that I should ride my tempo and descend fast. I caught and passed both of them on the first descent and was off the front by myself for 10-15 minutes until I started to fade again. Both guys caught me and gaped me once again but I held them to ~15seconds through the rolling section. My plan was to avoid cracking and put good time into them on the final long descent. I flatted on the final descent just above the final fire road. I quickly changed the tube but broke the valve stem in the process and ended up running ~3 miles to the finish. I lost about 13 minutes to the guys I was riding with and finished 8th. It was enough to secure the State title. The overall times were fast and the two top guys finished in 1:22 which was only about 2 minutes off of the fastest SoCal Pro (Manny Prado). It was a great day regardless of result (or lack thereof). I failed to mention that the trails were dusted in places with snow which made for an interesting SoCal experience!!

Today I am hosed. I have my post Big Bear altitude cough, sore muscles from running, and an oddly beat up upper body. I probably shouldn't have done the Monday night TT tonight. Call it a Gary-ism. But my bike is still dirty.

SoCal 'Cross #2, Costa Mesa, CA

Race Theme - Shock to the system.

Ouch!! As I predicted my first 'cross race of the season was a complete suffer fest. There were about 30 P/1/2's out there and I started towards the front and was able to stay with the lead group of 7 for the first two laps. Besides teammate B.Lang.Jr I was the only guy hopping the barrier before the "run up" and even lead up that climb for the first 2 laps. The surging and accelerations out of the corners throughout the course quickly took its toll. I haven't started my short 'cross training intervals yet (excuse numero uno) and hit a really bad place about 15mins into the 1hr race. I fell back to about 10th place then my rear derailleur got stuck in the 14 tooth cog (cable issue - excuse numero dos) and I was riding a single speed for the rest of the race! It was a tough day, but I have learned some good lessons and am motivated for next time. I know exactly what I need to do.

I think I finished around 12th which may be my worst Socal result to date. It is all good!

'Cross rocks, win or lose.Period.

Elite Men 1/2/3
num place license fname lname club
409 1 28646 Brent Prenzlow Celo Pacific/ALAN
426 2 183803 Chance Noble California Giant Berry Farms
404 3 211399 Frederick Bottger Vitamix/Sixtufit.com
411 4 229325 Mark Santurbane California Giant Berry Farms
425 5 26173 Mark Noble Bailey Bikes
422 6 78077 Mike Easter Action Sports
412 7 193522 Jason Siegle Team CICLE/BV Bikes
407 8 129069 Jason Lowetz Team Bearclaw
408 9 226134 John McKeen Team Bearclaw
402 10 119862 John Behrens Bailey Bikes
405 11 47485 Donny Carroll De Walt Racing
427 12 101476 Gary Douville Team Platinum
432 13 207755 Brandon Gitters Rock-N-Road
424 14 42231 Michael Lee Chuck
414 15 106338 Ben Jones Celo Pacific
401 16 233503 John Bailey Bailey Bikes
403 17 224203 Alex Boone Helens
415 18 155729 Gregory Bourque
410 19 177959 Morgan Ryan Team CICLE
420 20 172215 Matthew Freeman Team Redlands
430 21 117553 Kurt Gensheimer Buy Cell
428 22 178612 Scott Hammack Acqua al 2/SDBC
423 23 15935 Derek Herman Team CICLE/BV Bikes
417 24 241629 Bobby Langin Platinum Performance
406 25 88185 Leonard Lawrence Successful Living
435 26 231003 Alex Saint Jean Team Bearclaw
429 27 95837 Griffith Vertican Celo Pacific
431 28 13042 Jim Gentes Family Cycling
434 29 158129 Nathan Loyal Helens
421 30 177958 Kevin Ryan Acme
418 31 15947 Paul Hernandez Bicycle Johns
433 32 220302 Everett Hauser GS Adams Ave

Elings Park, Santa Barbara, 28Sept08

Arguably the most technically challenging course of the season is right here in our backyard!! I had my best race of the season and posted the fastest time of all Experts and Semi-pros. The course suited me well with the rough and beat-up descents, lots and lots of corners, and punchy climbs. I am certainly happy with the result and excited about my first 'cross race of the season next Sunday. My form and motivation is where I want it to be...and my bike is ready.

Picture courtesy of John Goodman Graphics.

Team report from team boss T. Booth to follow. I do know that we posted 6 wins and several additional podium placings. What an awesome team.

21Sept08 State Championships, Big Bear, CA

I hit the road at 5AM this morning to meet up with Platinum team boss Todd Booth for the 3 hour commute down to Big Bear with teammates Chester and S.Bertrand. I would have rather slept in a bit and arrived with less than 2 hours to spare before the race, but the opportunity to travel in Todd's environmentally friendly automobile was too hard to pass up.

With so much extra time it became my mission to find a Starbucks as soon as possible. We did. Todd passed on the pink smoothie this time probably as a result of bad memories of the motorcycle guy winking at him last time he sported the pinkie.

We arrived and did our thing and slacked off for an hour before suiting up and heading out for our warmups. The race started at 11AM and the course was the same one from earlier in the season with a long 2-3 mile double track climb followed by sections of sandy descents, rollers, sandy singletrack, hard singletrack climbing, and some good technical stuff.

The promoters elected to group Experts together so the fast groups ended up together (30-34, 35-39, 40-44, and 45-49) and we were off. The high altitude air was warm and dry and we started at ~6500 ft or so and climbed to a maximum of ~8000 ft. I started on the front row and two guys shot off the front. My plan was to ride steady at a comfortably painfully excruciating pace so I let the guys ride away, but kept them within site. The group behind me shattered, but Sho Air's hired gun from NorCal (C. Ross; 35-39 class) was sitting on my wheel for the 20 minute climb. He then took over on the descent and the subsequent flat and rolling section. He was hammering and I found myself in difficulty a few times, but mostly felt pretty comfortable. We caught one of the two guys up the road and asked what the situation was up in front. He told us that there was one guy left and that he was in my 30-34 class. I took that as my cue to do some work and took a hard turn up front as the 3 of us rode together for some time. Ross jumped ahead into the next sandy singletrack section and the other guy fought for his wheel so I gave it to him. Big mistake. Ross descends like a man possessed and he rode away from us. We excited the singletrack and I told him that he let the gap form and should work to close the gap. He wasn't going hard enough and so I surged off and bridged to Ross. Homeboy wasn't seen again. Ross and I continued to take turns and I lead through the most technical section of the course as well as up the hard and long singletrack section and ended up dropping him. I saw the lone last Expert up ahead amongst some Semi-pros and bridged up the group of 4. I passed them and surged when we exited the singletrack. I looked back momentary as my gap increased and didn't see Ross. I rode tempo up the last long climb and looked forward to the remaining doubletrack descent and the last reasonably knarly singletrack descent.

I was confident that I wouldn't again see Ross or the other Expert from my class and decided to descend conservatively and avoid flatting or an unneccesary crash. Yet Ross came flying by me on the doubletrack descent like a bat out of hell and I quickly picked up the pace and followed him to the finish as we hammered the singletrack moto style. I finished right on his wheel and subsequently spent 10 minutes trying to clear my lungs.

I finished the 24 mile course with 3300 ft of climbing in 1:46:30. Along with Ross this was the fastest Expert time on the day and would have been good enough for a Top 3 in the Semi-Pro class

Chester finished 2nd in the 19-29 Sport Class, Todd finished 2nd in the 35-39 Expert class, and Steve finished 5th in the 50-54 Sport class.

Excuse me while I go hack up another lung.

Cyclo-cross Nationals!

It has been months since I have posted. I have lots to talk about, but will save my banter, thoughts, obsessions, distractions, and psycho-babble for some other time.

Latest news is that I woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday while back East to register for the Kansas City Cyclo-cross Nationals. This will be my 4th year participating in 'cross 'nats!

Last year I raced in the ice and snow in the Killer-B and Masters 30-34 fields. After a 2nd place finish in the B's, I have officially upgraded and will be racing with the Elites both locally and at the bigger races. Tim Johnson, here I come brother! Ok, just please don't lap me.

Mt Snow Nationals – Expert 30-34 Trip Report & Lessons Learned

Photos courtesy of Goodman Graphic 2008!! Thanks John.

I haven’t written a race report in a long time. I apologize for the length and detail. Ignore if you don’t care, I won’t be offended….

John Goodman, Bobby Langin Sr, Terry, Todd and I all showed up for a weekend of fun and suffering at Mt Snow, VT last weekend. I have been racing for 25 years (including motocross days) and haven’t been nervous about a race in a very long time. This time around the bar was set so high that I was starting to question my ability to perform. In the condo there were discussions about designing next year’s Platinum jersey with the stars and stripes, comments about being a “shoe-in” to win, etc. In response I stated that this was going to be a hard race on a very hard course where a crash or a flat or poor preparation or lack of sleep or poor food choice could damper one’s plans. And, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

It has been a long time since I have raced at Mt Snow. I competed in the Cross Country Mountain Bike race as a beginner back in the early 90’s (a race I won) and then again as an expert before converting to Downhill as a semi-pro in the late 90’s. My memories of this venue are very clear. Very hard and steep climbing, hot and humid, lots of bugs, and knarly descending. Nothing has changed. The course was 5 miles and takes 30 minutes and change when fresh (my practice lap was faster than my average race lap) where 20+ minutes are spent climbing with the rest of the time spent eyes wide open, arms pounding, and kidneys jostling.

I did two practice laps on Friday. I was able to climb everything in the middle chainring and felt fast on the descents. It rained hard on Friday night and I woke up motivated and excited about the prospect of a very technically challenging course. The race started at 8AM and Bobby, Todd and I did some pretty hard climbs on the course as warm up. I felt pretty good. I got called up to the line first since apparently I had the highest USA cycling ranking of my field (not sure how that all works) and took off in the top 3. I sat comfortably in the top 5 up the long and steep first climb and attacked at the top to hit the first fire road descent in first. My confidence was soaring. I had a gap by the bottom of the first descent and climbed for most of the first lap in first with only one guy able to hang on. He passed me and quickly gapped me. It was clear that this guy was strong and was going to put me in the hurt bag real quick. I kept him within sight while hoping that my legs would improve, his would degrade, or both. At the top of the mountain, I hung on for dear life on the slippery descent and picked good lines and felt smooth and fast. I caught the guy that had put ~30 seconds into me within a few short minutes and gapped him immediately. I then hit the ground hard in a slippery corner and smacked my left knee and hip. I didn’t get passed but was immediately hurting with some serious pain in my hip. I hit the start finish area and looked back and guessed that I had 30 seconds on 2nd. Fearing this guy’s climbing strength, I decided to attack the first climb. My legs didn’t respond and I quickly got caught and passed. I decided to fall into a comfortable and steady rhythm but found myself in serious trouble. The climbs that I was able to do in my middle ring required that I drop into granny and I watched the leader ride away from me. I decided that my only chance was to descend fearlessly and I hit the descent and let it rip. When I passed my friends, father, and brother in the woods they told me that I was behind by 1 minute. I never saw him again. I was mentally beginning to accept defeat and found myself hoping that he would crack or I would be miraculously blessed with fresh legs and a clear head… And then I flatted! My gloves were soaking wet, mud was all over my bike and wheels and the flat took 5+ minutes to repair. Lame, I know. I changed the flat and limped to the finish in 6th. I believe I was about 7 minutes behind the leader and am sure that I would not have caught him.

My Dad was amazed after the race that I wasn’t disappointed. I told him that it has been a great season and that although I wanted to win I didn’t have luck on my side, nor did I prepare well; which leads to my 3 Lessons Learned.

#1 – Weight –

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, everyone in cycling knows it. Weight does matter. That is why there are weight weenies out there willing to spend $1k to reduce the weight of their machine by 1 pound. I declare that for every 1% weight gain, there will be an exact and proportional gain in time in any hilly road or mountain bike race. I weighed 145 pounds at Sea Otter and 150 pounds at Mt Snow. The gain in weight lost me over 1 minute per lap on the Mt Snow course or 3+ minutes overall. Of course, as TnA will argue, this is only true if all other things are equal (power, blah blah blah). I agree, but in short periods of time, power doesn’t swing +/- significantly unless there is a large increase or decrease in training. In my case my weight went up and power probably went down and not the other way around. Duh!

#2 – Cross training –

Don’t do it. It is impossible to do more than one sport and be very good at both, or either one for that matter. I picked up running for a few months. It had a huge negative impact on my cycling fitness. Duh!

#3 – Training –

We all struggle with balancing work, family life, and training. This is a three sided triangle just like the Schedule-Budget-Performance triangle for Program Management which says that if your performance requirements increase that either your schedule will slip or your budget will be compromised, or both. So, if the work or family sides of your triangle shifts, it will compromise your training (very obvious yes). So, in my case, my work life got more complicated which is good because the complication is a result of growth and opportunity, but my training was impacted in a huge way. My training hours were down, and there were periods where I couldn’t ride for days at a time. My mistake was that I tried to “make up” for lost time by doing 100+/6hr+ weekend rides. Not bad if I am training for the RAM, but not very smart when training for a 2 hour sufferfest. Duh!

Are those Lessons or Excuses? Depends if I learn from them or not. Only time will tell if I do.

In closure, I would be remise if I didn't acknowledge Terry Dahl's huge effort resulting in becoming the new 65+ National Champ! Awesome job Terry.

"Gap" Fire!!

Wow, scary. I was riding home from work at 8pm last night and saw the helicopters and planes dumping fire retardant on the hills up behind my house. I could see the fire clearly during my entire 6 mile commute home. I got home, put on the news, and started packing up some valuables. I slept restlessly on the couch while on "evacuation warning" and then finally headed to my bed with my phone ringer on. I am safely at work now...with my car full of bikes. Yeah, I am not kidding.

Dad's trip + Cold Turkey Updated

My Dad and Stepmother stayed with me for the past 2 weeks. It was a great time. We cooked meals every night, ate well, drank wine, and did a bunch of riding and siteseeing. We get along phenomenally well and have done innumerous trips and activities together: Motocross all over the east coast in the 80's (Dad was coach, mechanic and driver), mountain bike races in the 90's (Dad was racer, mechanic, and driver) and cross country ski and mountaineering trips (Mt Hood and Rainier) in the 00's.

Here are some shots of us together last weekend.

In other news, I haven't done a road race for the past 5 weekends. After such an intense spring, it seems sort of strange, but I have done 2 mountain bike races so it isn't like I have gone completely cold Turkey. The race yesterday was at Big Bear at 8,000 feet elevation. Big Bear is only 3 hours away and is pretty sweet. Otherwise, I am running (Nite Moves 5k weekly), doing yoga and lifting while still riding as much as I can. I have gained 6 pounds and feel it big time in the climbs, but I feel better balanced anyway.

Events to come: Mt Snow Nationals July 19th, Santa Barbara Duathlon October 12th, Santa Barbara Half Marathon November 1st and a few other local mtn bike races.

I will be back East from the 6th through the 16th of June. In NYC for a guy's reunion with 9 childhood and college friends this weekend, in training in Providence for 5 days, in Boston to see friends and check out my condo on the 14th and in Connecticut to see friends and family and celebrate Father's Day on the 15th. Ohh yeah.

Cold Turkey!

I stopped road racing cold turkey a few weeks ago. I just woke up one morning and decided that I wanted to experience the diversity of activiity that I previously enjoyed back in Boston. Before: Cycling, Weight training, hiking, Jogging, Boxing, Skiing, Snowboarding, Tennis. Now: Cycling. It can become all consuming and it did. Especially with the time constraints as a result of a demanding career. So, I have decided to back off on the racing and do other things I enjoy. I have refound my passion for the Dirt. The variety, the descending, jumping logs, technical terrain....all good stuff. I have done a ton of hiking. Trail running. A 5k race. I may start swimming. Kayaking? Do a duathlon? Marathon? Triathlon? Adventure Race? Bring it. Dirt baby!!!

Picture from SY National courtesy of John Goodman. Thanks!

Devil's Punchbowl

This race is my nemesis. So damn hard. Last year I worked too hard in the 3's and cracked in half mid race. This year, the P12 race was almost twice as long featuring 5-16 mile laps for a total of 80 hard miles with 7500 feet of climbing in 85+ degree heat.

There were about 45 guys at the start including Cal Strawberries, 5 Star Fish, LaGrange and Rock Racing. I felt fairly strong the first 2 times up the long hard climb. True to form in hard P12 races, I got dropped half way into the race on the knarliest of cross-wind sections. I was "guttered" and couldn't get a draft from the echelon and the Rock Racing and 5-Star fish guys were drilling it on the front. I mentally gave up for the first time this season and just sat up and thought "screw this". It hurt so bad. I contemplated giving up but decided that I needed to finish the race and guys were popping off everywhere so we established a 4-7 man group and crawled our way to the finish. I finished 16th.

Racing with Pro dudes is hard.

New guy Seth got a strong 2nd place finish in the 4's and Smitty pulled off a 13th in the 3's. My P12 teammates bailed on me. Marco was sick. Cookie was at Bed Bath and Beyond...again.

Sea Otter BRAAAAP

I forgot how damn fun mountain biking can be. I got in my second ride of the year on the fat tires and did the 38 mile Sea Otter Classic today. I have never felt so good during a mtn bike race in my life. The course was great with some hard and long climbs and some awesome moto-style descending and singletrack. I won my class by a healthy margin but more importantly had an absolute blast. My time would have me in 4th in the semi-Pro division and 30th with the big boys so we'll see if I decide to keep at it and go play with the Semi-pros sometime soon.

Our amazing team manager TBooth pulled off a 4th place in his competitive group and I will have to fish through the rest of the results tomorrow to see how the rest of the team did.

I also did the Cat 2 circuit race on Thursday and got 9th. I was hoping for a placing, but blew it when I was with the guy who ended up winning and let him drop me on the descent after we put a good gap on the field on the Laguna Seca climb. Stupid!! Fun weekend, though.

Steamin' Ojai

I am fukin' stoked.

I woke up early yesterday morning dreaming about winning the Cat2 Ojai Circuit race. I didn't win the sucker but felt damn good, had a blast, and finished 3rd. The course is awesome. It is a one mile lap with a zinger of a short climb that makes it interesting. Except for not winning, I think I played the tactics right. Ended up bridging up to a small break at one point that I thought might stick, but a motivated field kept things together. The last climb was all out on the front of the field and I hit the top in 3rd and held that position through the last corner and across the finish. Good stuff.

See Marco's blog for a robust write-up at marcofanelli.blogspot.com.

See John Goodman's website for lots of great pictures at http://www.goodmangraphic.com/extras/glmojai2008/index_3.html
Putting in some digs on the climb2nd through 4th separated by 1/2 wheel length!

IV Classic - STACKED!

Can you say STACKED field?
Yeah, I tried to get away once. Haha, NEGATIVE!


Quick update: The race was stacked with the Pro teams in town for tomorrow's NRC race in Ojai, CA. Lots of big teams and big names came out to warm up with a nice and leisurely 29.5mph avg, 75minute race. Oh yeah. It was fast, it was fun, and at times it stung.

I felt good and tried to ride towards the front and got into the mix a bit. When the Successful Living and Time Pro teams got their "trains" going up to 34mph for the last 4 laps, I worked up and jumped onto the Time train. I finished 13th. Am I happy with that? Hell yeah.

Cookie rode aggresively and jumped onto the 5 Star fish train that unfortunately got derailed. He then hit up Babies R Us.

See Marco's blogs for all of the Team Platinum and local SB results. Thanks to John Goodman for the awesome pics.

San Dimas Stage Race + Goals revisited

See Marco's post for an awesome summary of last weekend's SDSR shiznit.

My race didn't go according to plan. I set a goal of finishing Top 5 thinking that I could rock the 3.8 mile uphill TT on Day 1. I was confident due to my increased TT power and some focussed training on the TT bike, but yet I could only pull 18th of 96starters. Excuses? Sure. I hate the headwind and end up struggling in its' presence. Haven't done as much climbing since I have been "focussing on my weaknesses". Shit, I just didn't go as fast as I shoulda/coulda. I'm over it. On Day 2's RR my goal was to get into a break with always-strong Gunn-W and Githens. They were my breakaway partners at Merced and I was sure that we would see a repeat. And repeat they did. They went on the punchy climb on lap 4 while I was eating a gu and going slow. They stayed away. The plan for Day 3's crit was to sit in and provide a lead lead out for teammate Cookie. We almost pulled off another good Cookie/Douville showing with me sitting 2nd wheel and him 4th wheel for the last few corners. The guy who won was Boonen's size (I had to push him on the second to last corner to preserve 2nd wheel) and attacked right before the last corner. Cookie jumped but faded on the final stretch finishing 7th. I got 4th.

I was joking with my teammates after the race that I was going to lower the bar, train less, go to the gym, get back to 165lbs and race crits exclusively.

But instead I have revisited my Goals and am ready to train harder.

Road Goal - Upgrade to Cat 1 this year
Mtn Goal - Win Masters National Champs 30-34 (I better start riding in the dirt)
Cross Goal - Top 5 SoCal Series

Bring it.

Hell of the North…

Otherwise known as a trip through Copperopolis... Teammate Smitty and I headed up on Friday afternoon on a 6 hour drive to the lovely community of Oakdale, California, which is about 100 miles from nowhere. On Saturday morning we drove another 1/2 hour to a random grain silo (or something) in Milton, the starting point for the Copperopolis Road Race. Copperopolis is one of the older races in the state and it is billed as the "Paris-Roubaix of California." It seemed like 21.8 miles of the 22 mile loop is on cracked, broken, and patched pavement, complete with deep, open potholes, large rocks, and the occasional random pile of gravel. Each lap featured about 1400 feet of climbing, with one long climb right near the start, and one shorter punchy climb right before a long twisty, bumpy decent to the finishing climb.

In the P1/2 race, we completed 5 laps for a total of 109 miles and 7000 ft of climbing. There were 82 starters. It was cold to start and the first climb started a few short miles into the race. The horrendous pavement conditions (picture East Camino Cielo) negates any ability to get a rhythm, and wears out your body like nothing else. I did ok on first lap, but got dropped along with like 50 guys on the second lap on the main climb when the Canadian road champ (Symmetrics) was killing it on the front. There was a small group (4 guys or so) up ahead including a BMC guy so I didn’t think the pace would be so hard but when I looked at my power meter and saw 400W for several minutes I knew I was doomed. In hindsight, since I fared better on subsequent laps, I think what hurt me on that climb was I was pushing the big chainring and my legs nearly seized up, but thankfully a handful of us that got dropped kept the dwindling main group in sight and quickly caught back on. At this point my goal was to finish…period. I climbed better on 3rd lap and stayed in the main group which was down to maybe 30 guys but someone let a gap form on the horrendously hard crosswind section and I again had to chase back on the descent. I survived the 4th lap climb with main group, but got stuck AGAIN behind on the crosswind section and was dropped for good. I did 1.5 laps with a group of 8 and was able to sneak away from that group when I surged on final climb before
descent. Finished 28th (5hrs 17mins; 20.6mph avg), but note below that more than half of the racers didn’t finish. I noted BMC and Cal Berry racers on the side of the road and in the feed zone on the last lap and suspect that they had done their work and were resting for the next race. Other guys were popping off the back at various times during the remaining laps. It was hard. I was useless at the end of the race and thankfully Smitty was good enough to drive for the first 3 hours of the return trip. It took me several hours of eating and drinking to recover and get my head back on straight. I got home, took a shower and went straight to bed. Woke up after 10 hours of sleep and decided to do the 3hr “Sunday Worlds” ride where local pros Ramsey, Olson, O’Reilly showed up on a day that I thought would be tame due to the holiday. I was wrong. I had recovered reasonably well and was able to put in a good training session and then went on a 4 hr Paradise-to-Gibraltor Dam hike where wading through stream crossings made for an epic and fun adventure in the 86 degree heat. Your author is dumb.

Smitty had a good race and rode strong, finishing 10th in the main pack and 14th overall in a stacked Cat 3 field. He did 4 laps, 86 miles in 4 hours and change and had sufficient energy to get us home. Thanks Steve!!

Cat 1/2/Pro, Field 82
1 84 Taylor TOLLESON BMC Professional Racing Team
2 89 Cam Evans Symmetrics
3 20 jonathan garcia BMC Professional Racing Team
4 32 Andy Jacques-Maynes California Giant Berry Farms/
5 27 todd Hennings Pacific State Bank Cycling Tea
6 59 Mark Santurbane California Giant Berry Farms/
7 61 michael sayers BMC Professional Racing Team
8 47 Jesse Moore California Giant Berry Farms/
9 71 Devon Vigus California Giant Berry Farms/
10 52 scott nydam BMC Professional Racing Team
11 17 Timothy Farnham Team Norcal Bike Sport
12 25 Ken Hanson California Giant Berry Farms/
13 7 Dan Bryant Specialized/Sierra Nevada
14 42 James Mattis California Giant Berry Farms/
15 30 John Hunt California Giant Berry Farms/
16 53 Osvaldo Olmos California Giant Berry Farms/
17 69 Chris Turner Page Mill Racing
18 57 Uthman Ray IV ZteaM
19 55 Vincent Owens Sierra Pacific Racing
20 78 David Quist Team Clif Bar
21 16 david everett bpg/montano velo
22 18 Dave Galvin BMC Professional Racing Team
23 26 UNKNOWN RIDER
24 63 John Staroba Team Norcal Bike Sport
25 4 Ryan Bennett Adobe/HDR presented by Lombard
26 38 Chris Lieto California Giant Berry Farms/
27 73 John Wilk Sierra Pacific Racing
28 12 Gary Douville Platinum Racing Team
29 21 Dominic Giampaolo Webcor/Alto Velo
30 82 James MILLER NorCal Elite Cycling
31 49 Eric NITSCHKE lombardi sports
32 28 Micah Herman VOS Racing
33 23 Kalen Gruber Easton/Sugar CRM/Specialized
34 19 Gregory Gambetta Specialized/Sierra Nevada
35 88 Norman ZELLERS Great Basin Imaging Cycling Te
36 29 Ariel Herrmann Pacific State Bank Cycling Tea
DQ 72 Markus Weinberg Kahala-La Grange
DNP 1 David Albrecht Owens Health Care
DNP 2 Andrew Barlow Team NorCal Bike Sport
DNP 3 Aaron Beardsley Wells Fargo Racing Team
DNP 6 Patrick Briggs California Giant Berry Farms/
DNP 8 Michael Buckley Morgan Stanley/Specialized
DNP 9 Chris Coble The Olympic Club
DNP 11 Mark DETERLINE Wells Fargo Racing Team
DNP 13 Alton Dunnigan McGuire Cycling Team
DNP 14 Martin Erlandsson ZteaM
DNP 15 Jonathan Eropkin VOS Racing
DNP 22 Peter Graf Wells Fargo Racing Team
DNP 24 Ken Hanson California Giant Berry Farms/
DNP 31 Joseph IANNARELLI team precision
DNP 33 Christopher Jones Team Type 1
DNP 34 Christian Kearney ZteaM
DNP 36 Taylor Kuphaldt Davis Bike Club
DNP 37 Aroussen Laflamme Webcor-AltoVelo team
DNP 39 Ian Lockley East Bay Velo Club
DNP 43 Sean McBride BPG/ Montano Velo
DNP 44 Jesse Mendonca Adobe/HDR p/b Lombardi Sports
DNP 45 Keith Miller California Giant Berry Farms/
DNP 46 Nathan Miller BMC Racing Team
DNP 48 Doran Mori Team Clif Bar Cycling
DNP 50 Chance Noble Scary Fast
DNP 51 Thomas Novikoff Cambiamento D'Andaturo-Team Co
DNP 54 luca ortolani NA
DNP 56 Andrew Randell Symmetrics Cycling
DNP 58 Sean Rhea Metromint Cycling on Marin Bik
DNP 60 Bradley Saul OrganicAthlete's Team Vegan
DNP 62 Kevin KING Contra Costa Cycling Club
DNP 64 Jackson STEWART BMC Racing Team
DNP 65 Keith Szolusha Pacific State Bank Cycling Tea
DNP 66 Michael Telega California Giant Berry Farms/
DNP 68 Mitchell Trux Metromint Cycling on Marin Bik
DNP 70 Ian Tuttle Above Category Racing
DNP 74 David YAKAITIS Jamis
DNP 75 Adam SWITTERS UCI CT: Rock Racing
DNP 76 Matthew WILLINGER BPG/Montano Velo
DNP 77 Elliot JARAMILLO BPG/Montano Velo
DNP 79 Mark BARNUM Bollo Racing
DNP 80 Andres GIL Delta Velo
DNP 81 Josh Snend BPG/Montano Velo
DNP 83 Jonathan COULTER Alto Velo Racing Club
DNP 85 Ryan PARNES Metromint Cycling on Marin Bik
DNP 86 Paul KRONSER SLO Nexus Cycling Club
DNP 89 Brent Bookwalter BMC Racing Team