Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Four Races and a Clinic

Decisions, decisions...chances are if you live in the Northern California/Nevada district you won't have to travel very far for some cyclocross action this weekend. First off, on Saturday we have new White Hill School Cyclocross Race in Fairfax, and of course the Sacramento Halloween Race at Negro Bar. Sunday's racing heats up at Nor-cal's favorite venue - the Watsonville Fairgrounds - for Velo Bella's Halloween-themed "Spirit of Surf City Race", as well as the Sagebrush race at Hidden Valley Park in Reno.

If that's not enough, Velo Bella is putting on their final clinic Saturday with yet another star-studded cast of instructors including Ben Jacques-Maynes, Stella Carey, Carmen D'Aluisio, and Barb Howe - learn from the pros, for real!

The forecast calls for spectacular weather (sunny but not too hot) so bring your friends out for some fun in the sun!

See the Calendar for more details.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Shelly Olds and Justin Robinson Scorch the Stick

Shelly Olds and Justin Robinson each prevailed in the 2nd race of the Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige Series at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Pilarcitos boys put together a humdinger of a course that featured crazy-fast flats with crazy-technical corners and dismounts/remounts. In the Women's A Race, saw a tight battle between Rachel Lloyd and Shelly Olds, with Olds (HRS/Rock Lobster) taking the win after Lloyd suffered a couple of dropped chains, with Stella Carey holding on to the 3rd spot. Mike Hernandez put together a great report on the race - thanks Mike! Congratulations to Shelly for her first big win in a BASP race.

The Men's race saw Justin Robinson (Cal Giant) cooly ride away from a group of five riders, with Josh Snead and Mark Noble rounding out the top 3. I put together a report from my experience here.

The Masters 35+ event saw yet another tight race, with Steve Reaney (Cal Giant) outsprinting Alan Coates, and Henry Kramer finishing 3rd.

Other winners included Jeremy Blalock (Juniors - Ventana MTB's), Rob "Buckwheat" Meighan (M45+ - Willow Glen Bikeshop), John Elgart (M55+ - Webcor/Alto Velo), and Cathy Crawford-Walle (M35+ Women - Nor Cal Velo). Results are posted here, also check ou the race reports blog for more photos and reports.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Sacramento, Bay Area Super Prestige Races This Weekend, Sycip Candlestick Clinic Sat

Another great weekend of racing and weather on the menu with two races on the schedule. Linda Elgart is promising a fair amount of GRASS for Saturday's Sac race at Rancho Seco.

Sunday's Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige race returns to Candlestick park for what should be another fast and technical cross course, should be a great turnout. BTW bring sunscreen!

For those of you who would like to hone your cyclocross skills, improve your training, or learn something new, we're putting on the Sycip Cyclocross Clinic on Saturday at 1pm at Candlestick. Come join me and my cross-crazy teammates and learn some new stuff, sample some Clif products, and get dialed on the course for Sunday's Pilarcitos race. All levels welcome and encouraged!

Weekend Wrap-up - Wicks, Lloyd take Surf City Opener

A little late with the weekend wrap-up here...sorry. The Velo Bella crew laid out a fabulous course at Soquel High School for Sunday's Surf City opener. Racers were greeted with perfect racing weather and a challenging course over varied terrain including gravel, dirt, pavement, and even a little grass and featuring many off-camber sections and technical sections. In the Women's race, Rachel Lloyd (Proman/Paradigm) continued her dominance while Sarah Kerlin (Velo Bella/Kona) battled back from early troubles to 2nd, and Josie Beggs (CA Giant Strawberry) was solid in 3rd. In the Men's race, Barry Wicks (Kona) took control early and never looked back, with Ben (Cyclocrossworld.com) and Andy (CA Giant Strawberry) Jacques-Maynes rounding out the podium. The Master's 35+ saw yet another nailbiter with Henry Kramer (CA Giant Strawberry) taking top honors. The Junior A races were won by Logan Loader and Lainey Aldridge. Congrats to all the winners in all categories...see the official results as well as the Race Reports blog for more reports and photos.

Kudos to Velo Bella for a fun day with great racing, and of course, that great vibe you can only get at a Velo Bella race. Also, great job putting on the Kiddie Kross Kids race, there's the future of our sport right there...

Also, back East there was some UCI action in Maine (Sat, Sun) and Ohio with Christine Vardaros, Joshua Snead, and Chris McGovern all giving good performances.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Velo Bella Kick-Off and Clinic, Districts Announced, 'Stick Clinic

This weekend kicks off the Velo Bella Surf City Cyclocross Series Race #1 at Soquel High School, promising a great course and great fun to be had by all. Velo Bella will also be putting on a star-studded clinic on Saturday with many of Nor-Cal's heavy-hitters on-hand to give their expert advice to anyone who wishes to learn and/or improve their CX skills. Online registration ends tonight (Thurs 8PM PST), by the way.

This just in...the 2006 NCNCA District Cyclocross Championships have been officially announced. The Pilarcitos crew will be putting on the event in conjunction with the final race of the Bay Area Super Prestige Series (a.k.a. CCCP) on December 3rd at Coyote Point. The Nor-Cal promoters can now breathe a sigh of relief that they will no longer be pestered about a date for Districts.

One last note: Sycip Racing will be putting on a clinic next Saturday, Oct. 21st on the Pilarcitos BASP Candlestick course (race is Sunday 10/22). I will be leading the clinic aided by my able and cross-crazy teammates. Newbies to advanced crossers welcome. Pre-ride the course for Sunday. Click here for more details.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Pilarcitos #1 and News from "Glosta"

Helluva day at Hellyer yesterday for the Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige kick-off. Many of the elite were back East but it seems everyone else in Nor-Cal was at the race. In the Men's A race Mark Noble rode away from the field, and Mike Hernandez having a fine ride in second. The Women's race saw the return of Rachel Lloyd, tho apparently she had her hands full with Shelly Olds much of the race, and Stella came in a solid 3rd. Steve Reaney won an exciting M35+ race. See the Pilarcitos Results as well as the Race Reports Blog for other reports.

Back East, many of the Nor-Cal Elite were dicing it up at USGP#1 in the annual Gloucester weekend that East Coasters have taken to call "East Coast Nationals" (Day One, Day Two). Looking at the results this has to be the deepest Elite field I've seen in a non-Natz race, with some damn fast guys getting LAPPED, even. Anyhow, the Nor-Cal gang were there in force with Ben and Andy Jacques-Maynes, and Sarah Kerlin having solid top 10 performances both days.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Weekend Wrap-up - AJM Wins in NW and More

Sorry about the site issues we've been having the last few days - our Feed provider changed the RSS format of our feeds without our knowing - should be fixed now*. First off, a big congratulations to Andy Jacques-Maynes who scored the first big win for the Nor-Cal gang up at the Star-Crossed Cyclocross Race in Washington. Kudos as well, to Chris McGovern for picking up 4th place - he is definitely stepping it up to the next level this season. BJM and Christine Vardaros had solid performances back East this weekend (Delaware, New York). Locally, we had Sac, Sagebrush and CCCX races - see the race reports section for more...

* by the way, if you have subscribed to one of our Feedburner feeds and it has stopped working, I just changed the RSS format to be RSS 2.0 only - Feedburner's Smart Feeds don't seem to be working for my hand-built server-side parser. If you have problems with this, please let me know and I'll look into other options.