Skyline!

The annual race at Napa's Skyline Park is a real mountain bike race. Tough climbs, butt-puckering descents, and enough carnage that I can claim I was being cautious, not slow.

I am always surprised how low the turnout is for this race. Fewer than 150 people for some of the best technical racing this side of the Sierras. Still, the riding and racing are great, and we turned out in force (flowery force!).

The results sheet was highlighted by Krishna Dole's second place in Expert Men.



The field was pretty skewed toward the more experienced, wiht very light turnout in the beginner classes. Chris Kohlhardt took second in beginner men. May Woo was the class of the beginner women's field.

Carrie Edwards had an uncharacteristically undistinguished race, ending up mid-pack in Expert women.



Davin and I also competed for the most mediocre prize, finishing mid-pack in Sport 19-34 and 35-44 respectively. Morgan and Mike didn't have great races either, although Mike, at least, was funny about it.



I crashed pretty thoroughly when we prerode the course (and managed to top it off with a dose of poison oak), and managed to have myself pretty psyched out for this race. It took me something like a lap and a half (out of two) to really get my racing head in gear. Which is not a recipe for success. I did manage not to crash, though, and once I got past a guy I'd been dicing with for the last 4 miles at the top of the last climb, I finally let it all hang out, and managed to hold him off.

This is still one of my favorite courses we do, even though I was pretty mediocre this time.

(photos from George Denison McNamara)