Rider Profiles: Jason Ferrier

Jason's in his second year with the team. He's best known for riding Single Speed Cyclocross worlds on a Surly Big Dummy a year ago.



1. Name:
Jason Lee Ferrier

2. What do you do for a living:
Currently Unemployed - specialized in Magento open source ecommerce platform deployment / web programming

3. What category or categories do you race in? How long have you been racing?
MTB: Sport under 35
CX: B's. If i wanted to sandbag, I would race in C's but I'm afraid of all those new riders without the proper skills. The dilemma: place top 10 consistently in C's or place in bottom half of B's ....

I started mountain bike racing in 2005 at Penn State. When I was living out of a hotel near Baltimore, Maryland for my job I started racing cross there.

4. What's your best bike accomplishment, or the one you're most proud of?
Having the technical skills from learning in real rock gardens in Pennsylvania to keep up with other mountain bikers on either my cross bike or my rigid mountain bike while they are on their full suspensions.

5. What should people yell at you to make you go faster?
You think your cross bike is pink enough?

6. What's your favorite post-race beverage.
Cold, strong beer. That's only after I am done feeling like puking after giving everything I have for the last sprint.

7. What else should your fans know about you?
I like pink bike accessories.

Bay Area Super Prestige #1: McLaren Park (Part 2: The Afternoon)

(part 1)

The weather took a turn for the worse in the afternoon, getting colder and windier. It made it hard for the spectators, and in some cases hard for the racers.

The women's A/B/Masters race went off around noon. We didn't have an A racer, but something like a quarter of the B field was Sheila Moon racers. Kathryn and Arena are coming back for their second year of Bs, Emily and May moved up from the Cs this year, Jenny comes straight from the track to Bs, and Caitlin has come over from another team. So with 6 riders in a (vastly improved from last year) field of 23, we were set to make some noise.

Kathryn led the Moonies home and on to the podium with a 5th.

(photo by Mark Woloschuk)

Caitlin followed with a top ten.

(photo by Jon Suzuki)

Arena,


Jenny (in her first cross race),


May (on her sweet new Rock Lobster),


and Emily (of whom I cannot find a picture, dammit) all finished strong for the team. Of particular note was that May had a flat on the last lap, and chose to ride it in, rather than try to get a new wheel.

Because Lauren goes her own way, she spurned the B field to line up with the Hard Women in the Masters division.


For the first time in a couple years, we fielded two Elite Men.


Steven had a Series of Unfortunate Events, that included three bike changes (including at least one that was the slowest I've ever seen).

Krishna, in the meantime, clawed his way from the back row to 14th. I think he needs to get a better start position.


The final race of the day was the B men and Singlespeed Bs. We had three racers in the open Bs, including Joe, Jason and Mat.







The Single speed Bs gave us the best results of the day, as Evan tuned in a strong second, and I (it turns out, as I find out 5 days later) scrabbled on to the theoretical podium in 5th.





Overall, we had a great day, marred mostly by, um, overzealous park rangers cramping our refreshment style.

We served up some tasty food, though!


Surf City #1 is this weekend. We look forward to some more excellent times.

Bay Area Super Prestige #1: McLaren Park (Part 1: Morning Races)

The Moonies were out in force for the first race of the year in the Bay Area Super Prestige Series. We fielded 20 racers for the day, and fed substantially more. Unfortunately, our keg was intercepted by the park rangers, so we were forced to make do with the cans we could smuggle in.



McLaren Park has a reputation as a very hard course. It includes a brutal run up, several tough climbs, and some nasty, bumpy stuff on the downhills. We were able to manage pretty well (since most of us have mountain biking roots), but the course took its toll, for sure.

The gigantic (over 100 racers!) C men went off slightly after 9am. Moonies ended up from 29th to 95th at the end.

Ted Ketai proved that the huge miles he's been putting in does matter, by posting his best cross finish ever.



Scott Crosby led the Moonie contingent.


Brian and Derrick also had good results.





and Lee fought through some mechanical issues to finish respectably


(if that chain looks dodgy, it's because it wasn't particularly acquainted with the chainring at the moment)

Next up was the Masters B race. Mark Woloschuk and I represented the Moon Machine in this race.



Unfortunately, the results from this race are not yet posted, but I think we did pretty well. As usual, the lack of a good starting position came back to haunt us. The race bottlenecked drastically just after the initial run up, and anyone who didn't hit that in the first dozen or so certainly had his work cut out for him.

Morgan Fletcher was our sole representative in the A Masters race. He was somewhat hampered by his participation in the Gran Fondo the day before: 103 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing will do that to you!

(images by Moonies Mark, May, Ted, and Lee)

Rider Profiles: Mat Davidson

Another in our rider profiles series. "Michigan" Mat's new to the Moon Machine this year, and is most famous for this quote from his introductory email:

I love cross almost as much as I love Death Metal, and what could be
more Metal than crushing some dreams while dressed like girl?

Indeed.



1. Name:
"Michigan" Mat Davidson

2. What do you do for a living:
Software engineer

3. What category or categories do you race in? How long have you been
racing?
High-Cs, low B's - road and CX
Sport - MTB
Racing for 3 years

4. What's your best bike accomplishment, or the one you're most proud
of?
CCCX '08/'09 Cat C cyclocross champion

5. What should people yell at you to make you go faster?
"is that the best you've got"?

6. What's your favorite post-race beverage.
Java-Monster "Mean Bean" energy drink

7. What else should your fans know about you?
I've got roots in BMX and dirt-jumping, so hang out by the barriers to see some good bunnyhops

Rider Profiles: Jenny Oh

Jenny's new to our team, but is a legend in Bay Area cycling circles. We're really pleased to have her with us this year.


(Photo by Flickr user mnorri)

1. Name:
Jenny Oh

2. What do you do for a living?
Interactive Associate Producer on KQED's QUEST - a multimedia series that explores Northern California science, environment and nature.


3. What category or categories do you race in? How long have you been racing?
This is the first season that I'll be officially racing cross! I'm a recent transplant to the Bay Area and moved here from New York City about 3 years ago. My first foray into racing was track racing at the Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose, California over 2 years ago. I'd only heard of cyclocross upon moving here, and I'd never thought I'd join the ranks of racing around on dirt, jumping over barriers, running up hills , and hopping off and on my bike; it's quite different from the NASCAR-like scenario of the track. I'll be racing with the B's women this year and hopefully my injuries will be minor and my stories will be epic!

4. What's your best bike accomplishment, or the one you're most proud of?
I'm most proud of taking my cycling passion to the next level by being competitive at a local level. It's a fantastic community here and I'm looking forward to having fun and pushing my own personal limits! Also, winning a special award for riding around in an oversized Hello Kitty outfit at this year's final DFL race was pretty sweet.

5. What should people yell at you to make you go faster?
They're gaining on you!

6. What's your favorite post-race beverage?
Water followed by whiskey.

7. What else should your fans know about you?
I love bacon hand-ups.

Rider Profiles: Kathryn Aaker

(photo by May Woo)
Another in our series of rider profiles. Kathryn's one of the original Moonies and stepped up onto the B women's podium last year.

1. Name:
Kathryn "Squishy" Aaker

2. What do you do for a living:
Self-employed nerd.

3. What category or categories do you race in? How long have you been racing?
This is my 3rd year racing anything, ever. I'm hoping I can stick around in Women's Bs for a bit longer. I'm pretty happy hovering on the lower steps of a podium; it's just the right balance between a bit of glory and lack of pressure!

4. What's your best bike accomplishment, or the one you're most proud of?
I was pretty happy to ride the SSCXWC on a townie bike. The bell definitely came in handy, as did the whiskey flask.

5. What should people yell at you to make you go faster?
"Last lap!" (I lose count after the 2nd lap, so it's encouraging to hear that it's almost over, even if it's a lie.)

6. What's your favorite post-race beverage.
Fox Craft Hard Cider

7. What else should your fans know about you?
Like much of our team, I was recruited at a bar, with my only qualification being a recently acquired cyclocross bike. I said yes somewhere between a sip of booze and a bite of sausage.

Photo by Arena Reed

Rider Profiles: Ted Ketai

This post starts a series of profiles we're doing of the riders on the team. We'll post these periodically over the course of the first part of the cross season.

First up: Ted Ketai. This is Ted's second cross season with us, and probably deserves this year's Most Improved award on the mountain bike side.


(photo by Cyclocross Magazine)


1. Name?
Ted Ketai
2. What do you do for a living?
R&D Engineer, Medical Devices
3. What category or categories do you race in? How long have you been
racing?
Sport or C's
4. What's your best bike accomplishment, or the one you're most proud
of?
Finishing Downieville XC twice so far.
5. What should people yell at you to make you go faster?
"Way to persevere!" (I HATE this)
6. What's your favorite post-race beverage.
Hefeweisen mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with lemonade
7. What else should your fans know about you?
I'm trying to fill my house up with bikes.