Spirit of Surf City Cyclocross race in Santa Cruz

so the yearly Halloween race went down this weekend in santa cruz. it was a blast as usual. our ladies turned in some fine performances as did our higher ranked men. stephan was faster than lightning and arena grabbed the hole shot like nobody's business. we had our saint louis contingent chris & carrie come out and they were stellar as usual too, despite a woman at the start line toppling over onto them and knocking them both to the ground right at the start of their race. davin was all smiles for his race and one of our men's A's riders chris twisted his ankle before his practice lap and had to sit out; bummer. although kathryn didn't race, she was dressed up like an angry bumble-bee and her tagline was "i punch bee's in the face!"
here's a couple of video clips:


Surf City Cyclocross Women's start from daten on Vimeo.


Arena gets the hole shot! from daten on Vimeo.


Luna Moon, Taco and random dog from daten on Vimeo.

Bay Area Super Prestiege #1 - McClaren Park

everyone was fired up for the first big Pilarcitos season opener at SAn Francisco's McClaren Park. What a surprise it was, after a week of 80 degree temperatures to be able to see your breath all day long. it was really cold out there! i wonder if it even made it to 50 degrees. lot's of peeps were shivering and huddling together to stay warm. it didn't really matter though, we still killed the whole keg and blew through a case of smoked brats. we even made a good showing in the race for our team! here's a couple of videos. one is the men's A's and singlespeeders and the other is the men's B'tards.


2008 Bay Area Super Presitege Men's A's and Singlespeeders from daten on Vimeo.


2008 Bay Area Super Prestige #1 Men's B from daten on Vimeo.




a much better video that anything i've ever done by May Woo!

Pilarcitos Cyclocross 2008 - Race #1 McLaren Park from May Woo on Vimeo.

Medals for Moons --- Emily & Arena Podium at LARPD

This was my first cross race ever and I wasn't dfl! It was a lot of fun. Thanks to May Woo for motivating and the photos!!

PISTADEX! PISTADEX! PISTADEX!

so it's not just an urban legend!

biksnob n.y.c. is always throwing the term 'Pistadex' around.

someone very clever made it into a reality, with hilarious results...

pistadex.com

it's even an iPhone ap.

words fail me.

I Podiumed!

Okay okay, there were only 5 people in the Masters 35+ B category at today's Livermore cross race, but I came in fourth and got to stand on the podium!  The course was non-technical, fun and pretty flat -- lots of twisty serpentines in the grass and plenty of deep mulch.  They got us on and off our bikes a couple of times with a pair of standard in and out barriers as well as a natural set of log barriers at the end of the far loop.  There was a decent sized crew out for the first cyclocross race of the season.  

Overheard at the start line of the Men's B, Master As and various and sundry other male categories just before the group took off:  9 year old little girl to her mother in a perfectly matter of fact manner, "Do people die doing this?" 

Come out and play next weekend!

Single Speed Worlds... WOW!

So... MASSIVE PROPS TO CURTIS INGLIS!!!

the event curtis inglis of retrotec bikes/inglis cycles put on, the SSWC'08 was FANTASTIC!

i took the team up for the day and i've got to tell you, it was one of the most well run, well planned events i've been to in a long time. way to go curtis!

the ever fabulous sheila moon rocked the whole event in the newest skinsuit design and it looked like it needed a battery pack to be that bright. it was so bright, that when she rode by, sunshine seemed to follow her. barb howe was hot on the men's leaders heels in her new kit too. way to go barb and sheila!

we had a couple of other racers entered- johnny b and jason. those guys crushed it too. great job. i had to sit on the sidelines and heckle due to a lingering injury, but not to be bummed out, we kept heckeling the racers in a difficut technical section. my cameras memory card went haywire, so sadly i don't have any video to show this time. i'll get that fixed ASAP.

Pine Mountain first impressions

We recently received our Marin Pine Mountain singlespeed 29ers. The main portion of mountain bike season is pretty much over, so it's kind of a little late, but there was an, um, unofficial race in one of the local parks last week, so I figured it would be a good chance to give the bike a try.


In the spirit of preparation, I got my hands on the bike for the first time ever at roughly
5:50 for a race that was supposed to start at 6. I threw on my Candys, got the seat pretty much right, and called it ready to go.

And waited around for half an hour or so.

Once the race got started, I paid for my (lack of) preparation. I managed to end the Le Mans start in the top third of riders, only to have the bars come loose within the first two minutes of hard riding. Once I fixed that problem (being extra careful not to over tighten the carbon bars), I spent the rest of the race riding around, picking off the stragglers and trying to get a feel for the bike.

Let me say that at 5'5", I think even the smallest Pine Mountain may be too big for me. Once I am on it and going, it rides pretty well (although it's maybe a bit horsey), but getting started on a bike with basically no standover clearance and a highish bottom bracket takes some doing.

The bike will ride over anything, though. I rode with the shock half locked out, and pretty much just rode over things. Big logs, steep banks, large steps: none of that fazed the bike much.

The jury, for me, is still pretty much out. I am excited, though, to do some more testing.