Toro race results - KLUNKER and hardtail

Guys

I raced the klunker at Toro with the new wheels Jeff built for me using Sturmy Archer drum brakes. I killed it!

I was on mark to a podium run on the klunker, the bike working great, brakes making a huge difference from the coaster brake race of 2 weeks prior. I was still able to out pace the brakes, getting them to fade often, but the control was so much better. And even through I broke through the lip of a berm I was railing during my race run (costing me ~4-5 seconds, I reckon) I went on to get a 3rd place in the Single Speed class! Now, when one considers everyone else in the class is either on a hardtail SS with front suspension or a full suspension conversion, all with disc brakes, of course, you'll see what a success it was for this old bike.

Then I went on the smoke the competition in the Hardtail class, winning the category and breaking the 4:00 minute mark! Hee hee.....

I bagged my Expert run, though. My body was beat after two races, and the wind speed was only getting worse through the day, gusting ~ 40 mph, a headwind. My left calf cramped up immediately at the start of my klunker run. I just ignored the cramp as best I could in the race, but it did affect me. I'm still a bit hobbled this morninng. My Hardtail time, btw, would have won the Expert class. So it was a good day.

I feel pretty proud.

Check out the pics. I'll have others a bit later from the podium.

Scott Seery

Click here for the full gory details!

CCCX XC#3 Short Race Report

Nice TWW showing with myself, Jeff, Rich, Mike, and Matt.

The course seemed to have an extra climb or two compared to the other Ord races, but the course was still very fast with a lot of downhill pedaling. I stayed with the lead group for the first lap despite one traffic bog/dismount on a little step-up thing. On the second lap, they were still in my sights, but they slowly pulled away. I was trading places with another rider for the last 2 laps, and he opened a gap with about a mile to go, but I was able catch him on the last fast descent and beat on the last climb to make the race interesting.

I thought I rode well, much better than the first race, and I pushed my self, but I still finished way back in 8th. Disappointed in the placing, but happy with my time. Congrats to Matt for the win!

Results

some pics here:

Photos

Rafael

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Grasshopper race report

My morning started out bright and early with a trip on BART to Berkeley to meet up with Blake Von Knopka and Morgan Fletcher. We ended up waiting awhile for an 18 year old Berkeley freshman, and glad we did. The kid had no other means to get to the race, and he appears to be a stud. So its good we were able to get him out there. Anyway, we hit the road around 8 or so and were in Occidental by about 9:30. Morgan kept asking every one about tire pressure, and the more people he asked, the more we realized we were running way too low of a pressure. He went up to 70 psi, and I went up to 55. Oh yeah, we were all on cross bikes.

We went and registered where I ran in to many familiar faces; Paule from Roaring Mouse, Geoff Wilcox from Altezza 40, Jeremy Kimmel and John Blackwell of Sexual Camel, Murphy Mack of Gestalt/Sheila Moon, Dayton Crites from SF Urban Riders, etc. Oh and there was some yahoo in a full blow Maxxis kit with a helmet cam who thought he was all bad ass. Geoff Kabush or something, whatever ;-) Anyway, we roll out for a medium tempo 7 mile or so spin and head towards the first fire road. It was one of the most amazing cycling experiences I¢ve been a part of. I don¢t care for road riding much, but to see 100 people in front of me, and maybe another 100 people behind me, tightly bunched up four wide zooming down the road, well that was a sight to see.

We hit a rather steep dirt road and everyone sort of chugged along. It was great, no assholes, just a really polite group out to enjoy the ride. Once we were done climbing and it got rolly, I was sort of on my own with only a few people around whom I¢d never met. After we got back on pavement, Geoff Wilcox caught up to me and was my guide for much of the day. Neither of us knew where we were going, but he had road tires and I was on 35c and 32c cross tires front and rear, respectively. So I drafted him on the paved stuff for 90% of the time. He is somewhat more fit than I am, and at points it was all I could do to hold on to his wheel. But we had a great time. I was able to heckle John Blackwell many times, telling him not to make the Camels look bad and trading rude comments. For about 10 miles of pavement, Geoff and I ended up leading a train of about 8 people. Luckily, a girl in the group lived in the area and would yell at us when we were supposed to turn. But on Highway 116, Geoff ended up flatting and I stopped to keep him company. We let maybe 15-20 people go by, including Yuri Hauswald (Marin/Bike Monkey) who had a loud blowout about 3 miles in to the race. And then like the tortoise and the hair, here comes Blackwell.

We ended up catching John and passing him, but he was paying more attention and made a scheduled turn and Geoff and I had to do a little u-turn and catch back up. The three of us mellowed out and started what we had been told was the long climb out. It was still paved, but a really beat up road which was more rolly than uphill. But our mellow pace didn¢t last long. Blake was leading a train of about 6 people and Geoff asked if I wanted to jump on. So off we went, hammering again, with about 10 miles to the finish. I almost got dropped a few times, but managed to hold on. Once we hit dirt and started climbing, I said good bye for the afternoon and dropped in to my granny gear (36-25) and began the long climb home. Normally it would have been no problem. But coming out of paternity leave, and crushing myself for 2.5 hours trying to keep up with Geoff, I was spent. I went from laughing and having a good time to realizing I may not make it out without some long rests. It was a true test of will.

I ended up taking a several minute break in the middle of the steepest section and watched a few people go by. Back on my bike, barely turning over my pedals, I slogged on. I came to the last gate and could barely get myself over the 2 ft tall railing. I rested for a minute and Paule rolls up on his single speed cross bike. What an f¢ing animal. I watched him pedal away and started about a one mile gradual paved climb to the finishing decent. Dayton came up behind me and we rolled out together. I could barely talk and thought I was going to puke, rolling at about 5 mph in my granny gear. Once it started downhill, we knew we were done and just chatted and enjoyed the swooping decent.

So, 50ish miles of mixed terrain in ~3.5 hours with perfect riding weather. Jeremy crushed it, finishing 15 minutes behind the leaders in about 2.75 hours. And Geoff ended up putting 10 minutes on me during the climb. Its something I¢ll definitely do again, but with skinnier tires and more pressure. Also, I brought way too much crap. About 16oz too much water, a pb&j sandwich and clif bar which I didn¢t eat (probably should have eaten the pb&j), and two spare tubes. I did eat all of my Clif Shot Bloks which were great. Also, I¢d probably swap my 36 little ring for a 34 and maybe got a 27 in the back rather than a 25 to have just a little easier gear on some of those climbs. None of the climbs really required a 34-27, but it would have been nicer to have at the end. Oh well, lessons learned.

Matt Leonard

134 out of ~190 3:39

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CCCX DH Race Report

Its been quite some time since I have raced a downhill but last
weekend I figured what the hell and headed down to the CCCX DH race
with Rich Davis.

We went down Saturday for some much needed practice. The course was a
good mix. The top section was super fast rollers which went straight
into a section of tight switch backs, the first of which had the
better of me all weekend. On the exit from the switch backs there was
a jump that led straight into the single track. There was even a
little climb towards the end to help the legs reach the desired burn.
As we headed up the first run we bumped into Seery who had a complete
quiver of bikes including a rather cool looking clunker. Practice went
pretty well, I started getting the flow of the course, except the
first switch back.

Sunday morning dawned with some rain, I was hoping that this would
keep the competition away. However it seemed that the fact that it
was dry down in Monterey encouraged people to come out. My main
decision was to select my race category, beginner seemed a little too
much like glory hunting, Clydesdale perhaps but in the end sport it was.

Now it was most helpful to have Rich and Scott Seery down there. On
Saturday my tires were not really performing well. Now Rich being the
good riding buddy that he is lent me pair of WTB, a 2.5 WeirWolf for
the front and a Mutano Raptor for the rear. All of a sudden what were
lines on Sat that if I took I could feel the tires slipping I was now
railing - bloody good tire combo! Scott had also taken a look over
my bike and made a few suggestions regarding the suspension set-up
which made the bike smoother.


We got one flying run in first thing. Again the first switch back was
problematic, but I figured out why. When I am riding the trails I do
my best not to skid but the best way to take that first corner was to
slide it.
After another long trip to the top it was race time. Everybody was
lined up ready to rock - including one TWW geezer in denim and flannel
astride a clunker - way to go Seery. My main goal was to get down
without buggering it up entirely and/or smashing myself up. If I
could achieve that then finishing mid-pack in the 19-34 sport would be
good.

Right, race time. On 'GO' I just sprinted as hard as I could to the
first corner. I heard lots of other racers talking about "fisting"
the top section. Apparently this refers to holding the bars so hard
that you can't puss out and grab the brakes. I managed to "fist" the
first two corners then bottled it on the third and brake checked a
little too much - damn pussy. Then straight into the switch backs. I
had been having problems getting the speed/line combo for the first
corner right and true to form I completely stuffed it this time,
managing to be both off line and kill all my speed. The result being
that the rest of the switch backs didn't flow and then there was the
nice surprise of the photographer sitting right in my landing zone on
the jump - next time I will just run him over! The single track was
all pretty good with me pushing it as hard as I could to make up for
the mistakes. Then the little climb, just flip that Pro-pedal on the
PR23 and sprint. More single track then over the stream crossing,
making sure I didn't crash in it as some did, and hit the line. Well
my time was ok at 3.20. I ended up 8th out of 13 in the 19-34 sport.

The result wasn't quite what I had hoped for but the good news is that
there is lots of room for improvement!!! I will definitely be back
for more it was really good fun with a pretty damn cool crowd of
riders. If you have been thinking of doing a downhill race but
weren't sure then I would highly recommend one of the CCCX.

Matt Walters

Click here for the full gory details!