Trick or Treat!

Velo Bella Surf City Psycho-Cross
By Natasha Perry
Santa Cruz, California


Boo! Words don't really do this race justice - it's a lot more fun to just look at pictures. Really. You get to see cyclocross racers who might want to be cyclocross-dressers, or maybe a cowboy, french maid, sumo wrestler, hot short wearer, tigger... Just do me and yourself a favor and check out Sabine's blog.

But now you are wondering about berries, beer, and Queen Ann. It can all be explained. I found a new job that I loved, which was doing the sponsorship stuff for the race. The sponsors were incredible!!! (see full list at end of report) As we live in the berry basket of the world, Cal Giant generously offered up FRESH strawberries that they picked just for the race. I thought maybe a few little boxes of berries, so I roll up to a huge warehouse in my little Honda and a forklift comes out with a PALLET of Sberries! They were sooo delicious.

And any decent CX race would not be complete without beer...so we got the best beer possible from New Belgium Brewing. I love this company! Not only do they make incredible beer, but they have a job description called the "Beer Diva". OMG - I have to admit to being jealous. But we did make'em race hard for that beer!

Queen Ann. You thought that I sort of forgot about the actual racing. Nopie-nope. An incredible course had been put together, complete with a soul-sucking run-up. But when you have Queen Ann on your side - the ghosts and goblins screaming in your head to stop crawl back to the woods and hide for fear of what she might do. Not to mention the scary cadre of Halloween characters yelling their encouragement! The women's A line up was star studded and I clung to them for the first lap and half, but my eyes crossed, my stomach heaved, and the Queen and I settled in and came in 8th. The best part was seeing really, really strong turn-outs for the Women's B and C groups. Woohoo!!! (If you haven't met Queen Ann, she's the Bella's groovy Kona cross bike.)

Last but not least, our complete list of sponsors: The Spokesman Bicycles, Vanderkitten, De La Paz Coffee, Bicycle Trip, New Belgium Brewing, Sheila Moon, Gizdich Ranch, Clif Bar, DeFeet, Black Diamond, Cloud Nine, Timbuk2, California Giant, Fox Racing

Clicky for full results and oodles of Photos!

Happy Halloween!

Desert Double

Death Valley Double Century
By Katie Norton
Sacramento, California

But you, by the grace of an ordeal in the night
which stripped you of all that was not intrinsic,
you discovered a mysterious creature born of yourself.
Great was this creature, and never shall you forget him.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "Wind, Sand, and Stars"

Double #13, 197 miles, 9000' of Climbing, 13 hours and 20 minutes

1st Solo Woman Finisher! Woo-hoo!

Moon Units Excited to Start at Furnace Creek: Mile 0

The First Half: Mile 96
It was a very mild day in one of the hottest places on the planet. A lot of people started with arm warmers and it only reached the mid 70s. The overcast sky hid the famous stars of Death Valley that I have yet to see. I was feeling super until the D-train drilled it and left a whole pace-line crossed eyed and shattered in lawn chairs at the Nevada border. Luckily, I have a knack for recovering. We needed someone to set the pace.

Lunch was at Scotty's Castle (Party Pad in the Middle O' Nowhere): Mile 120
We passed a really fluffy coyote on the climb up to lunch. He wasn't concerned about us at all. I had to tip-toe (you can do that on a bike, right?) around a tarantula in the road. I felt a lot better after a turkey sandwich.

Onto Ubehebe Crater (OOO-BEH-HEEE-BEE-- Say it! It's FUN)! Mile 130
It was a quick out and back with bad roads and a little climbing. You feel like you're in a parallel universe. It looks like you are going downhill but you are going 8 miles per hour generating 250 watts. Trippy. It can really mess with your mind. I think our minds aren't built to process the scale of a landscape like this. I felt like a little ant at the beach.

Down the Hill to Stove Pipe Wells: Mile 170
Finally some downhill after all the climbing. Thanks to Adventure Corps, the water bottles were always full and we had a nice little group. I was starting to get a little tired of the concentration required for drafting though.

Hell's Gate: Mile 184
It was about dark when we hit the last climb of the day. 6.5 miles with a couple thousand feet of climbing. So dark and so quiet. I felt like I was going to have a seizure when a ride came up behind us with a flashing front light. I let him pass to get away from it. They should ban those things. It was peaceful after that. Nice pavement and not as freakin' scary as it sounds.

Finish Line: Mile 197
There was a big group cheering our arrival including a group of women who had ridden the century who wanted to talk to me. They asked me why I do these things. My answer was that it teaches you a lot about yourself and I'm a little nuts.

It was a long but beautiful trip home up Hwy. 395

I got to stop at one of my favorite places, The Whoa Nelly Deli at the mouth of Tioga Pass

Just One of Those Days

Central California Cyclocross, Race 3
By Beth Welliver
Pacific Grove, California

Today was CCCX #3. The third local ‘cross race of the season; the third ‘cross race of my very short ‘cross career. Having won the first two races, I was excited at the possibility of winning another race. Of course, I hadn’t been on my mountain bike for a week and a half, but I did have a few road rides, so fitness should be okay...let’s go win us another race.

Perhaps I should have taken notice when, during my warm-up lap, I did a quick pull-over to the side of the trail to let some racers pass and a pesky little scrub oak lurking under the long grass jabbed into my leg hard enough to knock my foot out of the pedal. In hind-sight, this was a sign of the things to come.

The course was fast and relatively flat - no huge climbs (good for me) and no long descents (not good for me and my 30-lb mtn bike). At the starting line I noticed a few new faces in the C crowd...new, very fast-looking faces with very nice, very fast-looking ‘cross bikes. Perhaps another sign...

Whistle blows and we’re off. Up the little climb at the start, and I’m right at the front...until one of the very fast new faces rolls by and cuts in before the start of the single track - good move, I have a race on my hands...we get to the first set of barriers, and that’s when amateur day really got started. I was so excited/nervous/freaked out to be actually racing with someone that I totally botched the jump over the first barrier and slammed my bike into it. And with that, the race was over because very fast new face girl #1 was off.

But, I think to myself, there’s still another very fast-looking new girl behind you, so get on it. So the next 3 laps was a panicked ride complete with more bike-slamming barriers, horrible remounts, dragging (literally) my 30-lb mountain bike up a run-up, stupidly attacking on pavement even though I had knobby tires, and a near-fall on an off-camber turn.

The crowning moment of amateur day was on the 3rd lap - my final time up this relatively short, but slightly steep and very sandy hill that I had ridden every time in warm-up and the first 2 laps. Apparently I spaced out during the approach to this time and didn’t shift. So half-way up I got stuck and had to hop off...no big deal, I can run pretty fast.

I get to the top, a guy on the side says “nice grimace!” (lovely, b/c I know what that face looks like), and try to hop back on my bike...but for the 500th time during the race, my feet and my pedals were repelling each other like water and oil...and then the swearing started. Well, it was just one word in a very loud voice, and as I finally got back on my bike and pedaled away, I see the 12-year-old kid along the side of the course...oops. Oh well.

I managed to hang on for the final lap and hold onto second place. It turns out that very fast new girl #1 is an expert mountain biker and a speedy road racer, too, so I didn’t feel so bad about losing to her. Wish I could have kept it a little closer for a bit, but it was one of those days. Still holding on to first place in the series, so no damage done.

More photos, courtesy of Terry.

Full Results