Southridge Announces Winter SoCal Series

I don't usually stoop post many events from SoCal, since I was raised better than that it's such a long drive, but seeing as we have a drought of early winter racing, I thought I would mention this: Southridge U.S.A. has announced their winter 2007 MTB racing schedule:

• Jan 13 & 14
• Jan 27 & 28
• Feb 10 & 11
• Feb 24 & 25
• Mar 10 & 11
• Mar 24 & 25 (Finals)

The schedule calls for Saturday cross country (XC) and mountain cross (MTX or 4X) with downhill (DH) on Sunday. I believe that all of these are held at Southridge Park in Fontana, CA (NORBA #2 is held there). Course previews and results are usually hosted over at GeoLadders.

BTW I'm just kidding about the SoCal hate. Kinda.

Garmin Finally Gives Love To Mac

Mac owners who have (not so) quietly been waiting for Garmin to make good on their promise of a compatible Training Center (for their Garmin Edge 305HR+ GPS) can now rejoice:

Good news for Mac users who also use the Forerunner or Edge. Garmin Training Center is now compatible with Mac! If you'll be at Macworld next week, make sure you stop by our booth to pick up a free Training Center software CD. If you're not planning to be in San Francisco, visit our website in late January and you'll be able to download the software for free.

Maybe. If it doesn't slip again. Really. From the Garmin blog.

Lance Cancels on Leadville

And just as soon as it was on, it appears to be off:

One of the hottest match-ups for the coming year -- Lance Armstrong vs. Floyd Landis at the Leadville 100 -- has apparently fizzled out.

Armstrong announced at The Paceline website that he will not be racing in the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race on Aug. 11, 2007, as previously indicated due to a "scheduling conflict."

Thanks to Biking Bis and Trust But Verify for the gossip update.

"Between The Tape" Trailer Posted

"Between The Tape", a film documenting the 2006 World Cup Downhill series, has posted their initial trailer. Check out the world's top downhill athletes race across five continents and 15 countries. And the trailer's damn good too. The DVD is scheduled for release in March 2007.

Thanks to Sicklines for the heads up.

Registration Open for 2007 Coolest 24

They've update the site for this year's Coolest 24 Hour “Race Against Cancer”. This 24 hour endurance XC race will be held in Cool, CA (east of Sacramento near Auburn) on the Olmstead Loop trail (same as the Cool MTB race course). Held between noon on Saturday, May 5th and the following noon on Sunday May 6th, teams (or solo riders) will compete to complete the most number of laps (per 24 Hours of Andrenalin rules).

Registration is limited to 500 teams and 300 solo riders. Last year's event raised $30,000; This is the only 100% Non-Profit 24-Hour Mountain Bike Race in America. This event will also serve as the West Coast Intercollegiate 24-Hour Championships.

Event: The Coolest 24
Dates: May 5th - 6th, 2007
Location: Cool, CA [ Directions ]
Competition: MA (Endurance)
Cost: $115/ solo male rider, $105/solo female rider, varies for 2,3,4 &5 person teams
URL: http://www.thecoolestmtb.com/
License: none
Registration: active.com

Those people looking for a team can check out the Yahoo! message board setup for this event. Check out the archives for coverage of last year's event.

New HubTV Episode

HubTV (our bay area on again, off again multimedia extreme web sports site) has posted their third episode to their website. This episode focuses on the 2006 Sea Otter: dual slalom, mountain cross and dirt jump (parts I and IV). There is also a section on Alps Freeriding (part III). Check out all four parts over at HubTV.

The whole four parts are worth it just for the interview with Mr. CCCX, Keith DeFiebre (Part I about 1/3 through). And having the video set to Rise Against didn't hurt.

2007 Racing Calendar Updated

I've taken the time to update the 2007 NorCal MTB Racing calendar with all most of the newly announced events. I have it hosted over at Google Calendars so that you can download or subscribe to it in your calendar software. Just like last year, I will keep this updated throughout the year.

New Hella Greasy Trailer Posted

Allout Productions, filmers of the "Hella Greasy"fame, have released the trailer for their upcoming East Bay epic "Allout Grease." Check out the quicktime version of the trailer here (those of you that are quicktime deprived can view the lower quality version at YouTube). They have really stepped up the production values on this release - it looks stunning even in the trailer. Expect to see the DVD sometime in early 2007. Thanks to the RideSFO guys for pointing this out.

Armstrong & Landis in Leadville 100

Okay, this started out this morning as just a rumor, but now appears to be game on. Floyd Landis will be competing against old teammate Lance Armstrong at the Leadville 100 MTB race. Thanks to Biking Bis and Go Clipless for the heads up.

RACE REPORT: CCCX DH #5 (Series Finale)

Keith has posted the initial results for CCCX DH #5. Final full series results have also been posted. There are only a few photographs on the CCCX site, but I did manage to track down some GPS tracks of the course:
It looks mostly like the CCCX DH #1 course -- just about 1.65 miles with 875' of descent. Congratulations to the following series winners:

• Semi-Pro/Pro Men: Jimmy Amaral (Fox Racing Shox)
• Hardtail Men: Keith DeFiebre (Bay Bikes/Calabazas Cyclery)
• Junior Boys Expert: Roger Evans
• Expert Men (19-34): Cole Rasmussen (Specialized), Andrew Mince (Gamut USA/Scotts Valley Cycle) TIED at 218pts
  
• Expert Men (35-44): Keith DeFiebre (Bay Bikes/Calabazas Cyclery)
• Single Speed: Shawn Siebe (Trailhead Cyclery)
• Expert Women: Heather Yates (Footloose Sports)
• Junior Boys (-13): Andrew Bolton
• Junior Boys (14-16): Kenny Evans, Forest Belluzzi (WTB/Santa Cruz/Fox Shox) TIED at 215 pts.
  
• Junior Boys (16-18): Sam Hutson
• Sports Men (19-34): Scott Orehek (Fox Racing Shox)
• Sport Men (35-44): Ford Young (Trailhead Cyclery)
• Sport Men (45+): Joe Fabris (Trailhead Cyclery)
• Beginner Men (19-34): Joshua Lister
• Beginner Men (35-44): Timothy Fortenot (Specialized/Easton/LGBRC)
• Beginner Women: Letitia Davis

CCCX Downhill starts the 2007 season on March 11th.

Boggs II Dates Announced

Last year's Bogg For Africa 8 Hour XC event has been rechristened Boggs II and scheduled for Saturday, March 31st, 2007. It remains an 8 Hour solo or team relay event held in the Boggs State Demonstration Forest near Cobb, CA. The course terrain map can be found here.

Last year's event, also organized by Bike Monkey, drew over 80 participants and raised more than $6,000 in pledges. This year, they want to double the number of participants and are setting a rider cap at 200.

Event: Boggs II
Dates: March 31st, 2007
Location: Boggs State Demo Forest (Cobb, CA) [ MAP ]
Competition: Endurance XC (8 hour)
Cost: $45/person (includes shirt and dinner)
URL: http://www.bikemonkey.net/
Registration: online at bike monekey
License: NORBA XC

Check out last year's action in the archives.

CCCX DH #5 Preview

A preview for the CCCX DH #5 (season final) has been posted:

The course has been selected and the route will be a mixture of races #1 and #3, with some new sections added to challenge NorCal's DH racers. This final event of the series will determine who are the Division Champions as all races count toward the final point total ... This event will take place rain or shine. Toro Park gates will open at 8:00 a.m. on race day. Please note that the park closes at 4 p.m. on Saturday ... Series Champions will receive a custom Hot Shoppe DH Winners Jersey, the custom made CCCX Series plaques are the highest quality available and are 16X19 in size, 2006 CCCX DH T-shirts, and other prizes from sponsors will be presented to top finishers in the series.

This is the last race on the 2006 NorCal calendar so get out there.

NorCal MTBers Model For Garmin

Local MTBers Shane Deal and Olivier Bock will be featured in some upcoming ads for Garmin's Edge and Forerunner products.

Red Bull Downhill Metro

Some cool urban downhill footage, courtesy of BikeHugger, from the Red Bull Mexico City event. I recommend watching the Reuters version of the video, since it doesn't have any music -- just the natural sound.

As you can gather from the video, Brian Lopes is not a happy camper.

RACE REPORT: CCORC Short Track #2

The results from the second Central California Off-Road Cyclist Short Track race have been posted. Congratulations to:

Mens Beginner (5 laps): Brandon Howard
Mens Sport (5 laps): Nikoaus Dejong
Mens Expert (7 laps): Keith Defiebre (LaPierre)

Contrary to rumors, I don't see any evidence of Lance Armstrong racing here.

UCI Angel Fire Stop Moving ?

Decline Magazine is reporting that the lone American stop on the UCI MTB circuit is in limbo:

Angelfire resort representatives have now confirmed that the scheduled World Cup triple will not take place this upcoming season.

Check out the news here.

2007 Cool MTB Race Scheduled

A slight change from the previous rumor on the Cool MTB Race dates: Auburn Bike Works, the organizer of the race, has announced that the 15th Cool Mountain Bike Race is set for March 11th, 2007 (not March 10th as previously rumored).

As last year, the race will cover approximately 10 miles of fire roads (85%) and singletrack (15%) on the Olmstead Loop in Cool, CA (six miles south of Auburn, CA). Begineers will do one lap, sport two laps and expert/pro will do three laps. Singlespeed, Clydedales, tandems and expert women will do two laps. As the promoters warn, "the course will be muddy." Or snowy. Be warned.

The ride is capped at 425 riders. Awards will be given three deep and the expert/pro purse starts at $200. Race registration starts at 8 AM (you can also check-in the day before at Auburn Bike Works) and the pre-race meeting commences at 10:30 AM. Awards and prize raffles will be held immediately after the race.

See coverage of last year's event in the archives.

Event: Cool Mountain Bike Race
Dates: March 11th, 2007
Location: Cool, CA [ Map ]
Competition: XC
Cost: TBD (last year was $40)
URL: http://auburnbikeworks.com/coolrace.html
Registration: http://www.auburnbikeworks.com/form.html (via paypal)
License: None

Sierra Freeriding

Not to be outdone by I Hate Bikes expose of the Coastside Freeriding scene, dhReno has posted the link to a pretty well written article on Sierra Freeriding. The article covers the scene from both the riders and forest service point of view, along with some commentary from the IMBA.

Lance To Race Leadville 100

Bicycle Retailer is reporting that Lance Armstrong is going to enter this year's Leadville Trail 100 MTB endurance race. The article quotes Lance as saying “It’s a mountain bike race in August held in Colorado called the Leadville 100. It’s about an eight to nine hour mountain bike race, mostly on single track that very few people do and even fewer finish.”

This year's Leadville 100 has not been scheduled. Last year's was held August 12th, 2006. Here is a race report from the 2005 event.

Pacifica Coastside Freeriding

So this isn't really isn't anything mtb racing related, but it is a slow racing week (unless you headed down to Fresno) and I used to live out here:

Pacifica, CA Downhill

I also really like the I Hate Bikes site and have been dying to work it into my site.