Tuesday, October 31, 2006

SCOUTING REPORT: CCCX DH #4

Here is the latest scoop about this weekend's CCCX DH #4:

November 5th is Race #4 and it will be the NorCal Super-D Championship. This will be a[n] incredible 4 mile run with 1700 feet descended. This 4 mile course will have literally no uphill sections and is a special treat for NorCal DH racers. More info on this race track coming ... Race #4 also holds the distinction as the Northern California Super D Championships. With category winners receiving an additional prize as well as CCCX series medals.

If I see any updates, I'll post them.

Monday, October 30, 2006

RACE RESULTS: CCORC Time Trial #2

The results from the second Central California Off-Road Cyclists Time Trial race has been posted. Congratulations to Steven Ray (Steven's Bicycles), who posted the overall best time of 09:38, and to CCCX DH promoter Keith DeFiebre (Ritchey/Calabasas Bikes), who won the Open Wheel category.

Photos from the event have been posted here.

Friday, October 27, 2006

2006 Peavine MTB Race

Apparently I have been focusing a little too much on 2007 race announcements because it appears that I missed this weekend's Peavine MTB Race being presented by the University of Nevada Cycling team. Luckily, the vigilant folks over at dhReno have all the details on this XC, DH, Short Track and SuperD extravaganza.

Granny Gear Announces 2007 Series Schedule

Granny Gear Production has announced their 2007 24 Hour National Point Series. The dates and locations are:
Registration is already open for the entire race series.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

CCORC Update

This weekend marks the second CCORC Time Trial race in Fresno and I have gotten some more information on the series:
  • Costs are as follows: Juniors $15, Begineers & Sports $20, Experts $25
  • The Time Trial courses are 3.2 miles long while the upcoming Short Track courses are .71 miles in length
CCORC #2 is this Sunday (10/29) in Woodward Park [ MAP ].

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

RACE RESULTS: 2006 Lagrange Fall Classic

TeamBigfoot has posted the 2006 Lagrange Fall Classic XC, DH and SuperD races results.

In the downhill event, congratulations to Scott Feller, who won the Pro DH contest with a best of two run time of 07:32, and Crystal Tunnell, who won the Pro Women's DH crown. Vic has posted a picture of the downhill course at the bottom of this page.

On the XC side, congrats go out to Steve Tetrick, who topped the Expert Men, and Jennifer Durkin, who won the Sport Women.

UPDATE (10/28/06): Ksquareracing.com has a nice table of the DH results.
UPDATE (10/29/06): dhReno has posted their report with photos.

Full 2007 UCI MTB Race Calendar

Here is the full (but probably still tentative) UCI MTB race schedule for 2007:

UCI World Cup MA #1March 17-18Gran Canaria (Spain)
UCI World Cup XC #1April 21-22Houffalize (Belguim) or Madrid (Spain)*
UCI World Cup DH/4X #1May 12-13Vigo (Spain)
UCI World Cup XC #2May 26-27Offenburg (Germany)
UCI World Cup XC #3/DH/4X #2June 9-10Champéry (Switzerland)
UCI World Cup XC #4/DH/4X #3June 23-24Mont-Sainte-Anne (Canda)
UCI World Cup XC #5/DH/4X #4June 30-July 1Angel Fire Resort (USA)
UCI World Cup MA #2July 7-8Dolomiti Superbike (Italy)
UCI World Cup DH/4X #5July 7-8Schladming (Austria)
UCI World Cup MA #3August 25Lillehammer (Norway)
UCI World Cup XC/DH/4X #6September 15-16Maribor (SI)
UCI World Cup MA #4October 12Fréjus (France)


In the table, XCO or XC stands for cross country, MA stands for Marathon, 4X is the UCI term for mountain cross (MTX) and DHI is downhill. It appears that there are only two North America events planned this year.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

2007 NMBS San Jose Stop Cancelled ?

Although there is no announcement or press release, the 2007 NMBS #3 stop in San Jose has disappeared from the latest 2007 NORBA Nationals calendar (PDF link).

I've emailed the City of San Jose (who was sponsoring the San Jose Cycling Festival) and NORBA to find out the full story.

UPDATE (12/09/06): Yes, this has been canceled. It appears to have been moved back to 2008.

Monday, October 23, 2006

ROADTRIP: 24 Hours of Chamberlin Ranch II

This weekend marks the final 24 hour race of the season in California. But there's a bit of a drive involved . . . RideSB will be running the 24 Hours of Chamerlin Ranch II on October 28-29, 2006 near Santa Barabara, CA. Laps are approximately 15 miles over a course described as "[it] consists of double track farming roads, single track, short descents, some steep descents, ONE REALLY STEEP DESCENT THAT REQUIRES CAUTION, no climbs longer than a few minutes, & a few dry creek crossings." The race is relay format for teams of 2 – 10, and a straight-through, round the clock race for solo racers.
Event: 24 hr of Chamberlin Ranch II
Dates: October 28 & 29, 2006
Location: Los Olivos, CA
Competition: MA
Cost: $110 - $600 (depending on team size and entry date)
URL: http://ridesb.com/24hourschamberlin_2.htm
Registration: SportsBaseOnline
License: NORBA

Sunday, October 22, 2006

RACE REPORT: Sand Hill Fall #3

Some photos have been posted for this weekend's Sand Hill Fall #3 Mountain Cross (MTX) race.
The results have been posted on the P&R Sports page. Congratulations to winners Forest Belluzi (15-), Shon Stark (16-18), Jordan McDonald (Mixed Sport) and Brandon Meadows (Sacramento, Pro/Semi-Pro).

Thursday, October 19, 2006

2007 CHDH SERIES ?

Wow. It's raining gravity series announcements here at NorCal MTB Racing.

Rumor has it that the Corral Hollow Downhill will expand into a full fledged DH series for 2007. The CHDH is the successor to the Groovy Gravity Games and held in Carnegie SVRA near Livermore, CA. You can review our coverage of the 2006 CHDH in the archives.

I'll post more information as it becomes available.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

2007 Reno SuperD Series Announced

Pimp Biker and dhReno have announced they will sponsor a Super D (SD) race series in Reno, NV starting in 2007.

It's beautiful to see that Super D is catching on in NorCal / NorNevada.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

2007 Shasta Lemurian Scheduled

The 2007 edition of the Shasta Lemurian cross country (XC) race has been scheduled for Saturday, April 28th, 2007. Held in Whiskeytown Lake National Recreation Area, the Lemurian is the traditional kickoff to the "Way NorCal" racing season. Check out our coverage of the 2006 Lemurian here.

NWD7 Bay Area Video Premier Party

I hate bikes, rideSFO and Jon G Productions will present the Bay Area Premier of Freeride Production's latest film, NWD 7, Flying High Again at the Darkroom at Club Six [ Downtown SF Map ] on Friday, October 20, 2006.

Cost is $5 presale, $8 at the door. Doors open at 7 PM. Admission will include a raffle ticket for free swag. This is a 21 & over event. For those under 21, an all ages encore showing will be held Monday Oct 23 at 7 PM at Blake's in Berkeley, more details to come

Monday, October 16, 2006

2006 Lagrange Classic

Team Bigfoot presents their last MTB race festival of the season, The Lagrange Fall Clasic, on October 20 - 22, 2006 in Weaverville, CA [ MAP ]. The race is billed as "Come join us for a full weekend of racing, including a Super-D, Cross-country and Downhill on the awesome trails of the Weaver Basin Trail System, some of the bestest singletrack ever! Part of the proceeds will be donated to the WBTS to be used for maintaining and building even more trails. Our venue is the local high school, with paved parking, real bathrooms AND they open up the shower rooms so racers can get hot showers and not have to drive home stinky and grimey….unless they want to."

The events are:
  • Super D (Friday): The course uses some of the upper 2/3 of the Downhill course, then veers onto a 3-mile section of the famed flume trails of our cross-country course for a total of 6+ miles.
  • XC (Saturday): The Beginner cross-county course is 16 miles of singletrack and fireroad with about 2000' of climbing. The Sport/Expert/Pro Course is about 21 miles and includes the famous LaGrange Ditch singletrack.
  • DH (Sunday): The Downhill course is about 4 miles and has over 2400'' of altitude drop. We run shuttles from the High School. Course will be open for practice on Saturday after the XC. On Sunday, practice shuttles begin at 9am.
Team Bigfoot consistently puts on some of the best NorCal races, so come out to support them.
Event: Lagrange Fall Classic
Dates: October 20, 21 & 22, 2006
Location: Weaverville, CA (Just west of Redding, CA)
Competition: XC, SD, DH
Cost: $20/SuperD, $30/DH, $30/XC (discounts for Jr and multi-events)
URL: http://www.teambigfoot.net/
Registration: onsite or active.com
License: none

RACE REPORT: CCORC TT #1

The folks over at CCORC certainly have their act together. Race results have already been posted for Saturday's time trial. Heck, they even have pictures of the whole event posted.

Congratulations to divisional winners Keith DeFiebre (Ritchey/Calabasas Bikes), Melinda Webster, Ronny Kier (CVC), Lars Mommer (Tri-Sport Bicycles), John Didier, Daniel Felix (Herb Bauer Bicycling), David Stone (Team BFD) and Steven Becker. Keith and Melinda won the open divisions for Men and Women respectively.

If anyone has a race report or course description on this, please mail it over (norcalmtbracing AT gmail DOT com). I'm interested to hear about this series.

RACE RESULTS: 2006 Whiskeytown 9 - 5

Team Bigfoot has posted the results for the last race on the Bigfoot Endurance schedule, the Whiskeytown 9 to 5. Race results are posted here.

Team Bigfoot has also posted the final results for the overall Solo Bigfoot Cup. Congratulations to:
  • Tom Watson (Men Beginner)
  • Justin Farmer (Men Sport)
  • Brian Sevall (Men Expert)
  • Eric Carter (Men Pro)
  • Ty Skordahl (Men Jr)
  • Dave Reynolds (Masters 40+)
  • Dennis McKenney (Masters 50+)
  • Ross Mulyneux (Masters 60+)
  • Pam DeBruin (Women Beginner)
  • Mary Allan (Women Sport)
  • Linda Eckert (Women Expert / Pro)
  • Charlie Higgins (Clydesdales)
  • Dan Henderson (Singlespeed)

RACE RESULTS: Sand Hill Fall #2

I haven't seen any results for the 2nd Sand Hill MTX race this weekend, but there are two sets of photos posted:I'll post results when I see them (probably Wednesday or so). Race results are posted. Congrats to Chris Flores (Mongoose Tribe) of Durham for winning the Pro/Semi-Pro competition.

Friday, October 13, 2006

More Details on CCORC Races

The Folks over at NCNCA CX have posted some more details about the CCORC races in Fresno. While the article focuses on the cylocross racing, there is also information on the time trails (this weekend) and short track MTB competitons.

CCCX DH Point Standings (Race 3)

The point standings after three races in the CCCX Downhill Series have been posted.

In the Pro/Semi-Pro category, Jimmy Amaral (Fox Racing Shox) leads Ian Massey (WTB/Fox) by five points while in Women Experts Heather Yates (Footloose Sports) leads Sarah Sherratt (Cannondale) by six points.

VeloSwap San Francisco

The 4th Annual San Francisco VeloSwap will be held on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 in San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center at 7th & Brannan [ MAP ] from 9 am until 4 pm. VeloSwap claims to be the "world's largest consumer bicycle and sports expo." In addition to the sale-o-rama, there will also be some seminars on training and two showings of ROAM.

Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Cool 24Hr of Moab Blog

Just saw this being highlighted on Blogger.com today and thought I would share:
Check out the Google Earthlings blog! 5 Google folks (plus their dog Sparky) are participating in 24 Hours of Moab the weekend of Oct14-15, and are using their beta blog to document the whole thing.
Nice to see that people at Google are actually using their technology like it is intended.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

MTB GPS Computers

As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I use a Garmin Edge 305HR GPS Monitor and Motionbased.com to record my training rides and races. In six short months, it has completely changed how I look at my riding. Being able to breakdown every ride by elevation, distance and heartrate has allowed me to identify my weakpoints and focus my training. And until now, I hadn't seen any competition to it on the market. However, there is a post today on SickLines.com about the MotionLingo ADEO GPS. Although it appears to lack a display and heartrate monitor, it does seem to do most of the other Edge functions. And it is only USD$149.

If someone has one, please forward a review. Otherwise, I will wait for the folks at SickLines.com to finish their testing.

RACE REPORT: Sand Hill Fall #1

dhReno has a race report on the first dual slalom race of the Sand Hill fall series.

Still waiting on the official results to be posted. Race results have been posted. Congrats to:
  • 15 and Under: Matt Verelley (Mill Valley)
  • 16-18 Olympic: Tim Mangini (Benicia)
  • 19-29 Sport: Rich Regio (Walnut Creek) MSDHW.com
  • Vet Sport: John Kresich (Clayton)- DH Reno
  • Pro/Semi-Pro (and Fast Time for the day): George Stephenson III (El Dorado Hills) - Northern Lights

Monday, October 09, 2006

RACE REPORT: CCCX DH #3

The results for race #3 in the CCCX downhill series are posted. In addition, there are some photos organized by starting time here. And more photos here.

It looks like the course was very close to CCCX DH #1 except they took the left at the big "Y":
And it was slightly steeper with a little rise at the end:

Sunday, October 08, 2006

CCORC Time Trial and Short Track Races

The Central California Off-Road Cyclists have announced two MTB racing series for the Fresno area. One series will be a short track XC and the other will be a time trial series. Both racing series will be held in Woodward Park [ MAP ] during the late Fall and Winter.
The Short Track series will be held on:
11/19/06: Tri-Sport MTB ST #1
12/02/06: Tri-Sport MTB ST#2
01/28/07: Tri-Sport MTB ST #3

The Time Trial series will be held on:
10/14/06: Herb Bauer MTB TT #1
10/29/06: Herb Bauer MTB TT#2
01/27/06: Herb Bauer MTB TT #3
I don't have any details about the courses or costs, but I will update you when I received them.

Friday, October 06, 2006

RACE RESULTS: 2006 Parkfield Classic

The good folks over at Cal Poly Wheelmen have posted the 2006 Parkfield Classic results:
Photos are being hosted over at Downhill News Gallery.

TBF Racing Announces 2007 Schedule

TBF Racing, who organizes a number of mountain bike and triathlon races in the Sacramento area, has announced their 2007 schedule. There are a variety of fat tire events from "normal" mountain bike races to duathlons (2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run) to Nissan Xtrerra triathlons (.5 mile swim, 14 mile mtn bike, 3 mile run). Below is the current schedule (just mountain bike involved events):

02/03/07 Chanoko Mountain Bike Duathlon #1
Register Online
02/04/07 MTB Challenge #1
Register Online
02/24/07 Chanoko Mountain Bike Duathlon #2
Register Online
02/25/07 MTB Challenge #2
Register Online
03/17/07 Chanoko Mountain Bike Duathlon #3
Register Online
03/18/07 MTB Challenge #3
Register Online
04/01/07 REAL MTB Triathlon (Nissan XTERRA Points Series Race)
Register Online

The duathlons are $45 until race day when they rise to $55, while the mountain bike races are $40 (rising to $50 on race day). The Xterra event is $75 until race day when it becomes $85.

All of the races listed above will be held at Granite Beach within Folsom Lake State Recreation Area in Granite Bay, California. Granite Bay is just east of Sacramento near Folsom and Roseville.

The TBF Races are the usual kick-off to the NorCal MTB racing season. I competed in a few of these last winter and they are very well run events.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

SCOUTING REPORT: CCCX DH #3

The folks over at the CCCX DH have updated their site with some information about the course for CCCX DH #3 this weekend:
The course has been set for race #3 and it looks to be fast, furious and fun for all racers who attend. The DH route will use portions of the same trail used for race #1 but will have a more direct line to the finish and times will be faster. The speeds will also be much higher in some sections and the riser section toward the top of the course will be hit with a faster line for more speed into the rise. Near the end of the course will be some add on trails that will challenge suspension, breaking and turning ability ... Parking will be in the same area as the past two races, and the hike to the start will be the same steep trail used for race #1. Also for race #3 and future races, the starter will call out names and times of the starting order! So the start time you sign up for at registration will be used at the start, and your name and # will be called 5 minutes before your scheduled time to get racers in proper starting order.

Bogg Mountain Metal Madness

The UC Davis Cycling team is bringing a their annual Bogg Mountain Metal Madness to Bogg Mountain [ MAP ] this weekend (October 7 & 8, 2006). There will be three events: cross country (XC), Super D (SD) and Short Track (STXC):
  • XC (Saturday): The thirteen mile loop gains 2000 ft in elevation over multiple switchback climbs and descents, almost entirely composed of tight singletrack. Here's the XC course. The trail surface is pine needles over hard pack with some pretty rocky sections. Look forward to even more singletrack this year.
  • Super D (Sunday): This will be a mass start with a le mans style uphill climb on foot of about 100 meters. Here is the Super D course map. Downhill singletrack, doubletrack and fire road sections. Windy and rocky but not too technical. A course appropriate for short-travel suspension or hardtails. Point-to-point, the few mile group ride to the top of the course leaves shortly after registration closes. Shuttle not available.
  • STXC (Sunday): This half mile course laps around the campground foreasy spectating. A long fire road section for passing precedes a short technical climb followed by a loose descent. Single track completes the loop for a well-rounded course of varying terrain.
This sounds like a great event.
Event: Bogg Mountain Metal Madness [ PDF Flyer ]
Dates: October 7 & 8, 2006
Location: Bogg Mountain Demonstration Forest (near Cobb, CA)
Competition: XC, SD, STCX
Cost: For collegiate riders: $15 for the Cross Country, $15 for one Sunday event or $20 for both. For NORBA riders: $20 per race.
URL: http://sportclubs.ucdavis.edu/cycling/
Registration: onsite
License: NORBA

Technical Difficulties

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last week. Since I migrated this blog over to Blogger Beta, I've been having a few technincal difficulties. I think they are resolved now, so expect a pile of posts over the next day or so.