Final 2007 Sonoma Series Race

The weekend is the last XC race in NorCal this year:

The final Lake Sonoma Series (#6) is upon us, and the points race is coming to a close. 16 prizes will be handed out to the top points leaders of the year. Some have a strong hold on the placings. But not everyone. It's down to the wire this Saturday at Lake Sonoma at the formerly-known-as Billy Cross races! (via BikeMonkey)

Series point totals are posted here. You can more details on the Lake Sonoma Series in the archives.

2008 Downieville Classic Dates

Dates have been posted for the 2008 Downieville Classic:

"we look forward to hosting you
JULY 11 - 13, 2008
mark your calendars people!!!

• ALL-MOUNTAIN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, July 12-13
• RIVER JUMP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, July 12
• POINT TO POINT XC RACE, July 12
• PIXIE-CROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, July 12
• DOWNIEVILLE DOWNHILL RACE, July 13
• ROBOT DANCE-OFF COMPETITION, July 12
• BICYCLE EXPO & STREET FAIR
• LIVE MUSIC & GOOD TIMES

" (Via Downieville Classic Mountain Bike Festival)

I'll post further details when we get closer to registration time. Last year, registration opened on April 16th. The DH race was full within 2 hours. In the meantime, check out the last two years worth of coverage in the archives.

Coolest 24 Sets 2008 Dates

The Coolest 24, which has quickly grown into one of the best endurance races in NorCal, has announced their 2008 dates:

"May 3rd and 4th, 2008

The Coolest 24 in its second year became one of the top prize money and award giving ultra events in the Nation. $6,000 in prize money and over $20,000 in awards." (Via Global BioRythm Events - Cool24)

Registration is already open at active.com.

2007 Sand Hill Fall #2 Results

Results from the second Sand Hill Fall gravity races have been posted. Congratulations to the following winners:

15 and Under: Thomas Ravina, Novato (Gamut)
16-18 Olympic: Matt Collins, Lafayette (Hank&Frank)
Junior Expert: Forest Belluzzi, Benicia (WTB/Santa Cruz/FrameWrap)
19-29 Sport: Jared Kessler, Placerville
Vet Sport: John Kresich, Clayton (DH Reno)
Vet Expert: Heath Sherratt, Roseville (The Hub/Cannondale)
Women's: Lainey Aldridge, Santa Cruz (Gravity Addix)
Pro: Mikey Haderer, Concord (Yeti/FoxShox/Oakley)

This event was dual slalom racing. Photos have been posted over at A Finished Product.

CCCX DH #3 Rescheduled !

Sorry for the late notice here:

"Attention: The CCCX DH Race scheduled for October 28 will be re-scheduled! Race #3 will now be held on November 4th. There was a conflict with dates at Toro Park, and now the series final will be scheduled at a later date to be determined. Racers......Please make a note that the race scheduled for October 28 will not take place, and the next CCCX DH race will be November 4th at Toro Park." (Via 2007 Central Coast Downhill)

We'll have a course preview later this week.

Sugar Mountain Bows Out of 2008 NORBA

Just about two week after the preliminary 2008 NORBA (NMBS) schedule was posted, there has already been a change:

"Sugar Mountain Resort is committed to growing its mountain bike program for many years to come. As a result, we have made some short term changes. Sugar Mountain Resort will not host the Showdown at Sugar National Mountain Bike Series event in 2008. The decision was not easy and one we labored over for quite a while. However, we will take a fresh look at hosting an event in 2009. In the mean time, please continue to ride the trails on Sugar Mountain." (Via Sugar Mountain Resort)

I am sure that this won't be the only change that we see in the NMBS schedule.

Lagrange Fall Classic / NorCal Series / CA State Results

Some of the Lagrange Classic results are online:

• CROSS-COUNTRY RESULTS


• DOWNHILL RESULTS

Still waiting to see the Super D and Short Track results.

The End of the Cougar Mountain Classic ?

I haven't seen anything official but rumors swirling around the Internets are that the Bay Area's only remaining MTB festival, The Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic, will not be returning for 2008. Bolstering these rumors are the demise of their website at cmclassic.com and it's absence from the 2008 Infineon schedule.

This is sad, but not entirely unexpected, news. Cougar Mountain has struggled the past few years with course issues (and much criticism) and dwindling attendance. That said, I have always thought that the organizers did a great job with what they had (in terms of course) to bring MTB racing to the Bay Area. I will be sorry to see it go.

2008 Boggs III

The guys over at bikeMonkey have the preliminary dates for Boggs III, the north bay 8 hour race:

"Saturday, April 5th (2008). I promised you in March that anyone there on that day would be invited to pre-register for the race. I also promised to cap the event at 200 participants. I am a man of my word. Hey, the big farm truck with the band on top has to fit somewhere!

So within the next month registration for Boggs III 8-hour XC Endurance Race will open up ONLY to those who participated in last year's event. You will have about 6 weeks to pre-register before the field spots open up to everyone else. I'll post registration date specifics soon." (Via BikeMonkey.net)

Keep the date open.

UPDATE (11/07): the Boggs III website is now up.

TBF To Sponsor Friday Night Racing

An interesting item on the front page of the TBF Racing (promoters of the early season MTB Challenge races in Granite Bay, CA):

"NEW IN 2008:
...snip...
5. Summer Friday Night Mtn. Bike Racing at Granite Bay
...snip..." (Via TBF Racing: Total Body Fitness Racing.)

Friday night races. This is sweet. I believe this officially makes the Sierra Foothills the new center of NorCal MTB racing :>

2008 Sea Otter Classic Website & Camping Update

The Sea Otter machine starts to creak to life. A new website is due on November 1st and camping reservations will be accepted later next month:

"Camping Reservations: Online camping reservations will open on Saturday, November 10, 2007 at 9 am, PST. No email, mailed, or telephone reservations will be accepted. General information regarding camping will be posted at www.seaotterclassic.com/camping on November 1, 2007." (Via 2008 Sea Otter Classic Website Opening)

Sites are ranging from $60 - $95 per site this year.

RipTV Visits Northstar

Some good MTB video from the guys at rip.tv when they visited Northstar to ride "Livewire":

2007 Bidwell Bump (This Weekend!)

Yikes! Never saw any advance notice of this, but I believe this is the Bidwell Bump:

"The Chico State Cycling Team will hold NORBA and collegiate mountain bike races Saturday and Sunday at Bidwell Park and at the Oroville Dam.

• An XC race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Saturday at 9 a.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.
• A Super D race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Saturday at 2 p.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. and from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.
• A DH race will be held at the Oroville Dam Trail on Sunday at 9 a.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. at the Oroville Dam Trail Head.
• An SXTC race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Sunday at noon. Registration is from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.

The fees are $15 for collegiate and $35 for NORBA for the first race each race, $5 for collegiate for each additional race and $10 for NORBA for each additional race. NORBA licenses are required and will be available for purchase at registration. One-day licenses are $10." (Via Chico Enterprise Record)

Both NORBA and Collegiate classes will be held.

Lagrange Classic / NorCal Series Final / CA State Champs

Up north in Weaverville tomorrow, the Lagrange Classic begins three days of racing that symbolically closes the NorCal MTB season. Oh, and it's also the NorCal Series Finals. And the California State Championship. Here is the event schedule:

• Super D (Friday Afternoon): It 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. Take a look at the course map here.


• Cross Country (Saturday Morning): Sport/Expert/Pro Course has added one more new section of singletrack for a total of 22.5 miles. There is also a new beginners course: "In past years it ended with 3 miles of fireroad, but no more! Our NEW 13.8 mile beginner course is now almost all singletrack!"


• Short-track Cross Country (Sunday Morning): It’s a fun ¾-mile loop right behind the high school for easy spectating. There’s some fun single-track, some wide fire-road for passing and an oh-so-steep drop-in to keep things interesting.
  


• Downhill (Sunday Noon): The start is way up WeaverBolly road at 5600' and the finish is next to East Weaver Campground at 2800'. It's along one, it takes a pro about 7.5 minutes to do the 3.2 miles. There are some super-steep chutes up top, some cool jumps and drops, high-speed sweepers, a creek jump and some twisty singletrack near the end. Check out the course map here.

You can still enter online at active.com until midnight October 18th (tonight).

Weaverville is located just west of Redding:


View Larger Map

The races will be held rain or shine, but it looks like the rain is going to hold off this weekend. If you have never gotten up Weaverville for one of the Team Bigfoot races, you really owe it to yourself.

Check this thread at MTBR for updates on course conditions.

2007 Sand Hill Fall #1 Results

Results have been posted for the first Sand Hill Fall gravity series race. The mountain cross race was held October 6th. Congrats to Kevin Huffman (Sacramento) who bested George Stephenson III (Folsom) for the men's Pro/Semi-Pro win and Jen McNiven (San Jose, TrailHead Cyclery) who took the ladies' top honors. Pictures have been posted over at A Finished Product.

2008 24 Hour National Point Series Schedule

On the heels of their season ending 24 Hours of Moab, Granny Gear Productions has announced the 2008 schedule for the 24 Hour National Point Series:

• 24 Hour of Vail Lake (April 19-20)
• 24 Hours of Conyers (May 17-18)
• 24 Hours of Big Bear (June 7-8)
• 24 Hours of Killington (July 26-27)
• 24 Hours of Landahl (September 20-21)
• 24 Hours of Moab (October 11-12)

2007 24 Hours of Moab Results

Race reports from this weekend's final 24 Hours National Point Series race have been posted over at Ride 424:

"Looks like another clockwork performance by Eatough for the win and a rough night for a lot of riders favored to make the podium - Marenchin, Tostado, Harris all look to have bailed early, Ernesto said he ran into some asthma issues, dont know about the other 2. Rebecca Rusch came in second behind Jari Kirkland in the women’s field ... Full results here." (Via Ride 424)

Jeff Kerkove has pictures up at his flickr site.

2007 Parkfield Classic Results

Results have been posted for this weekend's Parkfield Classic down near San Luis Obispo:

"Results provided in PDF format:

• Cross Country
• Dual Slalom
• Short Track
• Downhill

Thanks to everyone who came out to race and volunteer this weekend!" (Via Parkfield Classic website)

Race reports are being collected over at MTBR.

Preliminary 2008 NMBS Schedule

I received an email this morning outlining the NORBA Nationals NMBS schedule for 2008. While I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere (especially the NORBA website), here is the proposed schedule:

• NMBS #1: Southridge Park, Fontana, California (Mar 27-30)
• NMBS #2: Nova Nationals, Fountain Hills, Arizona (Apr 3-6)
• NMBS #3: Firestone Santa Ynez Valley Mountain Bike Classic, Santa Barbara, California (May 16-18)
• NMBS #4: Deer Valley, Park City, Utah (June 26-29)
• NMBS #5: Showdown at Sugar Mountain, North Carolina (July 3-6) CANCELLED!
• NMBS #6: East Coast National, Windham, New York (July 10-13)
• NMBS #7: Snowmass, Colorado (Aug 14-17)
• NMBS #8: Tamarack Resort, McCall, Idaho (Aug 28 - Sept 1)

Obviously, since this hasn't been published on the official site, this is still subject to change (and if last year was any indication, it will).

If this is correct, it looks like most of the 2007 sites are back along with some new ones. Of particular interest is the final site up in Idaho - it's only 12 hours from the Bay Area. It's also interesting that the proposed San Jose stop hasn't gotten rescheduled. And it looks like Angel Fire also dropped. Hopefully that means that they got a UCI race.

UPDATE: It looks like dhRENO has all this information and more.

UPDATE (10/25/07): Sugar Mountain has cancelled their 2008 involvement.
UPDATE (11/08/07): The official schedule has been posted. There are several changes so click over to see it.

2007 Whiskeytown Nine to Five Results

The results from last weekend's Whiskeytown Nine to Five have been posted. It looks like they had a really big turnout for the 8 hour solo event.

The last event on the Team Bigfoot calendar is coming in next week: The Lagrange Classic (SuperD, XC, DH, Short track) will also be the California State Championships as well as the NorCal Series final. More information on that today.

2007 Fall CCCX DH #2 Results

Results and photos for the 2007 CCCX Fall Downhill Race #2 (10/7/07) race have been posted.

Congratulations to Curtis Beavers (Specialized/WTB) and Crystal Theesfeld (TrailHead Cyclery) who won the men's and women's Pro/Expert races.

Sand Hill Adds "Race for Tara"

Sand Hill has added a race to their fall schedule to help out Tara Llanes recovery:

"RACE FOR TARA: As you may know, Pro-women's mountain bike racer, Tara Llanes, suffered a horrific crash recently.

Sand Hill has been asked to host a benefit race on Tara's behalf. We have chosen November 17th because it is the next available Saturday on the calendar ... Although many of you prefer the excitement of our dual slalom course, we have chosen Mountain-X as the race format because it doesn't take as long to run.

There will be a raffle (So far we have Fox Shox, Fox Racing, USA Cycling, Gravity Addix, AllOut Productions, RideSFO, etc.). USA Cycling has waived all permit and insurance fees and Sand Hill will not charge for parking that day. A representative from Tara's account will be there to assure all of you that the money is going directly to Tara. " (Via Sand Hill Website)

For full details, click the link above to go to the Sand Hill site. Sand Hill kicks off their fall season this weekend.

UPDATE (10/10/07): Registration is available here.

2007 Fall CCCX DH #2 Preview

It time for the CCCX downhill races again:

CCCX Race #2 Course Profile: The DH route for race #2 features 1000 feet of vertical drop in approximately 3 miles of trail. The top section will boast some new off camber sections, and some high speed fire roads. Then the course will dip down into a portion of Toro Park that has been used in the past for CCCX races. This area is 90 % single track to the finish. The terrain is fast and flowing with tight sections combined with wide open turns that make the riding fun and challenging. This trail does have some pedaling portions and some flat sections, as well as high speed sections, so it will favor a rider who is well rounded and fully skilled in downhill racing. Toro Park is dry, and the trails are lose and slick, and very fast, so the average speed should be very high for this course.

The first race had a big turnout so register and arrive early.

2008 AMBC applications

USA Cycling is starting to get their 2008 calendar together:

"Attention Mountain Bike Promoters:

Applications for the 2008 American Mountain Bike Challenge (AMBC) are now available online at the USA Cycling website by clicking here.

Please not the application deadline for the 2008 calendar is October 15, 2008." (Via USAcycling.org)