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.

2007 Cougar Mountain Sunday Results

The Sunday results from this weekend's Cougar Mountain Classic have been posted. Unfortunately, they have decided to post them all in PDF:

• Cougar Mountain Pro & Expert DH results
• Cougar Mountain Beginner and Sport XC results
• Cougar Mountain Super D results

Congratulations to the following winners:

• Women's Pro Super D: Melissa Buhl (Chandler, AZ)
• Men's Open Super D (best time): Chris Carscadden (Concord,CA)
• Men's Pro DH: Waylon Smith over Ryan Finney (by 0.1 seconds)
• Women's Pro DH: Melissa Buhl (Chandler, AZ)

Cougar Mountain Classic Pics

A few race reports and pictures are starting to file in on this weekend's Cougar Mountain Classic in Sonoma:

• dhRENO files this race report on the weekend
• Rick Rasmussen has posted his pics from the DH runs
• Desmo has posted his pictures
• A Finished Product has their photos up also

I haven't seen the Super D, amateur XC or Pro DH results yet.

2007 Cougar Mountain Pro XC Results

The folks at the Cougar Mountain Classic have posted Saturday's results -- the Pro XC and Road races.

Barry Wicks (Kona Bikes) destroyed the men's Pro XC field to take the win. He won by over 7 minutes over second place Charles Jenkins (San Diego). Jamie Stamps (Lotus, CA) won the Pro Women XC unopposed. Click here the full Cougar Mountain Classic Pro / Elite XC results.

The Pro DH and Super D races are tomorrow. There are already some DH practice and amateur photos posted by Rick Rasmussen.

2007 Cougar Mountain Classic

Today is the official start of the Sonoma's Cougar Mountain Classic event.

The annual event, held at Infineon Raceway, has cross country (XC), downhill (DH), Super D and Road racing over the course of the weekend. While the event starts today, there aren't any races -- it's just course inspection and practice runs (see schedule here).

For those of you looking to race this weekend:

• GPS maps for the Cougar Mountain XC course and Super D courses have been posted at Motionbased.
• The Cougar Mountain DH course is being set up by the folks behind the CHDH, RideSFO
• Pro/Expert XC is Saturday morning, Pro/Expert DH on Sunday
• Beginner/Sport XC on Sunday and DH on Saturday
• Super D on Sunday

And we have ample coverage in the archives from last year's Cougar Mountain: scroll down to see race reports.

Let's hope that the temperature cools a bit for the weekend.

NorCal MTB Racing This Weekend (July 5 - 8)

This weekend kicks off the second half of Northern California's MTB season. It starts early with the return of Northstar at Tahoe's XC racing series on Thursday night and then continues throughout the weekend in Sonoma with the Cougar Mountain Classic.

Northstar at Tahoe's Thursday night XC series returns after a one year hiatus. For those who didn't race in 2005, this XC series is a low key affair that starts at 6 pm sharp (5 pm registration) and usually runs about 4 mile laps. Check out my race report from way back in August 2005 for more details. Race fees are $10 per racers and the races are held near the Northstar village.

I'll have more information on the Cougar Mountain Classic later today. In the meantime, checkout my extensive coverage of last year's event in the archives (it was called the US MTB Nationals last year).

Cougar Mountain DH Pics

Pics of the Cougar Mountain Classic DH course have surfaced online. A description from the builders:

We re routed the very upper section a little bit, so it's a little faster. On the steep section up top that use to be several steep rutted turns, we built 6 berms (which we've been watering daily Fri-Sun). We've widened and flattened a couple of the fast off camber sections so that you can carry more speed through those areas. We've built a bunch of smaller jumps and kickers through out the course. Cut-off a line to add another mini g-out section at the middle of the course. Bermed the lower flat s-turns from the past couple of years. And where the old finish line was, we put a series of whoops into a flat corner.

Then you cross the pavement onto the mountaincross-ish jump line beginning with a medium size hip jump. After that you go into a set of two doubles with table landings - into a berm, to a couple of smaller hip step up/down jumps to a final swooping berm back down the slight grade road to the new finish line at the expo center.

The events starts on Friday.

Cougar Mountain DH Update

The folks at RideSFO (who run the CHDH series) are helping to design this year's downhill for the Cougar Mountain Classic. From their email:

Infineon knows that the race hasn't been the greatest in the past but they are committed to make every improvement and it starts with the course. This year, a group of local riders, rideSFO, and Infineon have teamed up to create a fast, flowy, fun and challenging DH course. We’ve maintained the basic skeleton of the past years course, but it will be well groomed before Thursday’s practice runs. We are going to try our best to make the course as solid as it can be ..... We’ve also made sure to minimize any flatter pedal sections, and increase the flow of the course as much as possible. The course remains technical, but the fun factor has been dialed up considerably.

The course will sport new sculpted berms down steep terrain, techy off-camber sections, and an all new jump line for riders and spectators alike, that snakes from the finish of the original course downhill into the paddock where you’ll demonstrate your air skills and cornering ability for your family and friends just before crossing the finish line. We want you to come off the mountain with a smile on your face.

For more info check out .... http://www.cmclassic.com. Lets keep another local DH race .

This can be only be good.

NORBA Drops Cougar Mountain From 2007 Schedule

Hmmm . . . a curious change for the NORBA Nationals series:

We have added the Firestone Santa Ynez Valley Mountain Bike Classic Santa Barbara, CA for cross country, short track and Super D and the Chile Challenge Angel Fire Resort, NM for downhill and 4X series points. These two venues replace the Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic.

Now don't go jumping to conclusions that Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic is cancelled -- in fact, they just put up a new website. This just means that it isn't a NORBA event this year. Which is probably a good thing :> The entire series schedule can be found in a PDF at their site. For the impatient, the 2007 NORBA series now consists of:

• 03/30/07: NOVA National presented by Bear Naked Cannondale
• 04/28/07: Firestone Santa Ynez Valley Mountain Bike Classic XC/STXC presented by TREK-VW
• 05/04/07: Fontana National presented by KONA Bicycles
• 05/26/07: The Chile Challenge Angel Fire Resort Angel Fire, New Mexico
• 06/15/07: Deer Valley Resort National presented by Subaru-Gary Fisher
• 07/27/07: Showdown at Sugar National presented by Maxxis Tires
• 08/10/07: Snowmass National presented by LUNA

This change continues two trends for NORBA: abandonment of the the NorCal scene and the divorce from USA Cycling. I'll update the calendar again (sigh).

Tentative 2007 NORBA Schedule

So I was going to hold this for later this week (when news gets a little slow. . . ), but after I saw TWO NorCal events I knew it needed to go up pronto. Now these are tentative, so they might (make that WILL change), but here is the 2007 NORBA Nationals schedule:

• NORBA 1: Phoenix, AZ on March 31 - April 1, 2007 (MA/TT/Super D)
• NORBA 2: Fontana, CA (SoCal "Fontucky") on May 5 - 6, 2007 (Everything)
• NORBA 3: San Jose, CA on May 20th, 2007 (XCO/Super D)
• NORBA 4: Park City, UT on June 16-17, 2007 (Everything)
• NORBA 5: Sonoma, CA (Cougar Mountain) on July 7 - 8, 2007 (Everything)
• NORBA 6: Sugar Mountain, NC on July 28 - 29, 2007 (Everything)
• NORBA FINALS: Snowmass Village, CO on August 11-12, 2007 (Everything)
  

So there are a few questions here (what the hell is TT and XCO ? Time Trial ?) but this looks promising for NorCal riders. The San Jose dates jive with this press release about the San Jose Cycling Classic, but so that looks pretty solid. I wonder where this will be held ? The press release makes it seem like it will be near downtown San Jose. I hope its not like the Dew Action Sports that was on this weekend (BTW it looked awesome in HD).

UPDATE (12/09/06): NMBS #3 in San Jose has been canceled.
UPDATE (2/14/06): Changed again. Go see this post for the new schedule. They changed three or four races.

2006 US MTB Championship on TV

You'll need to find this on your local cable/satellite channel:

For the second consecutive year, cycling fans will have a chance to relive the Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic when Fox Sports Net Bay Area broadcasts a one-hour show on the event.

The one-hour show will premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 12:30 p.m. with two additional airings scheduled for Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 14 at 11:30 a.m. (all times Pacific). The show will feature highlights from each event, as well as features on riders and key figures in the foundation of the sport of mountain biking.

I saw last year's coverage and it wasn't too bad.

2007 Cougar Mountain Classic Scheduled

Tentative 2007 dates for the Cougar Mountain Classic have been announced:

The 2007 Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic tentatively will be held July 6-8, subject to the granting of our final permits. We will confirm the event dates at a later time.

I'll keep on this.

2006 US MTB Nationals Wrapup

Wow, that was a long weekend of sun and racing at Infineon. For those of you who didn't make it up/down to Sonoma this weekend, here are links to articles, results and stories about the 2006 US MTB Nationals (Cougar Mountain Classic):

• All Cougar Mountain / US MTB Nationals results
• US MTB Nationals Pro results
• My Pro mountain cross report
• My Men's Pro cross country report
  
• My Women's Pro cross country report
• Team Motionbased DH race report
• Rick's gravity picture gallery
• dhReno's downhill race report (with pictures)
• USA Cycling MTX race report
• USA Cycling XC race report
• USA Cycling Short Track and Downhill race report
• Cougar Mountain Short Track press release (Men's, Women's)
• Velonews Short Track and Downhill race report
• Velonews MTX race report
• Velonews XC race report
• Velonews Marathon race report
• All the pre-race reports

Overall, I had a great time this weekend. I know a lot of people will bitch about NORBA and the organization of the event (costs, course, poor attendance, few vendors, etc.) but I still will be extremely sad to see the US MTB Nationals move east next year.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (My XC Race)

After days of waiting, it finally was my turn to get out and race on Saturday. After doing the pre-race ride of the course on Thursday, I decided to lighten up my wheel/tire set and put on the Kenda Karmas and junk the camelbak. I was concerned about using the new tread pattern, but the weight savings on this fast course was just too much to pass up.

As they lined up my group, it was strange how few people showed up. Two of my group was from last year's Cougar Mountain Classic (I remember racing against them), but the rest had come in from around the country. We numbered about 13 riders in my age/category bracket.
After watching the other classes start ahead of us, we finally got started. One guy jumped to the lead and was gone (I later found he had won Sea Otter in the same class). As expected, I felt pretty fast and good through the first lap. A little skid in the first turn and some passing problems on the chattery singletrack, but overall a pretty fast lap time for me. I was thinking to myself I was in about 5th place at the turn. The second lap didn't go anywhere near as smooth. Right off the bat in the second technical descent, I got a terrible case of chain suck. I had to dismount to clear it and by the time I got back on the bike, I saw two people in my age group whiz by. Cursing, I pedaled after them and was making good time. However, by the time I had hit the second feedzone (and steep hill) people were really starting to pass me. Morale was pretty low here -- I think I had slipped to 7th place by now -- but I trudged onward. Making up some more time after the hill climb, I cramped up terribly on some singletrack (Another dismount, another minute lost.) However, once I got back on the pavement for the last 2 miles, I felt like I caught a second wind as others were bonking. I must have passed four riders on the last two major climbs and then was flying down the technincal descent to the race track. Just as we came back into the stadium area, a guy two bikes ahead of me lost his chain and blocked the rider behind him. Seeing this, I put the hammer down, flew by them and sprinted out of the saddle the last mile. I almost puked when I hit the finish line.

After the race, we ended up waiting forever for the results. When they were finally posted, I scored a podium visit by finishing in 4th place. And I took 3.5 minutes off my time from last year. Sweet.
Being on the podium was super cool since I had struggled most of this year (as chronicled on this site). However, I must give credit where credit is due: The Kenda Karma tires were a huge, huge help.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (Day 3 Pro SuperD)

The SuperD race was run yesterday just before my race. Didn't get a chance to view them (busy preparing for my race), but it sounded like an interesting event. Partially run on the XC course, they used a mass Le Mans style start instead of time trials format.

Adam Craig won the men's event and Sue Haywood overcame a crash to outsprint the field for the women's win. I'll see if I can find some pictures and link them in here.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (Day 3 Pro MTX)

Although I missed the Pro mountain cross (MTX) finals (due to a scheduling problem), I did get to see the men's medal awards. Here's Eric Carter getting the stars and stripe jersey over Brian Lopes. Eric won the championship by getting the hole shot and then holding off Brian.

Jill Kitner benefited from Tara Llanes fall in the third turn to defend her National MTX title. Kitner was actually third in the race before Tara tangled with Melissa Buhl.

Men
1. Eric Carter, Mongoose
2. Brian Lopes, GT
3. Rich Houseman, Yeti
4. Cody Warren, C-Dub Racing

Women
1. Jill Kintner, GT
2. Leanna Gerrard, Bear Naked-Cannondale
3. Melissa Buhl, KHS
4. Tara Llanes, Giant

Here's an action picture from MTBR and the USA Cycling press release and Velonews article.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (MTX Qualifiers)

It looks like they finished the MTX course overnight. Hard to tell the overall course, but it appears to be less steep than last year's course. The bottom certainly has far fewer rhythm sections. The men's pro mountain cross qualifying results:

1. Brian Lopes
2. Rich Houseman
3. Eric Carter
4. Cody Warren
   

Mountain cross pro finals are on Saturday.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (Pro Women XC)

And another surprise in the Women's Pro XC. Georgia Gould (Luna Women) held off Heather Irmiger (Subaru) and Mary McConnelough (Seven Cycles) to capture her first pro win.

Gould pulled away in the last lap to win by 1:29. Results are available here. Race recap is here.

Local pros Jamie Whitmore and Kim Passafiume finished 11th and 30th respectively.

RACE REPORT: US MTB Nationals (Pro Men XC)

The Men's Pro cross country (XC) led off today with a suprise. After taking the lead in the second lap, Ryan Trebon (Kona) opening up a one minute plus gap on a chase group of four riders (Barry Wicks, Jeremiah Bishop, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Adam Craig). While the chase group tried to close the gap with a valiant try on the fourth lap, Ryan held them off for a convincing win.

Barry Wicks jumped out of the chase group to make it a 1 - 2 sweep for Kona.

The final standings were:

1. Ryan Trebon (Kona) 2:02:24
2. Barry Wicks (Kona) 2:03:18
3. Jeremiah Bishop (Trek) 2:03:53
4. Jeremy Horgan-Kobels 2:05:14
5. Adam Craig (Giant) 2:05:36
6. Todd Wells (GT Bicycles) 2:07:57

Local favorites Aren Timmel finished 11th and Tim Olson came in 17th. The full results are available here and a good recap here.

RACE REPORT: 2006 US MTB Nationals (Day 2)

Finally got off work today, loaded up the Element and hauled my ass down to the US MTB Nationals / Cougar Mountain Classic. I was greeted with an eerie déjà vu from my last trip there (2005 Cougar Mountain Classic): semi humid (at least to me), hot weather with a withering sun. Why is there never any shade in Sonoma ?
Whatever the reason, I pulled into Infineon Raceway and paid my $10 for parking (although I get free access as a competitor, I still have to pay on the first day ? WTF?). As I was getting my gear out of the car to saunter over to registration, I heard the announcers broadcast another finisher for the Marathon race. Wow, that did not sound like fun (they started at 7 AM). I still haven't seen a results posted for this race. (UPDATE: Travis Brown and Melissa Thomas won the Men's and Women's Marathon. MTBR has the official press release.).

Registration was fairly uneventful: they checked my qualification and USA Cycling membership, sent me over to onsite registration and I paid my money. That isn't to say that everyone was happy. A bunch of people were pissed about having to pay almost an entire year's license for just this one race. I guess to compete in any of the championship races, you can't buy a one day license. As I got out of registration, the last marathoner finished at about 2 pm.
With my reigstration done and racing plate in hand, I mounted up the bike and took off for a practice run on the XC course. The cross country course is as advertised and largely the same as last year. Long hill climbs, no shade whatsever (the "tree grove" is borderline pathetic), hard as hell and incredibly bumpy. There must be 3 miles of "chatter" in this course: rutted hard pack with 5 inch bumps that just rattle your back on the off-camber singletrack. I had entertained thoughts of riding my hardtail, but half a lap into my practice my lower back completely vetoed that idea. For Saturday's race, I am rolling full suspension, light XC wheels, lots of sunblock and a full camelbak.

While everyone is (and will be for a long time judging by some comments I heard on my practice lap) bitching about this course, I've seen worse. I'm going to go out, have a good time and see how it works out.
After I finished my XC practice laps, I took a quick tour of the expo/pit areas. While most of the manufacturers and pro teams had set up their pits, most of the other vendors had yet to arrive. The exception there was Kenda Tires, who had some good deals. I picked up two Kenda Kharma DTC tires for USD$24/piece and might use them come Saturday.


Shopping and hydration done, I wandered up the hill to see the gravity arenas. While the downhill was exactly as last year, it looks like they started from scratch for the mountaincross track. In fact, judging by the lack of rhythm track and the presence of backhoes, it looks like they aren't quite done yet. At least the starting gatehouse was up and ready.
The Downhill looks the same as last year. People were already pinning it in the easy places and washing out on the first turn. Overall, I think most people are pretty pleased with the downhill course considering what they had to work with.
I also dropped by the new short track course (but forgot to take a picture of it). They dropped it right by the Shimano tech booth and it should be really fun to watch. About 1/2 mile of heavily taped off turns where people will be able to stand right next to the riders.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll have some live blogging from the racetrack during the day and some video (if I can swing it) at night.