Inaugural Stafford Lake CX Reg Opens Tonight !

Murphy Mack is back with a new cyclocross race for the Fall:

The race that is bringing cyclocross to Stafford Lake Park in Novato, California for the first time is opening registration today, Friday September 9th, at 6pm. Registration will be open for all classes from C's (beginner) to Elite (Pro).

The event's title sponsor is Marin Bikes and other major sponsors include WTB, New Belgium, Bike Monkey, Sheila Moon, Ritchey Components and Cedar Cycling and Kuat Racks.
“We are super stoked to have such strong partner relationships in place for the inaugural event – all of whom who have seen the great value in partnering with the Stafford Lake Cyclocross race,” said Murphy Mack, the Bay Area race promoter putting on the event. “Coming to this new venue is good for racing and it's good to be able to help fund the development of the Stafford Lake Bike Park. Combined with the generous support of our sponsors and a who's - who list of great Northern California racers we are confident that this event will go big in this it's first running” added Mack.  
Registration is online at www.staffordlakecx.com.

The Stafford Lake Cyclocross Race will be held November 6th, 2011 in Novato, CA and features "a flat to rolling 2.5 mile course that will offer five, maybe six features.  Lots of good passing areas and great spectator visibility.  Two run ups, a set of boards, a sand pit for your running pleasure and a special feature or two that will be revealed on race day.  BONUS: the course goes right through the beer garden every lap!"

Murphy had me at Beer Garden.

Watch the CX Nationals Live Online!

If you're into cyclocross but couldn't make it to Bend this year, fire your computer Sunday afternoon:

Watch the Cyclo-cross Nationals elite races live online!

USA Cycling will be presenting live streaming coverage of the men's and women's elite races from the 2010 Cyclo-cross National Championships on Sunday, December 12.

Schedule of Elite Races (coverage begins approximately 10 minutes before each race)

• Women's race - 12:30 p.m. PT
• Men's race - 2:30 p.m. PT

Via USA Cycling (use this link to watch)

 

RACE REPORT: 2010 Folsom Rodeo CX #1

Although I was without my new cyclocross bike (in the shop over at Folsom Bike & Grind with some rear wheel repairs, thanks guys), I headed down the series opener for the Folsom Rodeo Cross. I've always wanted to race at night, and really like that the Rodeo grounds are so close to my house.

I've captured some video of the Men's A & B race, from near the first downhill in "Sherwood Forest."

Overall, a fine start to the season - good course (although a bit technical at night), good crowd and superb organization as always by Bicycling Events. I am pretty sure that I finished near the back of the pack, but I'm going to blame that on racing my SuperFly (2.2" wheel and all) :)

NorCal MTB Racing This Weekend: October 9-10, 2010

For those of you making your weekend plans, here is quick rundown of this weekend's MTB racing schedule for NorCal:

1. Hasta Be Shasta (10/09/10) Downhill racing
2. Sacramento CX (10/09/10)
3. Homegrown CX (10/10/10)
4. CCCX CX (10/10/10)
5. Sagebrush CX (10/10/10)

For more in-depth coverage of this weekend's cyclocross races, head over to the NCNCA CX blog.

Tonight's Rodeo Cross To Benefit Haiti Relief

Come out for the first day of sunshine in FOREVER and support a great cause:

NEXT EVENT: is Wed night practice on Jan 27th.
THIS RACE WILL BENEFIT the RED CROSS/HAITI FUND!
100% of proceeds will go to the American Red Cross. Please come out, have some fun and support a worthy cause. Also last NIGHT in Sherwood Forest! Online registration is now open!

Via Folsom Rodeo Cyclocross

2009 Folsom Rodeo Cross Series

The folks behind the ever popular Prairie City Race Series have introduced a new winter Cyclocross series for the Sacramento area:

Introducing the all NEW Folsom Rodeo Cross 2009 Series

The most fun you will have on your bike all week!

This is a brand new series being held at the Folsom Rodeo grounds. A challenging course has been laid out and anyone with a bicycle is welcome. So grab your cross bike... your mountain bike... or your neighbors bike. Come out and join in the fun at the all new Folsom Rodeo Cross.

Weekday NIGHT! Under the lights!!
Shorter course within the lighted arena area.

Weekend DAYS! Under the sun!
Includes all of the Weekday night course plus surrounding trails outside the rodeo grounds.

All the dates are on the sidebar or BICYCLINGEVENTS.COM.

NorCal MTB Racing This Weekend: Oct 3 -4, 2009

Racing is starting to wind down for the year, so for this weekend's calendar I am opening it up nationwide. In case, you are looking for a serious roadtrip:

10/03/09: Whiskeytown 9-5 / 24 (NorCal, near Redding)
10/03/09: Parkfield Classic (Central CA, near nothing [ed: kidding])
10/03/09: Road Apple Rally (NM)
10/03/09: Bryan Texas Utilities Power Pedal (TX)
10/03/09: Fall Tilt in Telluride (CO)
10/03/09: SoCal Fat Tire Epic 50 (SoCal)
10/04/09: Northstar DH (Live Wire Classic) (Truckee, CA)
10/04/09: Wolf River Rendezvous (WI)
10/04/09: Leaf Blower (NJ)
10/04/09: North Texas XC #3 Rowlett Creek (TX)
10/04/09: BASP CX #1 (Bay Area Cyclocross)

Race & Party in Santa Rosa for Tour of California

So you've probably heard by now that there is some kind of bike race coming to NorCal. We'll even though it is of the roadie persuasion, it looks like there might be some things worth seeing:

Mack sends word of what to do in Santa Rosa during their Tour of California stage:

Two days of bikes and partying in Santa Rosa with the Tour of California at Velove!

Saturday the 14th: my man Carlos and BikeMonkey put on Cyclocross Santa Rosa, the season finale! Marin Bikes will be there with several of their flossy new Cortina CX bikes that you can actually run the race on. Scandium and carbon with SRAM kit. I'll be helping to call the race so if i know who you are, prepare to be heckled!

Sunday the 15th: Area teams face off four-wide on the new GoldSprints system from 12 noon - 4pm on the main stage in the Lagunitas beer garden. $5 pints of Lagunitas beers. I've got over $5,000 in CASH & PRIZES to give away so far...

Then from 4pm - 5pm we watch the Tour leaders come in for the stage win on the JumboTron in the beer garden.

From 5pm - 6pm the Broakland Krew from MontanoVelo will throw down a trick and skid exhibition and freestyle show. We'll play round of footdown for some swag and then we open the gates for a Trick & Skid Competition. We've got a whole city block closed off for this, washed and swept. Skid for accuracy and distance. Lots of prizes to give away, so bring your best moves.

Then it's heads-up GoldSprints racing on the main stage until we run out of beer. Since I went all out and got FORTY kegs of Lagunitas coming it could be while!

Sponsors kicking down are Marin Bikes, Montano Velo, Chuey, Sheila Moon, Hutchinson Tires and a few more I can't remember right now.

It looks like the North Bay folks are setting a high bar for Tour of California festivities ...

2008 Prairie City Race Series Fall FLASH

Just as the Spring PCRS is wrapping up (tonight's race is the finale), the Fall Flash series has been announced.

The Fall Flash series is "... un-sponsored and supported entirely by your participation! It is a "compact" version of our regular season...the FLASH courses are a little shorter, flatter and faster than our Spring/Summer season courses because of the limited sunlight hours... other than that, same great fun! These races are great for the first time racer or the Expert looking more training. The Fall FLASH Series has been made 'famous' because of the following 'features': NO trophies! NO raffle prizes! NO schwag! NO t-shirts! NO whining...doh! Just braggin' rights and mostly: GREAT FUN!"

The Fall series also has a cyclocross class for those of you looking for some early CX season training.

Dates for this year's Fall Flash series are:

• August 20 & 27
• September 3, 10 & 17

Races cost $25 for your first race (+$10 for race day registration) and then $12/race afterwards. The races are held at the same Prairie City Off Road Vehicle Park near Sacramento, CA (actually closer to Folsom on I-50).

For more information consult Prairie City Race Series Fall FLASH Series webpage.

CXSR08

This is a cyclocross race, but there is a MTB contest and you can ride your XC bike in the race, so I am posting it here:

CXSR08
Bike Monkey is giving away a brand new cyclocross bike to the fastest lap on a Mountain Bike in the B-class race of its first ever cyclocross event in Santa Rosa, CA! There will be BEER, RACING, LIVE ROCK MUSIC, and a HECKLING CONTEST! Kona and many bike shops will be raffling off prizes and showing off last year's cyclocross inventory. Come out for a mud-fest party!!

The race will be held at Dan Galvin Park in Santa Rosa, CA on February 16th, 2008. Registration is $15, $10 for Juniors, and $3 for kids.

ABR Cyclocross National Championships

This weekend marked the 2007 American Bike Racing CX championship down in Fresno, CA. A report from the race:

Current UCI World Four Cross and UCI World Cup Champion Brian Lopes(Oakley) made a appearance at the SportsMobile Fresno Cyclocross Series Final race. The event takes place at Woodward Park in Fresno and the race course features some sections of the MTB Progression Park. The course took advantage of the awesome berms and rollers at the MTB Progression portion of Woodward Park to create a fast course that was technical and challenging. Keith DeFiebre (Scott/Ritchey) was the overall SportsMobile Fresno series winner for the 3rd straight year. The ABR Championship main event race came down to a four rider break-away of Lopes, DeFiebre, Fresno's Steve Ray (Stevens Bicycles), and California State Cross Champion Sam Ames (Simply Fit) of Bakersfield. The four riders came into the last lap even, but after a flurry of attacks it came down to DeFiebre and Lopes sprinting for the win. DeFiebre gapped Lopes going into the last turns near the finsh, but clipped a pedal allowing Lopes to get back on terms. Then World Champion Brian Lopes added another win to his credit taking the photo finish sprint over Fresno Series Champion Defiebre by a small margin on the line. Local phenom Steve Ray claimed the bronze medal on the day with his third place finish 5 seconds back.

Lopes, who is sponsored by SportsMobile, will not be representing GT in 2008, but will be staying with all of his other sponsors, such as Oakley, Kenda and SportsMobile. His bike sponsor will be finalized soon. For info on Lopes you can go to BrianLopes.com, and for info on Keith DeFiebre's Central Coast MTB race series which starts Feb 10 in Monterey you can go to www.cccx.org.

There sure seems like there is a lot of racing going on in Fresno these days. I may have to take back my comments about the Sierra Foothills being the hotbed on racing for 2008...

UPDATE: The good folks at Sicklines.com also have some coverage.

Jacques-Maynes Wins CX Masters

Here's a happy ending to this summer's story about Andy Jacques-Maynes' crash:

"Andy Jacques-Maynes' debilitating crash during a cycling race last May left a sizeable dent in the steel light pole he hit. It did no damage, however, to the Capitola athlete's confidence.

After more than six months of intense recovery that started with Jacques-Maynes' biggest accomplishment being just getting out of bed, the cyclist achieved a lofty goal he'd set for himself long ago. Sloshing through an unpredictable course of mud and snow on Saturday, Jacques-Maynes won the Masters A 30-34 race at the National Cyclocross Championships in Kansas City, Mo." (Via SantaCruzSentinel.com)

You can check out Andy's account of the race over at his blog.

CX US Nationals Champs Crowned

CX Magazine has the scoop on this weekend's US National Cyclocross Championship in Kansas City:

"Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) returned to normal winning ways with her fourth national championship today in muddy and icy conditions. Unlike her last three championships, she had strong competition from a determined Rachel Lloyd (ProMan), who closed within 15 seconds on the last lap after Compton has a slight bobble with less than a half lap to go. Lloyd, from NorCal, surprisingly loves the snow and ice, and the conditions allowed her technical mountain biking skills to propel her past all the favorites except Compton." (Via Nats Champs Crowned: Compton 4-peats, Johnson Survives : Cyclocross Magazine)

Go check out the videos over at CX Magazine.

2007 LARPD CX #1

The cyclocross season opened this weekend and the Livermore Area Recreation and Parks District held the first NorCal race. According to CyclocrossBabble, a total of 93 riders attended and rode about 7 minute laps even with the unseasonably hot temperatures.

I haven't seen any pictures or results yet, but someone did post their GPS track from the course:

View Larger Map

I'll update this with results and pics when they surface. The second race of the season is next Saturday at the same location.

2007 CCCX DH Series Champions

CCCX Organizer Keith DeFiebre has also post the final DH series points.

Congratulations to the 2007 CCCX DH Series Winners:

• PRO/SEMI-PRO MEN: Ross McMahon (TrailHead Cyclerey)
• PRO WOMEN: Chrystal Tunnell (Morewood/SRAM/Cydesport)
• EXPERT WOMEN: Nova Hairstan (Marin)
• EXPERT MEN 19-34: Richard Joesph (Scotts Valley Cycle Sport)
• EXPERT MEN 35-44: Keith DeFiebre (Calabazas/Altezza 40/SF Velo/Ritchey/Amino Vital)
• EXPERT MEN 45-54: Brian Hughes (Trail Head Cyclery)
• HARDTAIL: Keith DeFiebre (Calabazas/Altezza 40/SF Velo/Ritchey/Amino Vital)
• SINGLE SPEED: Shawn Siebe (Trail Head Cyclerey)
• CLYDESDALE: J.J. Myatt (Picoperformance.com)
• SPORT WOMEN: Crystal Theesfeld (Trail Head Cyclery)
• SPORT MEN 19-34: Max Hinckley (Bobcat Bicycles)
• SPORT MEN 35-44: Richard Mauger (Azonic/Hayes)
• SPORT MEN 45-54: Reed Cantlay (Santa Cruz)
• MEN 55+: Stephen Marusic (San Francisco)
• BEG. WOMEN: Linda Ellzey (Picoperformance.com)
• BEG. MEN 19-34: Matt Tricoli (Picoperformance.com)
• BEG. MEN 35-44: Michael Takahashi (Evomo/Hayes/661/SPY)
• BEG. MEN 45+: Jesse Mazza (Picoperformance.com)
• JUNIOR EXPERT: Alex Amaral (Parents)
• JUNIOR 16-18: Brian Hamilton (Trail Head Cyclery)
• JUNIOR 14-16: Keith Morelan (San Jose)
• JUNIOR 13 UNDER: Matt Fyten (San Jose)
• JUNIOR GIRLS: Alexandria Gallizioli (Los Gatos)
• OVERALL TEAM: Trail Head Cyclery (San Jose)

Keith has also indicated that there will be a CCCX DH Winter series starting sometime in September as well as a CCCX Cyclocross series this fall.

RACE RESULTS: Lake Sonoma Series #3

The third Lake Sonoma Series XC race is in the books. Sonoma Series #3 results are posted here and LSS race pictures are posted on Picassa. Congratulations to Roger Bartels, Jay Bretz and Karla Kingsley who won the Men's Pro, Cyclocross and Expert Women's races, respectively.

2007 PCRS Fall Flash Announced

The folks behind the Prairie City Race Series have announced their Fall Flash series:

It is a short 4 race series August 22nd, 29th, September 5th & 12th, 2007. The "FLASH" courses are a little shorter, flatter and faster than our spring/summer season courses because of the limited sunlight hours... and we also include A, B and C categories for CYCLOCROSS. (You CX'ers can use these as a great pre-season tune up!)

You can find more information on the series at the PCRS website.

2007 NorCal CX Preliminary Schedule

For those of you who also CycloCross (CX), some news of the upcoming season: The Northern California Nevada Cycling Association has published the preliminary 2007 NorCal Cyclocross (CX) race calendar.

It looks like they have tried hard to harmonize the schedule across all the different CX racing leagues. Most of the series have fewer dates, but none of them overlap. For more details, see the Beer League CX website. I will probably be covering more of the CX scene in this blog this year.

Get Well Andy

For those of you that follow the NorCal Cyclocross or Road scenes, you probably know that Andy Jacques-Maynes was injured in a horrible crash at the Memorial Day Crit in Morgan Hill, CA a few weeks ago. He's been released from the hospital, but he is facing a fairly lengthy recovery and huge medical bills (ICU time and helicopter rides are expensive).

To help defray his bills, a fund has been setup in his name. You could really help out by donating to:

Jacques-Maynes Medical Fund
501 Plum Street
Capitola, CA 95010

Checks can be made to "Jacques-Maynes Medical Fund" and the Tax ID # is 51-0637832. The fund is registered as a non-profit with the IRS.

You can follow Andy's recovery at http://getwellandy.blogspot.com/.

By the way Andy, are you the guy who sat next me on the United flight back from Tokyo on May 23rd ? You can really sleep. /k

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.