Sand Hill Ranch Sold

Sad new out of the Bay Area:

Tom Anderson had his gate person announce last week to all of the riders that he has sold the ranch. It is in Escrow, which is an in-between phase until the new owner takes over. Until that time, we are still running as usual.

Obviously, the ranch has been on the market for a while but still quite a loss to the Bay Area gravity community.

2009 Race4Tara Update

Looks like they may be moving this year's benefit for Tara Llanes:

Race4Tara: The annual benefit for Tara Llanes has been moved back a week (Oct 10/11 weekend) and we may have it at a different venue so as to maybe include a DownHill (oh, so popular!, yes?)...Stay tuned. The Race Committee meets this Sunday so a full report will come next week.

More as it becomes available.

Sand Hill For Sale

Looks like the lone Bay Area gravity area is up for sale:

Yes, that is a For Sale sign out front. After 36 years Tom Anderson has decided to sell Sand Hill and move on. He is not interested in leasing the place to another MX company to run it. He does not want his kids to run it. He wants to sell it, pay his outstanding debts and move on.

This whole process will probably take many months to happen, so in the meantime it is Business as Usual for practice days. If you have been meaning to come out for a while but keep putting it off, now would be the time.

Bicycles: We probably will not re-open for regular practice, but we still plan on the annual Race 4 Tara benefit. If the Ranch is sold before October we have developed a Plan B at a different venue.

The Sand Hill website is at http://prsports.com/bike/

MTB Racing This Weekend: March 28 & 29, 2009

There's a bit of racing going on in NorCal this weekend:

Saturday: It's sold out, but Boggs IV is going in the North Bay this weekend. 8 Hours, but if you haven't registered you are out of luck.

Also Saturday, if you can't get in to the Boggs extravagazea, you might bring out your gravity rig, for the third Sand Hill Spring Gravity. This weekend is Mountain Cross / 4x.

Sunday, is the fourth CCCX XC race. Same fast people, similar course at Fort Ord new course at Toro Park (where the CCCX DH is held).

No reason not to go race this weekend, it's beautiful in NorCal this weekend.

2009 Sand Hill Spring Gravity #2 Results

Results for yesterday's Sand Hill Spring Gravity #2 (Dual Slalom) have been posted. Congrats to:
Pro Men: George Stephenson III (Yeti)
Pro Women: Lisa Myklak (Black Market/Fox)


Photos have been posted at A Finished Product.

2009 Sand Hills Spring Gravity #1 Results

Sorry we are a bit late on this, but results from last weekend's Sand Hill Spring Gravity #1 have been posted.

MTB Racing This Weekend: March 14 & 15, 2009

Another big weekend of racing in NorCal:

• Saturday is the second Sand Hill Spring Gravity race in the East Bay. This weekend it is Dual Slalom instead of Mountaincross.
• Sunday is the annual Cool MTB Race near Auburn, CA. The Cool race is held on the Olmstead Loop, renowned for muddy (if not snowy) conditions.
• Sunday is also the third CCCX XC race near Seaside, CA. Head honcho of the CCCX race, Keith DeFiebre, describe this weekend's race as "The CCCX XC race will be a 5 mile lap featuring a few new sections of trail in Ft Ord never used before for a MTB race. The race route features multiple climbs and lots of fun riding single track that is in perfect condition after last weeks rain. Spring time really is the best time to race Mountain Bikes in this area of Ft Ord as the flowers are starting to bloom, the grass is green, and the trails are smooth and fast, making for some beautiful scenery and fun racing."

Hope everyone takes advantage of the extra daylight to get out and race (or at least ride) this weekend.

Sand Hill Spring Gravity Opener Update

Stay tuned about this weekend's Sand Hill Spring Gravity opener:

(If it's raining, call the hotline) The March 7 race is 50-50% on running or not. The decision will be made by this afternoon at 4 pm (Thursday). There is a 30% chance of showers by noon, then after that we need to see how quickly it has all dried out.

Via Sand Hill Racing.

UPDATE: All systems go:

YES on the Mountain Bike race this Saturday (3/7/09). All race details are at www.sandhillracing.com. Click onto the Bicycle Races page...Track is in great shape. A few soft spots in the parking lot....

Sand Hill Spring Gravity Update

Just a small update to Sand Hill's Spring Gravity series:

• The March 21st date has been canceled due to a scheduling conflict.
• The first two events have swapped their race formats. The March 7th race is now 4x/mountaincross and the March 14th race is now dual slalom.
• Sand Hill has a live track cam so you can check out conditions before you get there.

The new race schedule is:

03/07/09: Sand Hill Spring Gravity (4X)
03/14/09: Sand Hill Spring Gravity (DS)
03/21/09: Sand Hill Spring Gravity(CANCELED)
03/28/09: Sand Hill Spring Gravity (4X)
04/04/09: Sand Hill Spring Gravity (DS)

The Sand Hill Spring Gravity series is held in Brentwood, CA (East SF Bay) at Sand Hill Ranch. You can find past results and other information in the archives.

Sand Hill Video

The folks over at Sand Hill Racing have posted a short video clip highlighting their track and stunts. It's a good preview if you've never had a chance to get out there.

Sand Hill Racing holds mountaincross and dual slalom racing in the Bay Area. This year's Sand Hill Spring Gravity races begins in early March. See here for the full schedule.

Sand Hill Reborn for 2009

Interesting news coming out of the East Bay's Sand Hill Racing:

The SPRING GRAVITY SERIES 2009 (alternating Dual Slalom and Mtn-X) will be March 7, 14, 21, 28, and April 4 (final and raffle), just in time to tune up for the Sea Otter event (April 16-19, 2009). Sign ups and practice 8-10 am. More info coming.

Happy to see Bay Area gravity racing back. The Sand Hill people also let loose this other tidbit:

A third Race For Tara benefit (2009) is tentatively scheduled for Oct 17 &18 weekend (Yes! A two day event with Mtn-X racing and Dual Slalom qualifying on Saturday, then Dual Slalom racing plus The Raffle on Sunday). Save the date and more info will be posted when we get it.

Impressive for a place that was about to close down just a few months ago. All info via Sand Hill website.

2008 Race For Tara 2 Results

Sorry for the delay on this, but as you could probably guess, the last two weeks have been really hectic for me in my "day" job. Anyhoo, Sandhill hosted the second Race For Tara to raise money for Tara Llanes, who was injured racing the 2007 Jeep King of the Mountain event in Colorado. Congrats to the mountain cross winners:

Pro Women:
1st: Lainey Aldridge, Santa Cruz (Gravity Addix)
2nd: Tasa Herndon, Stateline, NV
3rd: Kelly Moore, Monterey
4th: Rosie Bernhard, Santa Cruz (Another Bike Shop)

Pro Men:
1st: Drew Powers, Novato (Black Market)
2nd: Jared Rando, Newbury Park (Team Giant)
3rd: Mikey Haderer, Concord

It looks like they raised over $8000 during the event, which Tara herself attended. A race report is available here.

Via Sand hill racing website.

Race4Tara Update: Raffle & More Race Details

The folks from Sand Hill Racing has posted some more info on the November 8th, 2008 Race4Tara fundraiser/race:

It will be a Mtn Cross (aka 4-X) race with the usual USA Cycling categories (age break-outs in beginner, sport, expert, Pro/semi pro, plus a category for the Industry people.) Pro's need to show a pro license. For the Industry Cup, based on how many entries we receive we will either have the industry folks ride with the regular categories and keep track of over-all points, or we will let them have their own race. USA Cycling One-Day licenses ($5) will be available at sign-ups. $35 pre-reg $40 race day, Free Parking, HUGE RAFFLE ($1 and $5 tickets).

Registration for the race has already opened over at BikeReg.

In addition, the people over at Pinned.com have started a raffle to help out:

"Now that InterBike is over, it's time to gather all that money you won in Vegas, check your couch for loose change, & break out your check books!  The highly anticipated Tara Llanes Fundraiser is ready to rock! 

There are some great prizes offered by our friends in the cycling industry!   Specialized donated a complete bicycle, Fox Shox donated a few bad-ass forks, Anneke Beerten donated her World Cup 4X leader's jersey, Andrew Neethling donated his ’06 4X race machine & there is so much more!   Check out that awesome drawing by industry legend BOB HARO!  Yep, it’s that Bob Haro - who founded Haro Bikes!  This is the first time that he’s donated one of his drawings for auction!

Cost to enter is $5 per ticket.  All proceeds will go directly to the Tara Llanes 'Road to Recovery' Fund!"

Via PINNED MTB.

Race for Tara 2 Update

An update from the folks out at Sand Hill about the upcoming Race for Tara 2:

The Race4Tara-2 benefit race is heating up. A temporary flyer is now being distributed and the sponsors will be firmed up at Interbike next week. Again, www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com will have all race and Tara info (who will be here this time to autograph T-shirts, etc). We will have an Industry Cup class this year, too, so if you're in the industry, c'mon down!

Until then (Nov 8 is the race), the bicycle park is closed. We are having work detail weekends on Oct 18 & 19, and 25 &26 if you'd like to join us. Practice will open on Oct 31/Nov 1 weekend (10 am to 5 pm, Sat & Sun, $12-practice).

After the Tara race, Sunday, Nov 9 we will be closed for a Collegiate race, hosted by the UC Berkeley cycling team). There will be amateur categories as well so feel free to come race (I'll get a link from them and post it next week).

More as it becomes available.

2nd Race for Tara Scheduled

I totally didn't know this was coming, especially on the same day that I posted her recovery video:

"We are planning a second benefit race for Tara Llanes ('Race For Tara-2') for November 8, 2008. It will be similar to the one we did in 2007 except that this time Tara herself will be here. More race info coming but save the date now! There will be a race practice weekend on November 1 & 2 from 10 am to 5 pm but until then the bicycle park is closed for regular practice."

Via Sand Hill Racing.

So this partly answers the earlier posting about Sand Hill ceasing MTB racing. Check out the archives for more information about the first Race for Tara.

Sand Hill Closing ?

Wow. This is not totally unexpected but still a bit of a shock. From a letter over at Lee Likes Bikes:

" I have just recently heard that the good folks at Sand Hill Ranch might be considering shutting down the bike section because of unknown reasons. I personally consider this a horrible thing to happen. If I had the opportunity to help them keep the area open or help maintain the park, I would."

For those of you unaware of Sand Hill, they are a gravity park devoted to dual slalom (mostly) in the East Bay. Luckily, Lee delves a little deeper into the issues for us:

According to co-owner Renee Anderson, there are no easy answers. The problems include (ed: I am paraphrasing here):

• The owners don’t have the time or resources to run the park the way it needs to be run.
• Attendance and income are very low.
• Liability insurance is hard to get. And expensive. USA Cycling only covers races, not practice sessions.
• Business has been declining over the past several years.
• Good volunteers are impossible to find.

You can and should read the entire article (it is quite in depth) over at Lee Likes Bikes.

While I agree with everyone said in the article, I also believe that the rise of community MTB skills parks (like the ones in Folsom and Fresno) have cut into their audience. A lot of people want to practice the skills but not everyone wants to race (this is obviously wrong on many levels :) ).

Thanks to Brian B for pointing this out.

Sand Hill Races Paused ...

Looks like Sand Hill is retooling a bit and will come back with gravity races in the fall:

"There are no mountain bike races scheduled at this time. We are temporarily closed for re-building. We are planning a second benefit race for Tara Llanes ('Race For Tara-2') for sometime in the fall. Exact date TBA." (Via Sand Hill Racing)

In the past, Sand Hill has held various gravity races in the spring.

No Sand Hill Spring Gravity for 2008

More bad news on the NorCal Gravity front:

"I am sorry to announce that our traditional Spring Gravity Series will not run this year. Too many factors have come together to make it too difficult for us to run a quality series ... We will still be open for regular weekend practice from 10 am to 5 pm. Perhaps we can set up the starting gate and timing system on a few of those practice days so that you guys can practice your starts before Sea Otter. (I'll start to work on this, stay tuned.) " (Via Sand Hill Racing)

Race for Tara Results

Race for Tara results have been posted over at the Sand Hill Racing website.

The Tara Llanes benefit race was a great success! We raised over $6,000 for her. It was great to see so many riders and spectators out supporting one of our own. Thanks to all who came and made this a very special memory for all of us.

Here are the results for the Pro/Expert classes:

Pro/Expert Women (Combined)
1st Lainey Alridge, Santa Cruz (Gravity Addix)
2nd Alie Burch, Novato (Velo Bella/Kona)
3rd Jackie Baker, San Anselmo (WTB/Giant/FoxShox)
4th Jen McNiven, San Jose (Trailhead Cyclery)
5th Nova Hairston, San Rafael (Marin)

Pro Men
1st Kevin Huffman, Sacramento
2nd Chris Flores, Red Bluff (Mongoose/FactoryFastWheels)
3rd Mikey Haderer, Concord (Fox/Yeti)
4th George Stephenson III, Folsom (Heath's Team)

(Via Sand Hill Racing website)

Event photos by Kris Haderer are available at www.afinishedproduct.com.

Tara Llanes Story

Apropos of this weekend's race, Sicklines has a link to a local Denver video broadcast on Tara Llanes:

"CBS posted a video on Tara Llanes showing her determination and strong will to never give up. “Courage isn’t all sound and fury, sometimes its the will to go on”" (Via Sick Lines » CBS Denver Story: Tara Llanes)

Thanks to the folks at Sicklines for posting this. There is also an important announcement on getting to the race:

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!
Contra Costa county has decided to do construction ON VASCO RD Sat 11/17 & Sun 11/18. They say as much as 2 HOUR DELAYS ARE EXPECTED!! Alternate routs are: from 580 take mountain house exit to Byron hwy to camino diablo from 680 you can take marsh creek rd or hwy 4 in to brentwood. please check google or something for best route from your area.