I want to be Katy Perry when I grow up. What? It’s too late? Oh, alright, I’ll settle for wife, mother, and mountain bike racer. Or hill bike racer, given the dearth of mountains around here. How did I get to be this old and not ever read W. Somerset Maugham? "Tao. Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither." Or to Riverside County, unlikely site of yesterday’s round four in the Kenda Cup West series. Can anything good come out of ...
The announcer warned us, but I didn’t listen. “Some great dirt out there, so don’t use your brakes. Just rail the berms,” Larry Longo advised. Larry has been racing, and calling races, since well before I even thought of donning a helmet. So he ought to know. Tacky dirt? At Fontana? Mutually exclusive, usually. The Fontana course is famous for being hot, crowded, and dusty. And not just ordinary dust, either. It’s the consistency of baby powder, inches deep, obscuring pointy rocks and generally making people misera...
I don’t like fishing. I feel bad for the worms. But last Sunday morning, slogging up hills at Bonelli Park, I glimpsed some patient souls tossing hooks into the reservoir below. Since my race started exceedingly early, mist was still rising as boats drifted silently across the mercury colored water. Meanwhile, my breath filled my ears with a roar of complaint, and every pedal stroke hurt. You know, maybe I should switch sports. Sit quietly in thin early light, wait for something to happen. Hope a serendipitously hungry fish somehow finds ...
"It's like blue cheese. Either you want it with everything, or you don't quite understand the appeal. One or the other." This was my explanation to people who questioned my bike choice as I pushed my single speed up the same hills over and over yesterday. Trudge, trudge. There was a over thousand feet of climbing per lap yesterday, and many times there were six or eight of us companionably hauling our bikes toward the heavens. Three long climbs per lap, followed by illegally fast ridgeline descents. At the top, racers would surreptitiously eye ...
I'm sorry. Kind of. . If you were taking a high line around the ponds on Plantation, and two crazy single speeders splashed through the middle and drenched you, I do apologize. Mostly. . Because that was the most fun I had all day. . I've squeaked past Brian Itzaina in a couple of previous races, but he was having none of it at Big Bear on Sunday. He got past me at the top of the first long climb, and then nipped in ahead of me onto the Plantation single track. He has great bike handling skills, so it was all I could do to hold his wheel throu...
I blame Erik. The 12 Hours of Temecula race wasn't on my schedule for the year. "Will we see you there?" he inquired. Innocuous, really, but the exact same words uttered by John Hinke swayed me into driving up to Oregon for the Spring Thaw. The race was Saturday, June 12. I registered on Thursday. "Are you allowed to rest? Or do you have to ride your bike the whole time?" I tried to explain the concept to a non-racing friend. Yes, you can stop as much as you want. But whomever completes the most laps between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ...
My five-year-old likes to boast to his siblings that he can be President. Of the United States. Technically, he can, while my two older children cannot, because they do not have actual birth certificates. After the recent election, I doubt that their Certificates of Birth Abroad would qualify them. But really, can my ambitious boy lead the nation someday? Who knows. At the moment, he thinks he can. I never thought I could ride a mountain bike down the face of a five foot boulder. But at Saturday's Idyllwild Spring Challenge, I did. And jumped o...
Racers and Chasers.com Black Mountain XC San Diego, CA Sunday, April 25 No, that's not my little sister. Put your hands together for Rachelle, who turned in an impressive 1:07 lap time at the Black Mountain XC race on Sunday. On a single speed. She demolished the entire field, men and women, in the beginner category. Oh, wait, she was the only entrant on a single speed bicycle in that class. I raced with the Sport men; we slogged two ten mile laps. Robert Herber, the race director, created a category for women's single speed, so Rachelle and I ...
It’s a myth that you don’t have gears on a single speed. And I’m not talking about the well-trodden joke about the choices being pedaling, standing, or pushing. You can have as many gears as you can afford. You can have a stack of cogs piled high on the shelves in your garage. But once you leave the starting line of a race, your options close out.So, the the day before I drove north for the Santa Ynez Classic, I indulged in the usual the neurotic perseveration about what to install on my back end.I pored over the course profil...
It's not really a race. It's more like a timed bike ride wrapped in a barbecue hidden in a vineyard underneath a festival. The cross country and downhill races provide an opportunity to qualify for Nationals, so you can still expect people to take their time on wheels pretty seriously, despite the distraction of vendors and bonfires. I have a reservation at a motel in Buellton, but I think I'm going to camp at the venue. Wedged in between the grape vines and the Chamberlain Ranch, the meadow next to the course will be colorfully filled with sev...
