Greetings from Norcal.

This sunday saw a great race held on a great course under ahem great conditions.  It had rained for over twelve hours here in the sacramento area so I was lickin’ my lips ready for some old fashioned cross. but, when I got to the race venue at lagoon valley regional park, it was under sunny skies and 70 + degrees. it looked like it has not rained all summer. the folks  at www.sacramentocx.com did not disapoint. the course traversing a sloping hillside had it all. lets take a lap. the start was a nice flat fire road  about a foot ball field in length this will be important later.it bottled down to a right hander past the pits followed by a left and the first set of barriers. a flat straight falls into a left hand bend followed by second left topped of with a hair pin to the right. on to the the pavement! back on to the dirt with a high speed bunny hop over a curb, a little dip and a slippery right leads into the first leg sapping climb. 50 vertical feet later we drop down for a little single track that is essentially a rutted out ditch that leads you to a flat section over a storm drain before turning right and heading down a bike rattling decent. a high speed left puts us heading back next to the road section with a left hander leading to the second set of barriers , that were diabolically place 2/3 the way up the second hill. back on the bike after the course follows a false flat fire road we still need to climb a little more. this then dumps us into a very slippery downhill right followed quickly by a pair of lefts. now for the speed section, traversing the hillside in my group we hit 24 mph on dirt. the straight ends with a nice u turn for a short straight capped with an off camber hairpin. a little single track bridge gets us over a drainage ditch then left for a small gain in elevation. here we find a rutted out hair pin that leads back down hill. a tightening right hander puts us next to the ditch, a quick left drops us through and back on the start finish fire road.

All the fields were pretty big even the kids group had 20+, the future of cross is bright….. my group start was 50+ and about 20 wide, can you say chaotic? i got a good clean start (thanks RMR) and stayed near the front for most of the race. i faded a little in the middle but my good mtb skills kept me in the top 10. i was really afraid of the climbs but, i over came (thanks DMV). I left really pumped with a plan of hitting the Bay Area Superprestige Series and mixing it up with the big? boys. Rev Thank You for showing me the Light.

Brother Bob

Thank you Brother Bob.   Looking forward to the Super Prestige Reports.  In the meantime head on over to the 2 Wheel Lovin’ Ladies site to read about cross from the perspective of the fairer sex.

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