Races, Races, Everywhere!

Roger was holdin' it down again this weekend at Elings Park in Santa Barbara for the XC team, and Jay and Taylor were dropping in at Fontana to represent the long-sleeve team crew at the Cal State DH race. I will copy their e-mails for the race report below, and add the photos as they come in...



hi,

great job to all teammates that raced this past weekend... everybody had fast times and most importantly no major problems or mechanical problems that i knew of??? i want to say sorry to james and michael on the mis-communications in the feed zone, james i should have had your gu attached to your bottle and darter i screwed up and should have had your water bottle ready on your 1st lap, i will not let that happen again...

i want to thank dawn and bert for helping me secure a ez-up spot on the field for the team, i'm new to most of the politics that go on between race promoters, park managers and race mgrs, i'm not as skilled as cap'n chris in the negotiating tactics but i promise over time to get better. once again thxs dawn, bert and james for the help (swag and advise), can you believe they wanted $50 bucks just to have our ez-up on the main grounds, so in typical backbone fashion we put up 2 ez-ups a bike rack two trainers and a napa valley picnic table, all with no cash out of pocket :)

we had 9 riders at the race and 5 other friends of the team racing that saturday, with start times in the early am, just before noon and late 2pm starts in the heat of the day... i was in a james type frantic trying to get everything in some sort of order for you guys... so i forgot to offically tell you about a new team mate that is on probation pending your approval??? he is a friend of mine who has been riding downhill bikes and has taken an interest in cross country racing this year, he has been admiring our team...??? he said that we all take the time to help each other before, during and after the race, that we have a blast on and off the track and that we drink beer like sailors on shore leave... he wanted to be a part of this... so look for brant hutton running around the team tent at the races and say hi... if he doesnt meet our high standards let me know :) just for the books i gave him 2 kenda tires that i paid for and one left over girls large jersey from the team box.

the race results,
bert the hurt had a blazing 4 laps 1:37 in pro single speed coming in second place, he had second place locked down but sprinted the last climb just to put some nails in the coffin of anybody trying to creep on him

brant pulled in solid 4 laps 1:38 in expert 30-34, 3rd place,only 40 seconds behind second place sho air sand bagger :) if we can get him to run some small cross country tires instead of the downhill 2.2 .... look out

vegas bob rocked 4 laps 1:41 in expert 30-34, 8th place,if not for the traffic on the single track switch backs or the traffic on the 101 freeway (was reg. for race while the rest of his group was lined up to go) would have been on the podium, but now has the team record for showing up the latest for race line up, sorry james :)

m. darter flew 4 laps in 1:40 expert 40-44, and if there wasnt a bottle feed sanfu on his first lap would have been in the top 5, 7th place was still hot

vanessa rocketed 4 laps 2:00 expert 19-29 for second place, last lap leg cramps slowed her a bit, so much for eating right and taking pills, next race she back on the fried chicken and soda loading night before the race

dawn is back!!! 4 laps 2:18 expert 30-39 and second place, just a little behind 1st place and she did it on a single speed, well she had a geared bike but it only worked in about 1 or 2 gears in the rear cassette, can we get this girl a niner hardtail some how??? she will rock

heidi tore up 4 laps on the niner 2:00 for second place expert 40-49, she had 2nd place locked in and cruised the last lap and did parade waves to everybody, niner hardtail is her secret weapon!!!

james bolted 3 laps 1:18 for 6th place, sport 40-44, if i could have got him that gu and if he had the balls to ride his niner i'm positive he would have been 1st place or 3rd place??

ryan the rager 2 laps 1:01 ,3rd place,beg male 18 and under, this guy is growing up fast, soon will be putting the hurt on his old man??? last lap on the big hill does a lance look back to his competitor and then drops the hammer on that little ulrich

i want to thx the darter family for coming out and bringing the wine and cheese and some culture to the backbone camp

also thxs to bert and family for extra ez-up and ice chest and loud cheering for our hard working riders

and to corey for the guitar playing and american idol singing, he started playing about 20 songs, never finished one but rocked the first chorus

i will forward pixs to chris for the blog and will send indvidual pixs to anybody that wants them

roger



*********************and now the DH race report from Taylor!*************************






Yo man, havent heard from you for a while! I think
this whole "getting laid on a regular basis" is
starting to affect you. Hehehe... anyway, hope things
are working out for you. Jay and I raced the
Cal-State at Fontana yesterday. First run, Jay and I
both had mediocre runs, but I somehow ended up in 5th
place without pedaling through the finish! I thought
it was one of the slowest runs of my life, I had no
energy that day, so I sat down and coasted the last
few yards to the finish.







I was 4 seconds out of 1st!
Jay was sitting in 10th place, out of about 15 people.
He confessed that he just wasnt "feeling it". that
day. Second run came around, I took off having a good
run, but a rock got the best of me and I wound up
going under the course tape, then cutting back in!
Argh! I managed to recover, but the damage was just
enough to kick me off the podium by less than 1/2 a
second. I finished 6th overall in the 2 run combined
format, Jay held on to his 10th place finish, despite
feeling like he just woke up, for most of the day.
Well bro, holla' back at ya' boy sometime!

Taylor