Roger's Rim Nordic Report/ King James Prepared?

Hi Captain,
It was a great day for a mountain bike ride in the mountains and as usual the people at the rim nordic series at big bear were great hosts. They had plenty of parking, helpful employees, relaxed attitudes, a well marked course and start times that were real and on time!!! Your Backbone racers gave it all they had, they raced hard, mingled and put out the good word about all our great sponsors and their products that we appreciate!!! Look for James to send you the pixs..




Vanessa and I arrived to see Randy already setup with bike stand and road bike on trainer ready to go...that guy is a professional. They love him there at the Rim, they treat him like Norm from cheers! He walks in and they give him his gear and offer him a beer. Randy had a tough race in a stacked E.P.O. sport field, 1st lap had great start off the line but the backside descents were filled with a couple of dirt naps due to a new front tire line up. Going back to the trusty Nevegals forever per Randy!!! Second lap Randy looked great but he said the backside altitude climbs were getting the best of him, and without being able to descend like his "sure footed puma" self he finished just out of the top ten.

Backbone groupie and PMBC member Rod was on hand to help setup the Backbone camp and hand out water bottles and dish out slurs to fellow riders. Rod was going to race that day but after how many times he crashed at Castaic Lake, OSHA, Big Bear E.M.S. services and Yogi Bear revoked his race license until he takes at least 2 Velo Bella girl mtn bike clinics...

Heidi and Darter were scheduled to come out, but after late nights of drinking and fried foods (wait that was Vanessa and I) Heidi was feeling under the weather.
She opted to stay home and rest and save it up for the Cal-State Big Bear race this coming Saturday to unleash some Niner whup-ass.




Vanessa had a huge field of 3 expert girls with none in her age group!!! Can you say 1st place? Sweet!!! Vanessa was the fastest expert of the day and elected to run 3 laps with the other two pro girls that showed up while the two other expert riders went a measly 2 laps... sooo during the race Vanessa asked me "when does a xc race become classified a xterra f'n challenge" 2 hours and 53 minutes later she did her longest race yet. Randy, Roger, James and Rod all giving her mad props on her 3 long grueling laps...






And last and always the best story was James Cross. I texted James at around 6:34 am the day of his race, he texted right back!!! He's up and getting ready for his 10:08 start, so with almost 4 hrs to get there i'm thinking he's way ahead of schedule. 13 text msg's later and at 9:26am he's just pulling into the parking lot... tires blistered and brakes smoking... Rod and I went over to assist, I was nervous... I have never assembled a bike from scratch before and was sure to turn the corner and see James with a box of parts and tools scattered about??? W.T.F??? A complete bike, with the correct tires and brakes installed and no need for teardown? I slapped Rod across the face to make sure I wasn't dreaming, while Rod chased me around the parking lot with a bike pump, James went to register. Now at the starting line James and Randy had 1 minute to go. Randy at the front of the pack and James at... where the f is he ??? James rolls up to the back of the pack and off they go, James yelling to me in code that he forgot a tube :) Well he was in such a hurry in the morning it just carried on into the race... he was in third place by the first check point and was ripping the field apart, he even flirted in 1st for awhile and after a small heart attack, got dropped back to 4th and rallied in the last part of the race to get back and finish in second place !!!! Great job James!!

Very tough course, beautiful weather and good friends. I couldn't have asked for a better Sunday.

Roger

p.s. Thank you to Tome family (Pmbc club) for help and support