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After an exhausting day on Saturday, I got to bed early on Saturday night with absolutely no thoughts of riding on Sunday morning. Before drifting off to sleep at 10:30 (9:30, if you account for turning the clock back for Daylight Savings time) I woke up abruptly at 6:30am. After lying around in bed for a few minutes, I realized that due to daylight savings time, it was actually just 5:30!

Since I was not about to fall back asleep, that got me thinking: how much time do I have to mountain bike and where should I ride to maximize my time? To be very frank, I briefly considered running a couple of miles but I promptly nixed that idea. To me, running = YUCK.

After a few minutes of thought, I came out with:
- 1.5 hours of time, which would allow me to return home with enough time to get both myself and my 3 boys ready for church
- Chino Hills State Park: I would take the streets from my house to the Rim Crest entrance, back down South Ridge and out Telegraph returning back to my house via the streets. Time wise: about 1:15. Mileage: about 11. Added benefit: some good climbing front loaded from mile 3.5 – 6.5.

Overall, a great ride on the Niner Air9 hardtail. I did a route I haven’t done in a while and I was immensely pleased to be able to ride with so few cars on the road. The only bad part: I broke my multi-tool about 10 minutes into the ride. Thankfully, I did not need it for the rest of the ride.

For those of you not racing (looking forward to those race reports, team!) were you able to get in some riding with the extra hour gained?

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It was a wet and cold morning as we started our SART Birthday ride

In the rain on Saturday morning, Tim, Dan, Weyland & I headed out to Angelus Oaks for Tim’s birthday Santa Ana River Trail (SART) ride. The day started off a little weird for me as my alarm clock decided to set itself back 1 hour overnight. When Dan showed up at my house he noted that there were no lights on. When he texted me, my phone told me it was 5:55am (we were supposed to meet at 6:00) but my alarm clock said 4:55am. Doh, my alarm wasn’t going to ring for another 30 minutes!

Tim, enjoying his birthday ride

We ended up getting out on the road at the appropriate time but I wasn’t able to “take the browns to the super bowl” prior to departure. When we arrived at Angelus Oaks, it was still raining and, not surprisingly, really cold. After a little bit of cajoling and a quick bathroom visit, we set off in the rain for the Post Office Loop and SART.

Siren’s glamour shot… Weyland’s Siren sang to us and we followed

The Post Office Loop starts off with a 1 mile fireroad climb gaining about 600 feet in elevation before dropping into some great singletrack: tight, exposed and slightly downhill. I was grinning from ear to ear! We got our little group going at a pretty good clip in the rain. Our brakes sang to each other whenever we applied them. It was great fun. The rain and cold were not as much a nuisance once we got going… a little bit of numb fingers and glasses that were difficult to see out of, but truly the rain & cold just added adventure to our ride.

As the clouds moved out, it showed us a beautiful view of the valley and the mountains on the far side

After a fireroad climb out of the Post Office Loop, we took another short fireroad to connect us to SART. SART is about a ten mile out and back that is all singletrack. We were able to do about 6 miles in before we decided to break for coffee and turn around.

Jeremy, stream crossing

After an hour and a half of riding in the rain the sun broke through the rain clouds and shined its warm rays on us. It was amazing to see the valley go from being under cloud cover to having the clouds lifted away and seeing the mountains. The trails were in PRIMO condition with the rain making hero dirt for us all. Threading in and out amongst the trees, splashing through stream crossings, taking in the beautiful views of the valley and flora all around us and riding mile after mile of sweet, secluded singletrack was seriously grin inducing.

Weyland emptying water from the bladder into the pot to make coffee

Coffee on SART was a sweet experience literally as I had a Starbucks Caramel Via, yum. Weyland brought his little stove and warmed up the water for us and we enjoyed some snacks at the turn around point.

Dan, Jeremy, Weyland and Tim

No visit to SART would be complete without a stop at the Oaks restaurant. Interestingly enough, when we took our bathroom visit at the Oaks before the ride, one of the proprietors commented that she thought there wouldn’t be any bikers today due to the rain (subtly hinting that we were idiots to brave the wet weather). Her words proved to be true as we rode without seeing another biker on the trail, a rarity in the mountain biking Mecca that is Southern California. Riding, hanging out with good friends and talking bikes… great way to do SART.

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This is a little bit late but why not… this past Saturday a group of my friends and I met at Whiting Ranch at 7:00am to go on our weekly Saturday ride. The weather in So Cal for the past few days has been fairly wet in the mornings with lingering low clouds until the afternoon. Well Saturday was a little bit more than just lingering clouds – we actually had light rain/drizzle. Needless to say arriving at the parking lot, it was WET.

Some of the guys contemplating whether they should ride or not.

There were a total of us twelve of us who met at the parking lot. We stood around for about half an hour chatting, hoping that the light rain would pass. No such luck while we were at the parking lot, but we knew it would eventually taper off.

By the time we decided to roll, half of the guys backed out because they thought it would be too muddy (dubbed as Team NO Go) . The other half mounted our bikes and headed into the park. Whiting Ranch is covered with a lot of trees therefore the ground wasn’t muddy at all. As a matter of fact, it was perfect! All of the sandy sections were nice and tacky.

Bottom of Mustard before our climb.

Reaching the bottom of Mustard Rd, the trail was dry. This was the first segment of our long ascent. At the top of Mustard was Four Corners where we took our first break. This is where we will break off from Whiting Ranch and make our way to Santiago Truck Trail (STT) for more climbing.

Resting at Four Corners

There was a moment there where a few of us contemplated on continuing to STT. Luckily the rest of the guys convinced us to keep on going. From here we crossed the road and towards another trail. We had steep climbed on the road known as Modjeska Rd, it literally was a grind to the STT trailhead. From here we took a short break and then continued our ascent to the flag.

At the start of Santiago Truck Trail.

Several miles later we were at the peak of our ride… we made it to the flag where we would start our fun descent down the Luge – what a blast!!! This ride down never fails to disappoint.

Team GO! … six that braved the little rain we had.

Reaching the bottom we had to make our way back to Whiting. From here it was an easier grind up the road. We hooked back up into Whiting and finished off our ride by hitting the single track out till we exited the park. What a ride! A total of 15 miles of on and off drizzle as we climbed and descended. This turned out to be an epic ride!

Below is a video of our run down the Luge. I have video from Whiting however the video will be too long. Enjoy!

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I know is a little late, but I’ve been a little busy lately and my Internet connection at home sucks. Anyhow, the race weekend started with a terrible weather forecast: Hot. I know that some of you Arizonians are used to this kind of heat, but coming from a week that had highs on the low 70s, 95 degrees was freaking hot. We were hoping for the course to be a little packed down since it rained the previous days, for the most part, the course was good to race except for a couple of loose spots. Saturday practice did not go well for me, I only took 3 small water bottles and I felt the effects of some mild dehydration.

I showed up on Sunday armed with cold Gatorades and drank water all night, I felt pretty good. I sessioned the lower rock garden, hoping to gain some time before pedaling the dreaded wall. As our time to shuttle arrived, I grabbed the Gatorades and a few packs of from our newest sponsor, VIP Energy mix. I distributed some of the Gatorades to my team members and got ready for my run. Interestingly, this was the first time I actually felt nervous about my upcoming run, I guess the shadow of my injury still lurks. RL told me to just have fun, so I just went with it.

I had a very clean run, although I did not expect for Wes to catch me at the saddle, but the man was possessed and on a mission. As I cleared the lower rock garden and started pedaling the wall, a nasty head wind hit me and killed my momentum. I ended up on 6th place out of 8, so I was sort of pleased with my performance.

I ended up taking second place overall on the Golden State series, just 20 points away from my team mate and cousin Joe Solancho. I was also happy to see Wes on the podium, talk about the comeback kid!!!

Here’s the video of my race run, the video was taken using the ContourHD helmet cam:

Big thanks to my all my teammates and Kym Solancho for their cheering and support and of course the Team Sponsors: KHS Bicycles, Evomo, Serfas, Ergon USA, DirtyDog MTB and VIP Energy mix.

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Two weeks ago, I headed up to Mammoth Lakes, CA to ride the big mountain.  I had so much fun that I was jonesing to go back.  On my last Ride Report, I mentioned that I was going back (this past weekend)… didn’t happen Like most impromptu decisions things can quickly change.  Several of the guys backed out last minute due to obligations which was totally understandable.

Fortunately for me one of my friends, Neil Adams (single speed stud) invited me to go to Big Bear.  Big Bear is our local mountain getaway, approximately 1.5 hours away.  Back in the day when DH racing was on the rise, many races were held in Snow Summit (one of the two main resorts in Big Bear Lakes). This was no Mammoth, but it’s a lift assisted ride and it sure beats local riding.

Truck packed and ready to go!!!

Several friends met at Neil’s house and off we went at about 6:00am.  At Snow Summit, we met other friends from the bike industry such as 661 and Ellsworth.  Big group riding…

Our group on Saturday 8.21.10

Below is a video from one of our runs.  Unfortunately on most of the video I shot, the mouthpiece of my camelbak was infront of the camera obstructing the view, therefore many of the footage was not usable. Overall, it was a great trip.  I was with great company and at a good place to ride.

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