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We touched on this a few weeks ago when we first heard that some of us were scheduled to appear in the June 2011 issue of Decline Magazine. Well I finally tracked down my own copies, one to read and one to save. In the photo you’ll see (from left to right) team racers, Corey Pond, Art Aguilar and yours truly. The article talks about the Shimano Winter Series that Southridge Racing Company has been putting on the last 20 years. We really are blessed to have this organization and venue to ride. Big thanks to Mike Lord, photographer extraordinaire and of course Decline Magazine.

The caption on the photo.

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The winter holidays came and went all too quickly for me.  I had dreams of a 3 month off-season but the 1st race of the 2010 winter series was approaching quickly and I decided to treat this as training for the bigger races from March to May. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 70s and as usual Don Jackson and his crew at Southridge Racing do an excellent job in providing a fun race environment. I noticed more entrants in the younger categories, it’s great to see more kids getting into this sport!

For Sport, the course was the same as November’s Southridge Challenge – three,  5.5mile laps.  This was gonna be a challenge as  I do better on the longer courses at Southridge, they have more singletrack and downhill that suit my riding style and help me make up time on the stellar climbers in my category (Sport 27-34).  Climbing is my weakness, I have a gut and at 185lbs (5’8″) I’m heavy/stocky for an XC racer. I even have a habit of blowing up in races by sprinting from the start line for too long!  After about 6 weeks without training, I knew that I couldn’t hold a sprint very long. So when Donny counted us down and we took off, I dropped into third and planned to keep the leaders in site.  We climbed to the water tower and the leaders gradually pulled away and I fell back a few more positions leaving me a panting, sweaty mess as I mushed my way up the hill. I recovered in the single track sections to regain third and moved into second on one of the long downhill sections. My strategy became clear.

On the way to the asphalt road for the water tower climb

I held second to start the next lap and as we climbed to the water tower I was passed again, but I kept my competitors in sight this time. Through the single track I was flowing and managed to close the gap as we approached the downhill where I previously passed. We start heading downhill and I’m cranking hard, building speed to shoot past #2 and eventually the race leader. Next is a short uphill I desperately climb and barely manage to keep the wolves at bay into the next downhill singletrack section where I can build a gap. I finish lap two and begin lap three. I don’t see anyone as I begin to grind my way up to the water tower, my right knee burning in protest as I try to put some power down. After negotiating some of the rolling hills near the water tower as I grit my way up the last climb before the single track, I look back and see 2nd place 10 yards back and attacking! I attack, he knows he is close and is trying to catch me. I sprint, my legs grow thick and heavy with lactic acid, my lungs burn as I sink into oxygen debt my pulse fills my ears, I can only hold this pace for a moment more. I put about thirty yards between us as crest the hill and bomb into the single track. I pedal all the downhills and by the end I enjoy a 2 min victory! Before you think that I was lying about not being in shape, I finished in 1:12:51, in November I finished in 4th with a 1:10:52, so that means that the fast guys just didn’t show up for this race and I’ve got some work to do.

1st XC race win, Sport 27-34

I’ve got to thank the team sponsors for their help, Evomo and Hoss for the cool clothes, IceToolz for the tools and Serfas for the glasses and Ergon for the comfort.

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On Jan 10th I headed out to Fontana for one last practice run and my first DH race in the sport category. After a few mishaps in my first couple races, I managed to finish out 2009 with some success in the beginner group and decided it was time to move into sport.

The DH course was a mix of previous Southridge Racing Co courses. With the upper 1/4 from November’s Southridge Challenge and the next 1/4 from July’s Fontana City Nationals. This meant a couple cool lines in the upper section with some berms and fast sections. A rocky chute into soft sand that took out many riders followed by some of the dustiest, loosest S-turns in SoCal! This was followed by a nice g-out hip and then a long pedal to cross the fire road into the usual rock garden and the dreaded wall!

Thank goodness the course was familiar because following the previous day’s XC race I just had nothing in the tank and managed just two practice runs before calling it a day due to exhaustion.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I whipped out the Vholdr Contour HD 1080p helmet cam to record my run. At 2:52 I’m neither happy nor dissatisfied with my time (7th in sport 27-34), I know I’ve got to get quicker if I want to podium, but with three total practice runs, it wasn’t a bad outing.

I’ve got to thank the team sponsors for their help, especially KHS bicycles for the demo Lucky 7 bike to use! Evomo and Hoss for the cool clothes, IceToolz for the tools and Serfas Optics and Ergon for helping us be comfortable.

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My Saturday started with a practice DH run. I hiked up to the start since I like to stop and check out some of the sections of the DH course. As I was walking up the hill, I also noticed the Yellow signs with the blue arrows, these are the signs that marked the SuperD course. As I pushed the bike to the top, I noticed that the SuperD course was very similar to the one from the first race, except that it didn’t go through the lower rock garden.

Picture courtesy of Chris Sharky Gattas

There was a snafu and my name was not on the name list, that meant I had to go dead last. I didn’t care, less pressure for me. Unfortunately I had a terrible race, the terrain was rather loose and I lost it in a couple of places. I also got lost twice, luckily, Sharky was there to do traffic enforcement and my team mate David also redirected me to where I was supposed to go.

I had a great time racing SuperD, the KHS Flagstaff 29er was an excellent weapon of choice when the terrain was fast and flowy, my KHS AM2000 served me well when the terrain was a little more challenging and I needed all 6 inches of travel. I ended up taking 4th place on the SuperD overalls, I am more than pleased with those results.

When I woke up Sunday, it was raining hard. I loaded the DH200 and took off to Fontana. Since I did some soil-sampling on Saturday during a practice run, I re-injured my shoulder and I opted to just race and not practice.

Joe and I were tied on points for second place for the overall. I knew that whoever came in first was going to take 2nd overall. Joe and I have really enjoyed racing against each other, this time was no different. I knew that he wanted it as much as I did. I had a near flawless run, the rain really did the trail some good and I felt rather fast. As soon as I crossed the finish line, I started counting, I saw Joe coming in and I counted about 25 seconds, I knew it was going to be really close:

Yup, Joe was faster than me by less than a quarter of a second. Now that’s racing!

I had a great time racing DH, my personal goal was to have fun and not to kill myself, third place overall was just icing on the cake!

I want to thank all my team mates and their family for their support, KHS Bicycles and Vince Calvillo for letting me use the DH200 (review coming soon!) and the Flagstaff 29er, Evomo.com, HossMTB, Pricepoint.com, Ergon, and Serfas.

Next stop: The Nationals!!

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