Thursday, March 6, 2008

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo


So, a few weeks back I headed down to Tucson for some warm weather and 24 hour racing. I have a great team of 4 girls called Menage a Quatre, and we'd won this race last year so we were hoping to defend our title.

We got down there late Thursday night and set up camp, a bunch of tents and an easy-up shelter complete with heaters and lights. And lots of beer. Sweet. Woke up Friday morning to the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen! It's major desert down there (cacti lining the course), so it was pretty amazing. Chollas and prickly pears were totally coated in white, and the mountains behind us in the photo were covered. Fortunately, though, the sun came out the next morning and dried up the course in time for the noon LeMans start. I got to do the run, and it was so cool dashing through the desert with 500 others, with spectators screaming and lining the course. The track is about 17 miles long, mostly singletrack, winding through tight cactus sections, and climbing up to a saddle in the mountains before diving back to 24 hour town. We stayed steady all night long, I got the sunrise lap which was maybe the greatest hour of riding I've ever done in my life. Super fun, riding straight towards the lightening sky, then cresting the top of the climb just as the sun broke above the horizon. My girls and I wound up getting second to the Kenda/Titus pro girls, so we were happy with that. Not bad for a snowy February...

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

NorCal High School Series Race Schedule

There are six races in the NorCal series:

1) March 2- Central Coast Invitational (Fort Ord)

2) March 9- Granite Bay (Folsom Lake)

3) March 30- South Bay Invitational (Grant Ranch)

4) April 13- Iron Angels (Angles Camp)

5) May 4- Carrera Del Toro (Toro Park, Salinas)

6) May 18- State Championship (Bogg's Mountain)