RR: 12 Hours of Socal/Temecula (MANY PICS)

[shudder]

Hi Folks --

Better late than never I always say...

It's been a week since race #2 out at Vail Lake, and I went for my first ride today with my boy, Willie. My knee feels pretty good considering I had a hard time even walking on Monday and Tuesday after a stupid fall in the race. More on that later.

Race 2 was hot and burly, as you might expect for a late June race in this desert we call Southern California. My VDO has a temp gauge on it, and it hit 107 at one point, and rode at 103 for much of the day. And there ain't a speck of shade out there at all. Hot, HOT ride.

The new track had some great adventures on it -- especially some new ST they recently built that reminded me a bit of the Fontucky XC course we raced on through the winter. We did miss going down the spine of the Dragonback this time around, but there was still a lot of very cool riding in the loop to make up for it, including some time spent in the BMX track going up and down and up and down. Wheeeee! Very cool.

Willie and I went out mid-Friday afternoon this time around to register early and then maybe meet up with some of you folks and camp the night away. Didn't work out that way. Not at all. It took us over 6 freakin' hours to get there. In a word -- do not attempt to cross LA at any time on a Friday (we live in the west San Fernando Valley). You will just sit there for the most part. I did not know this, so followed the google map and went out the 91. It's just a parking lot -- all the time (it was even standing still in the easterly direction when we headed hoime at 11:30 on Saturday night!). We ended up arriving after 9 PM, threw down camp as fast as we could, cooked some sausages and s'mores and then hit the hay. In the morning, Willie said he got the best night of sleep he'd ever had. Amazing what sleeping out in the open air can do for you.

Heather Ranoa, race organizer Jason Ranoa's better half, was running reg in the morning and when I signed us in she handed me #81 for Willie and #64 for me. I rode in Master 40+ and she created a new category for Willie on the spot, Junior Men's Beginner Solo, as she thought it unfair to throw him in with the adult guys who eat kids like him between loops. That was very cool of her to do. He was the only rider in his category -- there were no other kids riding solo (there was however a team from Big Bear this time that had a 9, 10, 11 and 12 year old on it, and they were real fast).

Race started at 9 AM sharp with the parade loop around the campgrounds and then everyone hit the road for the two mile sprint to the Damn Hill climb. Since Willie and I were a team last time we never got to ride together, but we were both solos this time around and went out together. I lost him on the parade lap (d'oh!), but eventually caught up to him by the time we hit the climb. We stuck together through a couple of laps. That was a real treat to ride with my young man for those 21 miles.

We were supported by my older brother Patrick and his girlfriend, Lisa Laichtman. I learned a few months ago that her son, David Laichtman, was the youngest finisher of VQ in 2003 when he was 17 and was also the "[FONT=Trebuchet MS][FONT=Trebuchet MS][FONT=Trebuchet MS]24-hour mountainbike champion in his age group"[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] when he went off to school at CSU (I copied that bit of text from a CSU Rams Cycling Team website). Seems we like to start them young in this family of mine...

I went down sort of hard at the bottom of the long ST after the water stop and broke one of the shift levers on the left side, so I was stuck in the big ring for the last five miles of that second loop. Ugh. Later on, a tech who was supporting one of the pros looked at my Rush 1000 and we determined I could use my thumb to push the lever in and make the chain drop to the smaller rings up front. I really, REALLY wish I'd figured that out before I rode the last five miles of my second loop on what for all intents and purposes had become an SS ride for me. Damn. So, I ended up having time to go out for a third loop (I certainly am not out there to win any medals...). My knee was bloody but I thought it was okay, so off I went. Willie was well ahead of me by this time, so I rode out with Justine Mojica, women's dynamo solo SS, and off we went.

I got ahead of Justine on the climb, but then we met up near the water station. I rested up for a while there, letting he go off. I had just started down the ST again when up rolls this dude on an orange Chumba. Cool bike, I thought. I rolled down the spine and then back up and around the track and into the BMX area where my knee started hurting bad, so I sat down in the only shade I'd experienced all day and just recooped for 15 minutes. a short while later, the guy on the Chumba pedals past and I noticed then that he was flying the STR colors. I yelled out to him, "Clyde?!?" as he passed and he confirmed it. I mumbled something about being shudder and he was gone. But, I knew he was one that orange bike now...

Willie wanted to go for a night ride. I brought along my NiteRider light and he'd been haggling with me about wanting to do a night loop. So, we waited a while to send him on his fourth lap, or there would have been no need for the light (and we would not send him on his own after 7PM). He went off on his own again around 6:30 and made it back in with plenty of time to spare.

Turns out my bro and Lisa had set up support camp right across from 1x1clyde, surlygal and CH4OS (whom it turns out I'd seen at the water stop earlier in the day when he was riding the course for fun, without a helmet but with whiskey so I guess that's okay), so I chatted with those folks for a while. It was nice to see some STR folks out there. Good people.

I was done for the day, so I then spent some time shooting out in the BMX loop. See some of those shots below. Patrick and Lisa departed before the end of the race, but Willie and I stuck it out to the end. Willie won a blue ribbon for his finish in the new Junior Men's Beginner Solo class, and he even won another Canari jersey in the raffle (he did last time at this race as well!).

All in all a great race day. Hope to see some more of you at the final race of the season in November.

Here's some pics...

Me and my broken gear shifter


Willie resting up in between laps


Me and Justine head out for a lap


Spent


Talkin' with CH4OS and surlygal


Getting Willie ready for his 'night ride'


Willie heads out for his last lap


Some pics of riders out in the BMX loop
















1x1clyde on his orange Chumba on the fire road


1x1clyde and surlygal under the tent... sems Neil likes ORANGE, hm?


Rider #400 going out late


Folks gathered at the FINISH line for the awards


Willie gets his ribbon


And that is that!

shudder

[RidetheRAAM4]

Haha, you got a picture of one of the guys from my team on there. 5th one above the bermuda triangle shot where he is sitting down looking at the camera.

[roadkillross]

good color choice neil, chumba has their orange dialed, cant wait for my orange F5... great pics shudder, you know how to work it