Race Report Kenda cup west series #4

I am uploading the Cat 2 and Cat 3 images. They should be up by tomorrow morning. I was not able to really sort then between cat 2 and cat 3 since there seemed to be blue plates WAY to soon mixed with the black plates so I left them in the order they were shot.

http://mfoga.smugmug.com/MountainBikeRaces/Sycamore-04-03-11/

 

Sorry for the snafu, the thread is open now

 

Well,
I just have to start by saying Sycamore was a super fun course. Fast flowy downs in the front section, and a bit more chunk and angle in the middle. Despite the fact that I'm a real slow climber and never win anything, I still always have fun pushing myself and mixing it up with the rest of you.
Saw lots of STR out there too. Surlygal (and a few others I did not know but I heard STR chatter-Jody?), Allison and Justin, Skyler, Cynthia, Roger (cheering me up a climb), and many more.

Here are a few pictures...

 

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Great race, course was fun.... had a hoot riding with some buddies, passing back and forth all day. Craig, good seeing ya out there. Was surprised to see ya on that last climb, thanks for the words of encouragement as I went by, put some wind back in my sails! Ended up having a better time that I thought I would, was the only Cat3 clyde out there, so saying I won is kinda lame. But I did have a great day racing!!!!

 

http://themannadventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/rollin.html

My race report.

Had fun. Wish I had gotten to hang out with Nancy and Roger more...

 

Sorry we couldn't stay and cheer you on Mr. Super Mann, we played spectator/cheering section for the Cat 2/3 races and had to leave by 1pm. Congratulations and thanks for my hug!!!

 

another great day racing. weather and coarse were awesome. smaller group at the start line, i assume because of VQ, but some new faces which always makes it fun. managed a cat 2 win. see ya'll in big bear!

 

i went down hard on that techincal downhill section on the backside of the course. i landed right on those 2 big boulders that alot of people were walking down. that was a long fall. it was right in front of a photog, i hope he got the picture, lol

 

Hope you feel better...1st lap racing through the person behind me wondered what all the fuss was about on that section...but unless you took it cautious and managed your wheels "drifting", you were going down or losing momentum...no real way to walk down it out of the racing line either...or bail out into a "safe zone" if you started to lose it. Glad the kids managed to get through it before the faster Cat 2's caught up to them, but there were some lapped Cat 3's walking down it when I went through that made it extra tough.

No fault of their own...live to fight another day, but it increased the pucker factor...but after looking at a few of the pro-expert drop sections, glad I stayed Cat 2.

 

that is where the fun is!!

 

Every lap on that downhill I was swamped in traffic, hairball scary stuff, but after all this is mountain bike racing it is supposed to be tough. Glad they had some stuff that pushed the beginners limits and glad they made us run one more lap too! I didnt feel my best until mile 12, hahaha....

 

Is that an S-Works Epic in the Beginner class?!?!

 

Probably, beg class is the biggest batch of sandbaggers out there. Myself included. 206lb clydesdale, haha. But rules are rules. I do enjoy beating people on my 5 year old $650 giant xtc-2

 

Wish I could say that's why I got so spanked, but alas...I think it was due to other factors.
Maybe I should stick to Super-D!

 

Fastest way over the techy stuff...is beeline over it! This was a really fun race, and although I blew up pretty hard on the 2nd half of the second lap, I had a lot of fun racing good friends. I recovered well enough to finish just off the podium in 6th. I hope they keep this race in the schedule next year. Mfoga took some sweet pix. Sorry about the nip slip, next time I'll be sure to wear a gold chain.

 

yeah, that's the guy beating most of his cat by 10minutes. and 6minutes in front of 2nd. would have made him 3rd in cat 2....

 

Awesome, haha!

 

Some great shots from the race

http://sportactionphotos.com/us_cup_west_4/​

 

This was a fun course and had a lot of fun on the swoopy sections! Thanks for all of you that cheered and looking forward to the next adventure. Hope they keep this venue for next year!