feeling tired off the bike and strong on it - weird! Got the hole shot and tucked the front wheel in the third corner instantly found myself in 6th, keep my cool and passed for 5th on the first run up, fought hard for the next lap to catch up to 2nd 3rd & 4th, once there I rested a bit and played it safe. On lap 4 2nd place faded quickly back to me and I passed him as he gave me words of encouragement. Now I was in 4th, midway thru lap 4 2nd over shot a corner so I was now in 3rd, then I took over second on the 5th lap controling the pace. Me and third place traded positions keeping 4th from catching us. We knew it would come down to the last corner and the sprint, I didnt get into the last corner first so I was behind on the sprint uphill to the finish and didnt have enought left to pull ahead. A fun and tactical race which is rare for me.

CX - Turkey Trott in Glendale 11/29/09 Had a good race and finished 10th, happy with the r

Southridge Challenge - droped out of the XC due to a cut rear tire on the first lap - was in second place and riding real easy, would have been a good finish.
Super D - 1st place, had an OK run but it was enough to win by 10 seconds, see the run in my videos section.

Like all things in life some good some bad.  The good is that I finished 2nd overall CAT 1 XC 43-50 in the Southridge Shimano Winter Series.  The bad is the my back had been killing me, more specifically my herniated disk at L5/S1 which about an hour into a race would really start hitting nerves then my power would drop off and I had to slow dramatically.  I think doing 49 races last year with NO brake going into this season and then jumping up to CAT 1 put a strain on my body and now I'm paying for it.  I decided to take a brake from racing XC to let my back stabilize, but I can still race Super D which I've been doing with very good results.

I've had 1 steroidal injection (epidural) into the disk and so far it seems to be helping.  I will do 1 more in hopes that it will shrink the swelling in the disk and that I might be able to train a little harder for longer, we shall see.

Our small team Montrose Bike Shop has really been lighting it up.  Santa Ynez we had every rider on the podium, Sea Otter 3 out of 4 riders on the podium, every race most if not all of us podium'd so thats been really fantastic. 

Jan started off pretty bad, first week my back back flared up really bad, the worst its been in a few years.  I have a herniated disc at L5/S1 and can feel it all the time, but normally there is no pain.  Once in awhile it swells and makes contact with the nerves which is no fun at all.   I was doing everything I can to reduce the swelling so I could at least ride as the first race of Southridge Winter series was coming up.  Race day arrived and my back was still pretty bad yet I was still able to ride at a reduced pace.  Unfortunately the winds were blowing at 40-50MPH, Great.  I decided to go for it just to get some points, didn't push to hard and finished a very surprising 6th in XC - didn't do Super D

Southridge #2 - My back was feeling better but not perfect, though I had a great week of training, I was feeling pretty confident.  In the race I went out to hard and on the last lap had nothing left, was in 5th place but got passed by two people so I ended up 7th.  Didn't do Super D as I was to whipped.

Southridge #3 -  I went out a bit slower not using to much energy and had a great race, it was a battle the whole time and I had my most tactical race to date, knowing when my competitors would attack and where I should drop the hammer.  All went perfect and I finished a very happy 4th.  I also did the Super D and finished 3rd, getting beat by two kids in their 20's.

Steve

The end of the racing season is finally here and its time to review what went right, what went wrong, how to improve for next season and start planning for the upcoming season.

The 09 season is going to be exciting for me because I did so well last year that I want to improve on it for this year, also I will be stepping up to Cat 1 (expert) in XC.  In the next few weeks I will be planning my race schedule for the season as well as build a new bike that will be more efficent for XC.  Also I plan on training and building a new bike for Cyclocross as I will be racing in the very competitive 45+ class and hope to go to Nationals in Bend OR for the 09 season.  

See below for 08 season Highlights
 

49 races total - 37 podiums
XC  19 races - 16 podiums
SD  16 races - 15 podiums
Crit    4 races NO podiums
Cyclocross 10 races 6 podiums
Cal State Super D 40-49 - Champion
NMBS Super D 40-49 - 3rd overall
NMBS XC Sport 40-44 4 races 4 podiums  * no series overall for some reason
Nova NMBS Sport 40+49 Omnium - Champion
Cal State XC Sport 40-44 - 5th overall * only 5 of the 6 races needed for overall
Southridge Season Overall - Super D Expert - Champion
Southridge Season Overall - XC Sport 40-49 - Champion
So Cal triple crown - XC Sport 40-49 - 2nd overall
Sea Otter Classic - Super D 40-49 - 5th overall
So Cal Prestige Series Cyclocross - Masters 35+  3rd overall

Hello Friends, Sponsors, & Interested viewers -

I decided not to attend the final round of the NMBS @ Brianhead because mathematically I could not win the series, or do no worse than 3rd overall.  I guess thats what happens when you miss a few rounds and cant accumulate points.  Instead my wife and I decided to head to Sun Valley Idaho for some RR&B, riding, rest & beer.  Unfortunately the day after we arrived my wife had to fly home to attend to her very sick father, I stayed and rode every day but didn't enjoy it  much.

Racing has been going OK, just a handful of XC races left but Cyclocross season has just started.  I feel like the last couple of months I have been "just riding" and not training, it may be due to the lack of races in Aug, and the beginning of Sept.  Now I have races, sometimes two in a weekend, between now and Christmas.  Racing always makes me feel sharper.  Below is a short list of the season accomplishments.

I would like to thank all my sponsors for their continued support of me personally and of the cycling community as a whole.  Times have been, and will continue to be tough, but your support of the greatest sport around is what keeps all of us racing, Thank you.

NMBS - Super D 3rd overall Open men 40-49
NMBC - XC 4races and 4 podiums, 3 5ths and a 2nd  * no overalls for sport
NMBS - 8 races overall 7 podiums
NMBS - NOVA Omnium 1st overall sport 40-49
Cal State - Overall Series Winner Super D Open men 40-49
Cal State - Currently 6th overall XC sport 40-49  * 1 race left
Sea Otter Classic - 5th overall Super D 40-49
Southridge Winter Series - 1st overall Expert Super D
Southridge Winter Series - 1st overall Sport XC 40-49

A lot has happened since I last updated.  Southridge Cal Gold series 1 XC, 3rd Super D, Cal State Elings Park XC#5 10th, Super D 3rd. NMBS National #4 Deer Valley XC 2nd, Super D 6th - very disappointing.  Cal State Super D #5 Rim Nordic 2nd place - I believe I have finally won the State Super D title - after coming in second 4 times!

I have also done 4 Crit races with ok results, this is a whole different game and I haven't adapted to it as fast as I'd like, large fields, position and conserving energy is everything.

San Fernando GP 16th CAT 5, Bicycle Jons GP 28th CAT5, Aliso Viejo GP 20th 40+CAT 4-5,  BAR series #10 finals 22nd CAT5. 

More news to come in the next few weeks about results, a new team that I am one of 5 founders, and the upcoming Cyclocross season.



Steve

A lot has happened since I last updated.  Southridge Cal Gold series 1 XC, 3rd Super D, Cal State Elings Park XC#5 10th, Super D 3rd. NMBS National #4 Deer Valley XC 2nd, Super D 6th - very disappointing.  Cal State Super D #5 Rim Nordic 2nd place - I believe I have finally won the State Super D title - after coming in second 4 times!

I have also done 4 Crit races with ok results, this is a whole different game and I haven't adapted to it as fast as I'd like, large fields and position and conserving energy is everything.

San Fernando GP 16th CAT 5, Bicycle Jons GP 28th CAT5, Aliso Viejo GP 20th 40+CAT 4-5,  BAR series #10 finals 22nd CAT5. 

More news to come in the next few weeks about results, a new team that I am one of 5 founders, and the upcoming Cyclocross season.



Steve

This race weekend can be summed up in one word  HOT!  The weekend before it was in the 70's, this weekend it was well over 100 every day.

XC - 5th Sport 40-44  The race organizers decided it was too hot so the changed the course, they had us start at the standard course then do the singletrack climbs, once the trail came down close to the start/finish area they sent us back up to the right to do the same part of the trail again and continue for the entire 11.25 mile lap.  This was a bad idea!!!!  All this did was bunch every one up on this narrow singletrack and it made passing difficult.  They should have had us do the full lap first then do the short loop, this would have spread the field out and made for much better racing.  Anyways I was in third place on the first loop once we started downhill, unfortunately I got stuck behind a few slower riders from the age group in front of us and had a pretty big crash.  Sometimes I cant believe how slow some so called XC racers go on the downhill section.  I was able to remount  on the tight singletrack after letting what seemed like the entire field go by.  As it was early in the race I was able to start picking riders off one by one, and sometimes two at a time.  5th overall was not to bad but I was hoping for a top 3 finish.  3 Nationals 3 5th places, I'm nothing if not consistent!

Super D - Open 40-49 3rd - By the time this race started the wind had come up really good with gusts in the 20-30mph range.  Out on course I just couldn't generate enough power to go fast.  I had a smooth run but my speed just wasn't there.  I chalk it up to the wind and being in that heat all day.  I'll take the points as of this blog I'm leading the NMBS points, but we will see what my competitors do in the races I will miss.

Steve

After many weeks of secret contract negotiations I have finally signed with Team Bearclaw.  Chet Bearclaw (owner) told me in no unspecific terms "Win or your fired" so I've got a huge  monkey on my back.

Seriously though I'm glad to be part of the team, mostly made up of fast roadies and Cyclocross racers, with a few who also race Mtn bikes.  These guys have fun and don't take things to seriously. Just check out  www.chetbearclaw.com to see what I mean. also www.teambearclaw.com

Sea Otter -   Super D  5th  Open 40-49  it was  some of the same course as last year.  It started further up the road so we had a good Le Mans start run up then some minor climbing and a downhill fire road to catch the main road where we started last year, then the climbs out towards the XC course the only righthand turn, then the screaming downhill, which they blocked off two sections where there were rain ruts running  along the road.  Once at the bottom there was the fast left hand turn and that was it, no chance to sprint along the road to make up positions or lose them.  All in all a better course but I still would have liked to see more run out at the end which would have made for quite a few sprint finishes.

XC 40-44 15th place.  The wind on Sat was REALLY bad, plus it was about 48-50 degrees.  Had a really good race and learned a lot.  Traffic was the worst I had ever encountered so I may have lost a bit of time to the leaders due to this.  Next time I will make sure to be in the lead group when going into the singletrack.  That race was the hardest I had ever had to work for a 15th place, and I'm real happy to have done that.