Great one-two punch these past two weekends at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. First up was the Hillbilly Bike Bash(www.pcamtb.com), an event hosted by my very own team bike maker-Mongoose (www.mongoose.com). This was a fun event with some serious competition on display. 23 professional athletes duked it out in the Mongoose Hillbilly Downhill including such top racers as the Houseman's, L Binggeli, Waylon Smith, Brad Oien, Eliot Jackson, Kevin Aiello, Cody Warren and the top shooter for the day; local San Diegan, JD Swanegen. My favorite pro woman downhiller Stephanie Gaudreau took the ladies podium.  I was not able to compete in the Fox Super-D or the Racers and Chasers Cross-Country event held the same weekend but these races and the festivities were a huge success. From the toilet seat horseshoes and team tire rolling contest to the general camaraderie of the racers camping out, this was a great event which I am excited to add to my 2009 calendar! Great to see Dale from Division 26 (www.division26clothing.com) at every event I go to, they make some great outfits to wear pre and post ride including caps, T's, and hoodies. Props to Kenda as well for getting behind a local event for SoCal.
The second event, this past weekend, was the 12 Hours of Temecula held at the same venue. Our team, "Jack, Queen, King, Ace" along with our co-team were camped out right on the course where it turned down into the start/finish area. We had a great view of the start of the course and "Dam Hill". Darryl led us off with a fast parade lap and overall lap and I felt compelled to keep the momentum going so I turned a good lap as well. Mark kept the momentum rolling and Stephanie pulled a good lap despite problems with getting around riders on the course. Note: if you hear a rider breathing down your neck...move:) Luckily the high heat associated with Temecula never came to pass. Unfortunately the wind took its place and made for some very exciting high-speed descents! By the end of everyone's second lap we were looking pretty good in 4th place and our night laps were just as good as during the day. We did not experience a single mechanical nor crash but did see a fair amount of carnage along the way including broken bikes, dirt rash, and mostly minor injuries.  My apologies to the racer who crashed so close in front of me that I smashed my derailleur on his bike as I rode over it. He was OK, as was his bike I hope. In the end we were a few minutes too far past the hour to send Steph out for a last lap so we ended up with 11 total and lots of smiles all around. Special thanks to my friend Angie Kies from Kies Holistic Therapies in Pacific Beach (www.kiesholistictherapies.com) for the massage on my beat up knee and for keeping us in top form. Also to our co-team for their generous food, hydration, camping setup, fire pit, and group laughter sessions. We are excited to come back to the 12 hour next year and take a few minutes off each lap.

Some friends have asked where I have been the past 5 months and if I am still racing or riding. Thank you for asking. Stephanie and I have been living in San Diego off of Nobel Drive where we have good access to the beach for bodyboarding and canyons for riding. Rose Canyon, Miriam Bear Nature Preserve, and Penasquitos Canyon are all nearby along with the UCSD Eucalyptus grove.

Am I still riding/racing? Yes. I am riding still but have put the racing in a holding pattern. In fact I have been putting plenty of miles on my cyclocross bike on the road these past few months. We also rode a few times with the Manns and spent a week in Whistler on those world-class trails.



The primary reason for our racing hiatus is that Steph and I are serious about purchasing a home. We have a three part plan to save money to purchase a home. 1. Invest our current money for a year so we can't spend it and we’ll have a little bonus interest when we are ready for the down payment. 2. Stay close to home to save gas cost and vehicle maintenance (bonus: it is good for the environment). 3. Avoid racing and shuttling. This saves race fees, replacement parts, transportation costs, dining out receipts, and doctor’s bills. I am staying local for everything else as well and cutting back on service plans (cell phone, cable, etc). We are going to purchase a home within a year and a half!



Despite this plan I need to keep my sanity so I will be making an announcement this fall concerning an adventure that we are planning for 2009. One of my top ten life goals is to raise at least $10,000 for a cause and I want to do that in 2009. This may be a couple of days or a couple of week’s long event that we hope to get our friends involved in and report on here at Loop'd.

I sincerely hope everyone is enjoying the early fall and getting in lots of trail or road time on their bikes.

Moderate to long mountain and road rides to further develop my base for some summer and fall events.

The year has started out great ! Starting with a third and fifth place finish at Fontana.  It's been great to get together with all my friends in bike racing and meet many new people.  This week was highlighted by a shoutout for my teamate Steve Zvorski and I by Jeremiah Dean on the Mongoose website.  The Tribe and I are looking forward to adding more medals and great times on the bike in 2008.  I look forward to updating everyone as the season progresses.  This coming weekend is Fontana Winter Series DH Race #3 followed by Vision Quest on March 1 in the Santa Ana Mountains.  I will be posting every week or so to keep everyone up to date on my small portion of the San Diego contingent. Peace.

"I'm sorry father for I have sinned. It has been way too long since my last ride!" But I am back now and here's the full scoop. I am running the Long Beach Marathon October 14th at 8: am. If you’re wondering why I would hurt myself so much then you are not alone. This is one of those goals I wrote on my "top ten activities to do while still on momma earth” list. So next Sunday I hope to be crossing the finish line on two feet and thinking about my next two activities: bungee jumping and skydiving! The other 7 possible activities include climbing Mt. Whitney with Steph, Mt. Kilimanjaro with my brother Jim, climbing Mt. Rainier with my brother Bill, raising $10,000+ for a charity, riding the continental divide trail, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and returning to Vanuatu where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.

While waiting to do all that I have been out running a lot, buying a Yeti 575 all-mountain bike, and getting to some events with friends. The most notable events were the Red Bull Air Race over San Diego Big Bay and the 50 mile Rosarito-Ensenada Fun Bike Ride. Steph and I also shuttled Noble Canyon and rode at Idyllwild recently. It was great to get out on some classic singletrack and truly brutal climbs. I am looking forward to the Urban Dual DH on the 20^th in Ensenada, Moab the following weekend, and a fat tire ride-fest in Sedona for Thanksgiving.

Despite wanting to go put a new 2008 ECD on my gold card and rejoin my beloved race scene, I am taking the loss of all my bikes as an opportunity to get my body in top health. I have been going to physical therapy for my right shoulder and getting my bones realigned weekly at the chiropractor. Seems my hips are out of square…not to hard to imagine when you consider so many years of throwing myself around and onto natural obstacles.

I have also just become a member of socaltrailriders.org so I can start hooking up with riders whenever I want to go hit all the trails I’ve been missing. So here’s a F-you to those bums who stole my bikes because you can’t keep me down and a big new handshake to all those who have been making sure the trails don’t grow cobwebs while I was gone.

Special thanks to Nancy and Roger for keeping us in the loop, Steve Zvorsky for keeping me up on race news, Jackie at Jaybay for keeping me covered for all my activities, Kerry at Beyondbikes.com for working closely with Steph and I to get the right bike, the right parts and the right price on two beautiful new bikes, my boss for the paychecks, my mom…my car…J

It is hard to describe to a non-biking friend, relative, or complete stranger what it feels like to have your bike stolen.  So imagine our hardship when trying to explain how we felt when all five of our bikes (and a few other near, dear and expensive parts) were stolen. I hope none of you ever experience this difficult situation.

A month ago we discovered that someone had gained access to our garage and lifted our two DH bikes, two XC bikes and Stephanie's 4x bike.  Besides the obvious financial loss and feeling of violation one always gets when an item is taken from an area considered 'safe', we also lost a part of ourselves.  Our bikes represented many years of racing, making friends, and traveling to far-flung places to ride. Our bikes represented our spirit of adventure as well as great stories hinted at by numerous small dents. In the long, arduous process of retrieving some insurance payback, it has become painfully obvious how many dollars and how much time we invested in every single part of our two wheeled mascots. 

My Mongoose ECD represented a new view of DH racing as more than just a place to go to test myself.  It was part of the glue that held me to an idea that racing is not just for winning races but also for the social togetherness with friends.  My Specialized Epic was a bike I pored over in an effort to re-define the Super-D bike.  Whoever ends up riding them will likely never know the beauty of mud spinning off the tires on a morning single-track ride.  They will not understand what the few carefully chosen stickers represent on the tubes, nor the special color of the rims. I know they will enjoy the ride because I put more than just my time and money into my bikes. I put my trust in them as vehicles of my lifestyle.

We have each other to sympathize with and distract our minds from cycling while we wait to purchase new bikes down the road.  In the meantime we have both been staying healthy, exercising, and getting back into the hills in other ways.  We sponge boarded in PB and are hoping the water warms up soon.  We hiked the San Gorgonio Wilderness and waved to our friends Nancy and Roger over riding at Big Bear. We boated over to camp and hike at Santa Catalina where we saw wildlife despite the recent fire.  And we are both running more now in preparation for America’s Finest City ½ Marathon in August.  I will be hiking Mount Rainier the third week of July with my brother Bill and friends and then running my first marathon this fall. 

Throughout the past five or six weeks it has been extremely reassuring to find out that cycling is still a close community of friendly and compassionate individuals.  We received an outpouring of sympathy texts, emails and calls. We had people threaten to find those #$^%&’rs (please, no bloodletting...just call 911 on them). Friends offered the use of bicycles. Friends and strangers forwarded our "Stolen Bikes" blogs and posts on to many sites around the country. And all the local bike stores not only allowed us to put posters in their shops but also offered to give us great deals if we needed that.  My sponsors have been very good to me and I am very interested in keeping up a great relationship with all of them.  Jason at Utopia optics will still be protecting my eyes and head from the sun on and off the trail.  Jackie is my number one source of skin care (that’s right, even guys can have better skin!) and sun-block products.  Kerry, and the crew at BeyondBikes.com will definitely remain my ‘home’ shop as I put together a new bike. I will still be riding in Azonic protective gear and styling after hours in their apparel. Exploration will never stop with Manny at NOFRIENDS (check out www.FFAT.biz) And I hope to continue to contribute to the goals of the Mongoose Tribe as we race, ride, surf, and barbeque our message of biking society across the globe.  Thanks again for all the help.  See you on the trail soon.

Winter has come to SoCal.  Yes, despite no snow on the ground, no sub-zero days, no wind gusts over 20mph, and no icy conditions on the roadways...winter is here.  I know this because fewer people are calling me to shuttle the downhill trails and only my hardcore friends are calling for me to go cross-country riding.  Everyone else is shopping, drinking egg nog, or flying off to visit family far away.  This all brings me to one conclusion...cross-training season is here! 

With the NMBS race series over (I'm looking forward to its replacement) and no more big races until well after the New Year, I have been out on the water learning to surf.  I'm still keeping my bodyboard around for big days when I'm scared to stand up, but I couldn’t live here any longer without trying the California pastime.  I'm also running three or four times each week in preparation for the Carlsbad Half-Marathon in mid-January.  Stay tuned for a full update on my result here at sponsorhouse.com.  My goal is to run a 1:35:00 or better.  If I succeed, then I will run the Rock and Roll marathon in June :)

In addition to these "off-season" activities, I am coordinating with my brother Bill in Missoula, MT for a summer summit attempt of 14,410’ Mount Rainer.  We plan to climb via a moderately difficult route of 9,000’ vertical ascent over 10 miles to reach the peak.  I am also compiling a pre-season list of races I would like to compete in.  So far the standout races include:  The Downieville Classic (CA), the US Open of Mountain Biking (NJ),  the UCI World Cup, Angel Fire (NM), the California State Championship DH and Super-D,  and the UCI Masters World Championships in France.  Anyone know French?

I could not attempt this schedule without the continued support of my sponsors.  In fact, my many successes in 2006 were the result of hard work, a little luck, and some very strong support.

Thanks to E.C., Mike and the whole Mongoose Tribe for a great year, we definitely showed people that Mongoose makes quality products and that the tribe concept enhances the sport of mountain biking.  I look forward to being a part of this movement in the coming year.  Thanks to O’Neal-Azonic for providing the protective gear and accessories that made for a safe and confident season.  I was sorry to see Chris Reilly leave but glad to begin working with Chris Hannold.  Jason at Utopia Optics kept me in style with the latest products and represented at almost every major event.  Big props for that kind of race support!  BeyondBikes.com continued to provide me with the best equipment available, provided by a group of guys that knows riding and racing.  Of course I could not have kept my chains on the bikes all season long without Mateo at Gamut USA.  And Scott at the Hayes Bicycle Group had me rolling smoothly on SunRingle’ and stopping at will. 

2007 promises to be an exciting and successful year. I look forward to talking and riding with all of you in the coming months.  I’ll be the rider covered with sunscreen from Jackie at JayBay, my newest sponsor!

The Worlds are this coming week in Sun Peaks, BC, Canada and I am getting close to ready. I have been practicing hard with shuttle runs at Mt. Baldy, Snow Summit, Noble Canyon, Stagecoach, and today (8 runs!) at Ted Williams. I have been out of town all but six days this month surveying in Bakersfield (think-hot!) so I have spent many nights after a 10 hour work day on the cross country bike for an hour or more putting in the base miles. I have spoken to quite a few other masters downhill racers who have told me what to expect, namely: "a very steep course", "a 30` road gap", and "a lot of hard tree sections". This and a lot of banter on the MTBR reviews of the course by folks in the neighborhood should help me catch up to those racers who are seeing the course for the second or third year. I have also been warned that a number of pros and ex-pros may show up to try to grab the number one spot. I figure that’s like the student who doesn`t study all year but comes and passes the finals...who am I to say they shouldn`t. In any case my top goal is to go for number one while honorably representing my country and SoCal. Thanks to all my sponsors and my friends who have helped me get this far. See you on the trail.

Wow! I`ve already spent more time on the podium this year than all of last year. Just back from a third place finish at the one-day California State Championship Downhill Race and already enjoying the cooler temps of El Cajon (only high 80`s here!). Despite the 100-degree temps, the weekend was great because my cousin Jeff and his wonderful wife Erin came to the event to cheer on Steph and I. Thanks to both of you, apparently it worked:) A couple of weeks back we traveled to Ensenada to race at the Ecological Park southeast of town. The course was very similar to the last race at this venue with some new boulder obstacles and steep, deep sand thrown in. After casing the 25` road gap 4 of six times in practice I got it right for the two race runs and ended up in 6th...2 hundredths of a second off the pro podium!! My Mongoose Tribe teammate Mike Miranda took a strong third while a timing mix-up kicked our teammate Bob off his well-deserved podium. That’s racing in Mexico, lots of great courses, donkey riding, unique timing, and sunset lobster dinners. The rest of what we do? You should come find out. Check with Manny Vargas at www.ffat.biz for more info. Continuing in reverse order by date we return to the NORBA National at Fontana. I had a great day on the Super-D course and landed a 5th place podium but missed a few good lines on the DH course and only managed a 10th. I am looking forward to my next NMBS race, which will be at Deer Valley, UT. Despite NORBA`s recent (mid-season) rule changes that automatically removed me from the national series jersey hunt, I will still race Super-D at Deer Valley, Sonoma, and Brianhead. See you at the start gate!