CCCX May 2nd
Chris and I carpooled to Salinas leaving Fresno at 0600. The drive to the race was uneventful and gave us both plenty of time to get our game faces on. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and took the opportunity to pre-ride to Torro Park course. The race at Torro Park has two conditions: Climbing and Downhilling. There is no flat sections on the course, hard to believe until you race it. I’m glad we were able to pre-ride the course, I think it helped my on the downhill. The course was perfect from the rain the night before. Crisp and tacky single track downhill and dust free fire road climb. Oh I almost forgot, on lap 2-4 the promoters added a new section of single track to climb. Perhaps a mile long, with thick green oaks to provide shade on the climb. It is a welcome change, even has a foot bridge to cross and few rocky steps to run up. Nice changes CCCX.
I had suffered a broken chain on my 29er hard tail at Firestone and remain reluctant to race anything Gary Fisher after my seemly endless cycle of Gary Fissure occurrences at races. I ended up choosing to race my trusty StumpJumper. The bike performed flawlessly: climbed like humming bird and downhilled like a bee. Err something like that at least.
Chris and I both raced sport. The bay area riders and highway 68 hillbillies are fast. The race started with a road sprint which tore apart the peloton. I tried to hang on, but was quickly dropped. My main goal was to give up as little as possible on climb and steal back as much time on my competitors on the downhill. For the most part my plan worked. On each of the four laps I was able to pull back anywhere from 1 to 4 riders on the downhill. I even managed to pull back 2 others on the 4th climb. At the end of the race I found myself in 5th place. Not quite a podium spot, but certainly not DFL. Chris placed 4th in his larger category, Strong work!
CCCX always puts on a great races. The costs are low and competition is high. No USA cycling licenses required. Be sure to make it to at least one race this year. The races at Torro park suit both hard tails and FS. However, the Fort Ord races favor a hard tail with the rolling sandy hills.
Get out there and ride your bikes.




August 19th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Please post your name on future reports.
Gary Callaway
August 27th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Sorry, I try and put GLOCK or Gary some where in the post. But its me Gary Locken from CCORC/Spatdog/Tri-sport
June 19th, 2010 at 9:33 am
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