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Boggs State Forest, November 12th-13th
Saturday's XC race started around lunchtime. By the start of that first event
our team had already assured its strongest showing at Conference Championships
in at least 4 seasons, with 13 racers across all categories, including the long-awaited
debuts of Megan Insco and Scott Sayare. Everyone reached the finish line, which was an accomplishment considering the all but
absent course marshalling, and a nasty spill or two. Todd Norwood and Andrew Lizotte led the way,
finishing 5th-7th in the largest MA field seen in years at a Conference Championships race,
while Carolyn Seto and Lisa Stright raced WA. In WB, Hanna Kim reached the podium.
The MA and WA course clocked in at a hefty 27+ miles, with 3+ hour finish times common.
Many riders got lost, and much of the WB field ended up doing closer to 16 miles than
their prescribed 12. But overall, the trails at Boggs are amazing, rivaling the best to be found
in Northern California and beyond for XC riding. Having to ride a few more miles there
is not the worst form of punishment.
Many of the XC racers were making day trips only, but a few of them stuck around for
a good dinner
at the Mount St. Helena Brewing Company, where the Brown Ale is highly recommended.
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L-R: Andrew, Megan, Hanna, Carolyn, Kevin, Dan, Aaron
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After dinner, we returned to the campsite for a night of Pixie Sumo and the beloved Huffy
Toss. While not listed on the WCCC calendar, these events are taken seriously by many racers,
and form an important part of league competition.
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Sunday morning was time for the Super D, a mostly downhill event that still has enough pedaling
to be dominated by XC guys, at least on this course. And dominate it Stanford did:
MA racer Todd Norwood took 1st place, for the first Stanford MA victory in any event
since Kevin Weng beat out John Denson, Aren Timmel, Osvaldo Olmos, and Andy Jacques-Maynes
to take 1st in the MA Short Track, also at Boggs, on 17 November 2001. Todd's victory was
a historic occasion for the team, and a sign that we are on our way back to the top. Andrew Lizotte
reached the podium in MB as well.
Todd describes the course:
"The race started with a 100 meter uphill sprint (running!)
to our bikes and shortly over the crest of the hill was a long fireroad descent that
allowed room for passing before it connected to singletrack from the previous day's
XC. Typical Boggs singletrack that was not super technical, but twisty and very
tight. So tight that Matt Hale got his handlebar stuck between two trees at on
point on course. After the first sector of singletrack the course opened to a
gradual fireroad climb of no more than 200 M in length about half way through.
This provided a good passing opportunity for the XC types in the crowds. Then
again it was back to more tight, swoopy singletrack before a right on to
the final fireroad and a mad fit of pedaling to get the line ahead of your nearest
competitors."
The final event was the Short Track. Todd and Andrew again led the way in MA, with Lisa in WA, on the rolling course
through the campground area. Todd's finish was hurt by a crash when a rider went down
right in front of him, while Andrew helped clear the path for him at other times. In the MB race, I started
the final lap in 1st-- though I didn't know it at the time-- and ended up 2nd by a narrow
margin. If only I too had a Kitty Norwood to call out my place to me, who knows ....
This year's Conference Champs was the most successful
for the team in years. We had 17 racers total, our most at Conference Championships
since at least 2001. We reached
the podium 4 times, including Todd's domination of the Super D. It was a fine cap on a season
in which more racers (30, 17 of them for the first time) raced for Stanford more often
(an average of 16 racers per weekend, compared to 10 over the preceding three years)
than any time since the MTB team
had its own, dedicated coach.
Once the final results were in, the team was able to move up a spot efter the weekend,
from 6th to 5th in the league, missing 4th by a hair: one more finish in an A race would have done it.
Despite beating 4th-place Chico in
all three events this weekend, we were not able to close the gap all the way. In any case,
this is a major
improvement over last year's 8th place WCCC finish. This is a team on its way up.
The entire team should be proud of its significant accomplishments both
at Conference Championships and throughout an amazing season.
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L-R: Andrew, Rafer, Dan, Shawn, Carolyn, Aaron, Matt, Andre
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submitted by Dan McGarry
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