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Cal Poly Pomona, October 8th-9th
We had nine riders make the long trip down to Pomona to compete in four races
this past weekend. Our highest participation was in Saturday's XC race with 6
members participating 4 in A (Lisa, Hannah and Carolyn in WA and myself in MA)
and 2 in MB (Dan and Andre). The course was somewhat of an urban wasteland (but
than can be said for the whole of Fontana, so no surprise there) and included
several sections which required racers to ride through culverts. The majority
of the course which was on dirt consisted mostly of deep sand and some rock
sections. This combination kept riders on their toes and had a nasty habit of
making steering a little challenging, particularly for those of us who chose to
race on light XC race tires such as Hutchinson Pythons. Thankfully, everyone
survive the adventure and we Had Lisa in 5th and Hannah and Carolyn were 7th
and 8th (although I don't remember who was 7th and who was 8th). Dan and Andre
represented Stanford well in MB, and I was the solo MA rider for Stanford this
week finishing in 6th.
We didn't do so well in the Super D later on in the afternoon. Lisa took it
easy and finished 9th, and our DHer's were riding too much bike for the course
(which favored and XC FS bike). They were at a hefty disadvantage hauling
their DH bikes up the climb on the course and as result finished near the end
of the pack. I will openly admit that I was a bit of a ninny* (to borrow a
Rafer term)and didn't ride the Super D because I crashed (not seriously just
some abrasions) in the XC and was a little sketched out. In retrospect, I
wish I had done the race, and based on the description of the course I was
given, I would recommend that all Stanford XC (Or at least A) riders who
go to Pomona give it a try next year if Ponoma choses to keep the format
they had this year.
When the STXC rolled around Sunday morning, it was just Dan and I left from
XC crew to represent Stanford. Dan was sporting a pair of spankin' new XT cranks,
and despite my encouragement to race A he insisted on racing B because of a
terrible experience he had at Parkfield last year when urged to race A.
Dan finished his warm up on the rather technical STXC course just as the
official announced that there were 5 seconds to start. Nothing like good
timing, but Dan, unfortunately, did not have time to jettison his Camelbak
in those 5 second, so he did who whole race with it jettisoning water at every
opportunity. Coming down the final straight, Dan has his eyes on a competitor
in front of him and he gave it one hell of a sprint. He told me after the race
it was as fast as he could go, and you better believe it because bike, body and
camelbak were going every which direction as he came toward the finish line.
He didn't catch his man though. He later found out that the guy he was chasing
was a lapped rider. Before my race, Dan was in photographer mode chatting with
me when the official came over and told Dan that his choice of recovery drink
would get the team DQ'ed if he did get it out of the officials site quickly.
I guess the official has a little different interpretation of the literature
than Dan (and the majority of other MTBers).
The Men's A race look like a four
man crit until the final lap when the CPSLO domestique let Omnium leader John
Denson go and decided to cut me off. The SLO guy was intent on keeping me
behind and and made some sketchy maneuvers to ensure that that was the case.
As we came into the chute that was just before the finishing straight we came
up on a lapped Chico rider. He was doing his thing, but SLO guy managed to
slip by and I got stuck behind losing about 10 yards. Inspired by Dan's mad
dash earlier, I gave it a shot, and I came up just short, but it was the first
time I've attempted a bike throw in a MTB race.
In the last event of the weekend, I give the reporting duties over to Sean
Ardley: Did they tell you about the new guy, Sean from BC? Holy shit, he
put us to SHAME. 10th in the DH, I think about 20 seconds faster than me and Matt.
I got almost the same time as Matt, Dennis crashed (real minorly) but lost a
lot of time. I think we were 10th, 17, 18th, and 19th out of about 22.
We'll blame the lackluster finishes of the DH crew on their long, early
saturday morning drive because we all know driving a long way early in the
morning, when your not a morning person, he deleterious affects on your ability
to ride a heavy bike down a hill really fast.
All in all, not a bad showing. I think we had more racers than ever race A,
so that should help our standing in the National points ranking in the conference.
The other thing of note was the poor turn out. I feel that CPP put on a good race,
but by virture of being a long way from everyone else that got the short end of
the stick. It's sad to see such hard work go to waste.
* while I may have been a ninny for not doing that one race, I have several more races to my credit a certain other person in the club who has mountain biked and been referred to as a ninny in previous race reports. This said, I am, by definition, less of a ninny than the aforementioned individual, who shall remain nameless to protect his (lack of) innocence.
submitted by Todd Norwood
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Addendum
I just wanted to set the record straight - Stanford DH did NOT finish near the end
of the pack for SuperD despite arriving at Pomona just in time for the race.
Our SuperD performance was pretty respectable - out of 20 riders in MA I came
in 7th burping sealant all over the trail from the tubeless tires on my svelte
32 pound trail bike and Shawn (the DH crew's new superhero) came in 9th riding
the 45 pound team DH bike. The course was nice and technical, just the way we
like it, with a ~3 minute fireroad climb to remind us that shuttling is not an
aerobic workout. It was way more fun than I had anticipated and I'd highly r
ecommend Pomona's SuperD to all Stanford riders (both XC and DH) next year.
So, gravity guys CAN race SuperD after all!
submitted by Matt Hale
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