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Stanford Race, October 16th
A light mist early Saturday morning brought hints of the famous Santa Teresa cement-mud, but unfortunately also meant the cancellation of the day's planned XC race. Nevertheless, Race Director Rand Miller rescheduled both the XC and the DH for the following day. Despite losing a few racers who could only race Saturday (and forestalling the long-awaited return of Ken Wu), Stanford still turned out a solid showing of 18 racers.
The same light mist that made for some mud on Saturday made for nearly perfect trail conditions on Sunday: almost no dust, no mud, but great grip. The Stanford course is one of the toughest in our league, with rocky climbs as well as descents, but Sunday saw it in pretty much its best possible shape.
Todd Norwood and Andrew Lizotte led the way in MA. Todd led his race from the start, but he lost
his water bottle and fell a bit behind by his parched third lap. He still
managed an excellent 3rd place finish. In WA, Carolyn Seto and Hanna Kim
gave their best for two laps and earned massive points for the team. Five
riders started for Stanford in MB. Mike Morici, myself, Aaron Johnson, and
Andre Marta each completed two solid laps, while Evan's race was cut short
by unfortunate mechanicals.
The MC XC race saw the debut of two new Stanford MTB racers: Andre Gondouin and road veteran Ryan Parnes. Their excellent finishes (2nd/3rd) ensure that this will probably be their last MC race. Ryan managed to get second place even though a late flat forced him to walk across the finish line! DH veteran Andy Gooden represented the gravity crew in the XC with a respectable finish as well.
In the afternoon, Rafer, Shawn, and Matt represented Stanford in the DH. Shawn
continued to climb through the ranks of the WCCC with a 5th place finish. In MB
DH, Mike Morici and Sean Ardley went 1st/2nd, while Andy was not far behind in
6th (out of 19 competitors). Theo Huzyk had a strong showing with 3rd in MC.
Constantin Chueshov also entered the MC race, and unfortunately suffered a broken chain, but still
managed to finish his race. On the women's side, Hanna
and Carolyn again stepped up for the team by entering their first gravity events
in WA, once again gaining a pile of points for Stanford-- their value to the team
can scarcely be exaggerated.
Overall, the weekend was a success for the team, which finished a close 3rd in
the XC competition-- one more MB racer would have probably made for 2nd place--
and another close 3rd in DH. We had a little drizzle, a lot of last-minute planning,
but overall a good weekend in San Jose.
submitted by Dan McGarry
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Spotted at Stanford, and coming soon to a mountain bike race near you!
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