Over the Hump

Yesterday the kids were entered in the first Over the Hump mountain bike race of the season. This is a local race series Held at Irvine Lake in the summer. There were more than 500 racers there from kids to experts/pros. Jacob, my son rode in the kids 9-11 division and ended up taking 10th out of 28. This was his second race ever and he did really well. Ryan, my daughter, rode in the 6-8 class and it was her first race ever. She came in 11th out of 22, but she had a small crash. Unfortunately, in the chaos of getting two kids ready to leave with all of their I forgot to bring my camera so I have no pictures of the race. Jake was not to upset with his finish, but he would like to do better. Ryan was not as happy about her 11th and was ready to do a training ride this afternoon. Ryan and I hit Aliso after she got off school and I got off work. We started at Canyon Vistas and road the fire road down to Coyote Run with Ryan pushing hard the whole time. This was her second time on Coyote Run and everything she was scared of or had a problem with the first time she was able to clean this time. From there we went over to Dripping Caves. Here is a picture on the way up.

She had to walk some of the trail up but did a pretty good job getting to the top. Ryan was not as confident on the downhill and took it pretty slow, here she is on the way down.

After Dripping Caves we rode the fire road back to the truck at her full speed. I don't think Ryan is going to settle for 11th again!

MtnBikeRiders.com Rad jersey has multiple uses!!!

5 oaks ride....crash report! I met Dan Burdett at Canyon Vistas today at 6:00pm. As I was leaving work a guy came in and wanted his brakes bleed so I got stuck there and was running late. I pulled up and he was there with ready to go. I grabbed my lid and Camelbak, pulled the bike out and jumped on. We rode to the top of 5 Oaks stopped and checked out Dan Burdett's new SC Butcher (sweet ride) and then started down. On the way up I realized I had forgot my gloves in the truck, I could have gone back and should have but much like Ricky Bobby I wanted to go fast. I have been riding 5 Oaks a lot lately and felt I had it pretty wired, but apparently I was wrong! I made it about half way down and came into a sharp right hand turn that is smooth and easy on the outside, but steep and rocky on the inside. I decided that I would take the inside, and I took it right into the ground. I don't know how I crashed all I know is that my back wheel ended up on the down hill side and I was laying on my right side looking up the trail. I got up started to dust myself off and noticed a dime sized hole in my hand that was pouring blood. I pulled my Camel Bak off and started trying to dig through it one handed to stop the bleeding.... I found nothing(time to invest in some first aid supplies). Off came the jersey and it got pressed up against the hole, after about three minute I was able to slow the bleeding, not stop it but slow it. I wrapped the jersey tight put my lid and Camel Bak on and rode the rest of the way down. From here Mr. Burdett rode with me out to my truck to make sure I was alright. I held it together pretty well until after he took off to get another run in. As I got in my truck I got dizzy, nauseated, and felt like I might pass out. I got out of the truck and sat on the curb for about ten minutes until the dizziness went away. I debated going to the hospital all the way home, but decided that the actual cut was not that bad and that it was just the reaction when I got in the truck that freaked me out, that and the amount of blood I saw leave my hand up on the hill. This is the front side of my jersey, all of the dark spots are blood.

The back side

My Camel Bak, I leaked on it and in it

And the actual cut, it doesn't look like that much blood could be produced by this small of a cut.

Thanks to Dan Burdett for sticking with me and despite this little incident the thing I am most upset about is that I could not finish the ride! It was going to be a fun ride.

Watch out boys, Ryan is ready for Over The Hump!!!

My 8 year old daughter Ryan has decided that she is ready for the Over The Hump Race series this season, at least the kids races anyway, so I told her that if she wanted to do it she had to prove it by doing what ever ride I put in front of her. There were two rules, #1 she had to ride without any complaining #2 she had to ride all of the downhills with no walking. She did both with flying colors. Here's the ride, it's not that tough for an adult but for an 8 year old it is brutal. We started with the Cowardly Men of Dirt at Ridge Park and took off on Bommer, saw krunner44 and said hi at the trail head. We were dropped almost immediately, but that was ok because I had both kids with me. Jake really wanted to ride the trails that the cowardly men took. Unfortunately their course was too hard for Ryan. We took Bommer to Emerald Ridge and rode out to the top of Old Emerald Trail. Then we dropped Old Emerald Trail. This isn't a very hard downhill, unless you are 8 and afraid of going downhill. Jake ate the trail up, loving every second of it. Ryan did it more timidly but she did it pretty well all the way to the bottom. From here we climbed back up to Bommer and took a break. While we were taking a break ajsura flew by at warp speed, from what I tell AJ has two speeds-fast and really fast. When she went by Ryan told me "She's fast, I'm going to be that fast." All I could say was "Yep." As we continued on Bommer towards Ridge Park ajsura past us on her way back and said, "you go sister!" to Ryan. This was great and I have to thank AJ because Ryan was really starting to struggle, but after her encouragement(made at light speed) Ryan put on the after burners and rode really hard for about ten minutes. A little farther along we ran into Dirtvert and the guys we started with and their new addition of Greengiant on their second lap, I stopped, conversed, said bye and then caught up with the kids for the last hill. It was a great ride, we got to meet some STR people that I have not meet before. Ryan got a chance to see some of the awesome women riders that are part of STR. Ryan is ready for her first race and her only goal is to beat the two boys in her class at school who also race at Over The Hump.

Good Things Are A Happenin'

This has started out to be a good month. I can say this for two reasons. Number one I won a drawing on the website www.thedirtywheel.com. The second reason is that Jake got hooked up with some parts for his bike. The third reason is that I picked up a second job at Two Wheels One Planet bike shop here in Costa Mesa. Reason Number One

This one was exciting to me because I never win drawings, raffles, or contests of luck. If winning involves skill such as sports I usually have a good chance of winning but I never win when it requires luck, until now! So what did I win? It was the grand prize in www.thedirtywheel.com's Sea Otter give away. The prize pack included a new 661 dirt lid autographed by several pro riders including Aaron Gwin, a $25 gift certificate to Jenson USA (got the Marzocchi jersey with it), two packs of Pro Energy wipes (not sure what these do but the wife will try one out and tell me if it works)and a sticker pack. Reason Number Two

Jake got hooked up!!! See me previous post for more information, but lets just say that when we get him a 10 speed cassette and chain he will be fast, really fast! Reason Number Three

For the last three years I have been limited to 32 hours a week at work on top of a 10% paycut. We have been working really hard to keep up with bills but when you make less and owe the same it is hard, this is why I have been looking for some part time work for a while. I really didn't want to just get a second job to have a second job, I wanted to get something that I would also enjoy. This happened this week. I am now working weekends at Two Wheels One Planet bike shop here in Costa Mesa. This is where I get most of my parts and when I can't figure out whats wrong with the bike I take it to them. I am working at the service counter and really hope to learn as much as I can about bikes. I love to ride and I love to wrench on my bike so this is perfect for me to make some extra money. This means it will be harder to ride but I will try to slip in my rides after work a couple days a week. See you on the trails!!!

Jake gets hooked up, big time!!!!

Sunday night we were at our local bike shop for a bike maintenance clinic and Jake was talking to the shops manager about some of the parts that are getting worn on his ride. The manager went in the back and brought out a Sram X-7 rear derailleur that had been used once, I was getting ready to say "Thanks, but we can't afford it right now." when he gave it to him then told Jake, " Come back Wednesday after school and I will have the rest for you." So today we rode down there and the local shops manager came out with a Sram GXP crankset with bottom bracket, Sram X-7 shifters, and a Sram X-7 front derailleur. All we need is to get a 10 speed cassette and chain, like I said Jake got hooked up and plans to put those ten gears to use this summer at the Over The Hump races and just ripping on our local trails!