End of the Line

Yesterday was our last club ride of the year. We have our final race on Sunday, an end of the year party next week, and then we're done. Our last ride was a fantastic ride! We had 10 riders out, beautiful weather, rode some new trails, and celebrated Steven's birthday afterwards with Pizza, cupcakes, and Gatorade!

We're Famous!

Well...almost famous. Our mountain bike team received some cool press in the June issue of Mountain Bike Action! The article is a glowing review of the first SoCal League race held in Vail Lake.

Tim and Garret on the starting line of the JV race

Here are the Frosh/Soph riders getting ready. If you look closely you can see Joseph, Lance, Steven, Andrew, Matt, Eddy, Cameron, and Russell.

Race 3 - Lake Arrowhead

Sunday, April 5th found us in Lake Arrowhead for round 3 of our 4 race series. Nine riders made it up the hill for this fantastic race venue.

Upon arrival we were greeted with very cool temperatures, but things warmed up nicely by 10:00am for our race. As has become common practice, the parents had our pit area setup quickly and brought lots of food...fantastic food!

By 9:00am the team headed out for a pre-ride of the course. The altitude affected a couple of us on our pre-ride, but the fast, rolling course was a blast to ride! Thanks to the team from Rim of the World High School and the SoCal League for working so hard to get the course setup for us.

Race time started and our first rider off was Tim in the JV category. Tim's been playing a lot of volleyball but still gets out to join the team and have fun racing his mountain bike. In the Frosh/Soph group, we had great results with Eddy getting a 5th place and our second podium of the year. Also in the top 10 of the Frosh/Soph race were Russell, Matt, and Lance...all finishing within 15 seconds of each other. Also putting in a strong race were Steve, Cameron, Joseph, and Steven.

The day ended with the team palling around with riders from other teams and the awards ceremony, where we were able to cheer on Eddy.

Great job guys! Next race, May 3rd in Los Olivos!

Getting the bikes ready for the race.

Coach Donovan and Coach Bird

Waiting for the call up.

Tim looking strong up one of the tough climbs.

Matt (L) and Lance (R) spent most of the day battling it out for position.

Russell showing good form in one of the tough technical sections.

Eddy still had enough energy to cheer on Lance at the finish.

Talking post-race with the guys from Orange County.

Eddy Kronfli - 5th Place

A nice cold, rainy day for a bike race - Warner Springs

That title sounds funny, doesn't it? Sorry for the delay in getting this blog updated. Our second race was on March 22nd at Warner Springs. Warner Springs is a nice little resort about 40 minutes inland from Temecula. Many of the riders and their families stayed at the resort the night before the race and enjoyed the natural hot-spring pools. Nothing like sitting in a 104 degree pool for a few minutes to relax you! There had been the threat of cold, rainy weather, but we were hoping that we would miss the storm. Unfortunately, the rain started at about 10:00am as the girls race got underway. Soon we learned that the boys race would be shortened, much to the delight of our riders.

The guys all toughed it out and we eneded up having a lot of fun. Even the parents made the most of standing in the rain. What else could we do? In the race, Eddy just missed the podium with a 6th place. Russell suffered through a head-cold, and Joseph had a fall into a cactus. The best part of the day was that for the second race in a row, all 12 of our riders finished. Nice job!

On the way home, a few of us stopped at the nearby St. Francis church. We thought that was only appropriate. Turns out that the church was built in 1830. That's old! It was a beautiful church and a nice end to a great day. Two races down, two to go.