Golden Gate and Jingle Cross - BSA in full force!

The weather has been setting the scene for some epic cyclocross, the Bike Station Aptos team has been out in full force representing in style on both sides of the country!

Devon flew East this past weekend for three days of cross at the UCI Jingle Cross Race in Iowa taking an impressive 3rd place on day two, with some of the best the Nation has to offer. Her former teammate Amanda Miller (Hudz Subaru) took 1st on day two and three - Way to go Amanda!

Good luck to Devon as she takes them all on again this weekend In Portland!

Malia, Johnny, and Courtney held the fort down locally at the renown Golden Gate Park race put on by Pilercitos Cyclesports. Tom Simpson and his dedicated crew put on a great race, as always. Courtney battled it out for 6th overall in the womens A's against some stiff competition. Malia suffered a catastrophic blow to her rear wheel that made the race a tough go, Johnny and Ron hammered hard in their respective categories.

Next up for the local crew is the exciting Bay Area Super Prestige series finale out at Coyote Point this Sunday. Then, everyone is off to Bend for Nationals where the rubber meets the road...or should I say MUD!

Thanks for reading, enjoy the photos from local photographers including Joe Fabris, Ted Ketai, Ja Heidi, and Rod Amberlang.

How to pump your teammate up at a race

Epic Weather Means Epic Cross!

Mr. Winter and Ms. Storm have come through for us 'cross racers yet again! The past couple weeks have yielded some great weather for cyclocrosser's in Northern California and Nevada. Team Bike Station Aptos racers have been hard after it competing in numerous events come shine, rain and even blizzard snow conditions. With Nationals only two weeks off, some are experiencing mental fatigue, exhaustion, and hits of burn out - but they persevere. They wake up every day, put in their training time, and keep their nose on that grindstone with the hope and faith that it will pay off when D day arrives in Bend.

Big congrats to the shop's very own Abe Rotstine who placed third at Districts in Reno, NV; Johnny Mullane who took 8/43 in the open B's in Sacremento Cyclocross Series, and Devon Haskell who placed second in the BASP #4 Series. Below are some pics from some epic racing!

More UCI Adventures with DnC - Colorado and LA Cross Maddness!

It's hard to believe the 'cross season is half over, with a little more than a month and a half until Nationals in Bend, Oregon. We've been hard after it with some great racing and results abroad in Colorado and Los Angels. Devon has been rocking it out, consistently grabbing top ten, the whole shot, and spot on the podium. Her positive attitude, grit, and perseverance is remarkable. If you don't take my word for it, just check out her recent "Bloody Knees (mom, don't read!)" post on her blog.



The trip out to Colorado was an amazing experience despite a few sniffles from a cold and adjusting to the altitude - lining up shoulder to shoulder and riding with some of the best in the country and world was an honor and great opportunity.

Results from Day One
Results from Day Two

Dorothy Wong put on another great race in Southern California last weekend. If you haven't met her or don't know what she's doing for the sport of Cyclocross in So Cal - check her out on Facebook. She's cultivating quite the cross scene down there that (shouldn't say it but i'm gonna) is rivaling Nor Cal. =) A little competition is good..




We stayed with an amazing host family (the Wards) who adopted us as their daughters for the weekend. What a treat! I think Aaron and Spencer, their 8 and 6 year old boys liked us too. Despite the fact we were girls... Maybe it was our mad Nerf Gun war skills that finally impressed them!



Dorothy and her crew set up a killer, technical cross course in Griffith Park. One of the coolest parts about the race (there were many) was you could see the Hollywood sign from the Griffith Park Observatory. What a great warm up/cool down loop that was!



First day proved to be successful for both Devon and I. Devon took 3rd place overall, and I squeaked in to the 9th spot after overcoming a mechanical with my bike. The second day I was a little more determined to move up the ladder, and tried to bring my pain threshold up a bit. The mantra - ride as hard as I can, for as long as I can. It worked - got 7th overall and more UCI points! Devon snagged the 4th spot on the podium, battling it out with household cross names including Sue Butler and teammate Kathy Sherwin (Hudz Subaru).







Next up on the schedule - Night race at Coyote Point this Saturday and hyper local Surf City race at the Fairgrounds. Come out with a cowbell or better yet, jump in the race!

CD

Central Coast and Pilercitos Crossin'

First Off, I think Keith and Rod have earned a big shout out for being two huge cross promoters in our area. They've have and continue to do a great job running the well organized Central Coast Cyclocross series and new this year, blog. If you haven't checked out their blog - do it, there's a ton of great pics from local races across the Bay Area.

Here are some pictures from a few of our own at the past few Bay Area weekend races. Malia, Ron, Kurt, and Johnny have been representing in BSA black, red and white!







Overall CCCX race standings can be viewed here.
Overall Pilercitos standings can be viewed here.

Keep up the good work you guys!

Lion of Fairfax and BASP #1 Results and Pictures - Yeeeehaaawwww!

Another successful weekend is behind us, and yet again Bike Station Aptos is on top! Devon Haskell took the treacherous Bay Area Super Prestige course head on, sprinting her heart out for the finish against fellow competitor Karry Barnholdt (Scott Ritchey) after a flat tire and crash, Devon grabbed win and coveted leaders jersey for the series. Way to go!



Other notables at the race were Malia Byers who captured 3rd in the Womens C race, Courtney Dimpel who snagged 16th in the elite woman's field, Johnny Mullane and Codey Tapley who battled it out in open B's, and Ronald Riley who fought long and hard, in the masters 55+ category.















A few of the hard core BSA'ers raced the day before at the one day Lion of Fairfax cyclocross event. They produced some stellar results there as well with both Devon and Courtney a top the podium with a 2nd and 3rd finish respectively.



They'll all be at it again next weekend at CCCX #5 at Manzanita Park. Check out the web site here

BSA Cross Update

With the cross season in full swing an update is an order as there's been some great racing thus far.

First Off - Star Crossed

Devon Haskell rocked the elite field placing 6th at Starcrossed in September against some of the best in the world, including Katerina Nash who races for the Luna Womens team.



Cross Vegas

Courtney Dimpel represented the team under the bright lights at Cross Vegas this year in the Elite Womens category taking 25/42. "I had a blast out there with the best of the best. It was my first UCI race, and I was just stoked to be lined up next to the best of the best. I was really tempted to ask Meredith Miller for her autograph, but didn't want to throw her off her game before the race...next time perhaps" said Courtney.



Central Coast Cyclocross

Locally we have several standouts rocking the Central Coast races including Malia Byers who has stepped on the podium at all three CCCX races. Other stand out BSA teammates include Ron Riley, Vincent Brown and Joey DeSante. Overall results for the series can be found here



Krosstoberfest

Most recently the Bike Station women were spotted in San Dimas at the annual Krosstober Fest. It was two days of So Cal cross that brought tears of joy for some and tears of pain for most. The event was held in Brunelli park, and brought a ton of spectators and racers out.



Devon and Courtney took 2nd and 7th place respectively in the Elite Womens race, and took home some UCI points. Among the Womens elite starters were NorCal household names Barb Howe (IBIS), Sara Maile (Ventana Mountain Bikes), and Sara Jordan (Rock Lobster).





Full results from the weekend can be viewed here.

Next on the schedule is CCCX, Lion of Fairfax and the first in the Bay Area Super Prestige series. Then its off to Colorado for some Boulder Cup action. Fun times ahead!

the dark before the dawn

It was dark at 5:30 am. Super dark. Like wearing a blindfold dark. I set out from the house with what I thought was a fully charged battery for my head lamp, but alas it was not the case. A short distance up the fire road, the little patch of light in front of my wheel became dimmer and dimmer. It's a strange thing to navigate with sight only a few feet ahead. . . .none to the sides or behind. A perfect exercise in being in the present moment.

Thankfully, Courtney had another head light -- which she had to hold in her hand, since the clamp was too small to fit her handlebars. The moving target of light jumped around, and we joked about "The Blair Witch Project." We hit the incline, and it was still too dark to see anything. After years of riding the fire road in Nisene, many of the lumps and bumps are familiar enough to not have to see them.

The sky began to lighten ever so slightly. This still didn't cast any light onto the trail, but it was heartening to know that yes, the sun does always come up each day, and soon all would be clear. Keeping up momentum on the climb was difficult, as I couldn't pick the best line or see far enough ahead. We pressed on.

And then, almost without knowing when we passed from blindness to sight, we were nearly to Sand Point. It was a foggy morning, which was part of the reason for the darkness for so long below. The Sand Point view was glorious, as the peachy orange rays of the sun began to illuminate the top of the sea of fog below. Not much time to relax and enjoy it, though, as the prospect loomed of making it home in time to shower and get to work on time.

Charge your light well and hit that trail at 5:30 am sometime soon. What a way to start the day!

Abe Rotstein Cracking the 3's at Winters

Race Report: Vacaville Grand Prix 8/29

Race Report - Vacaville Grand Prix

Dates: 8/29
Events: Vacaville Grand Prix
Category: W3/4
Result: 2nd

After a really nice afternoon and evening at Anne-Marie and Joanne's friends house in Napa, I woke up again at 5:45 am to race my bike. I let the alarm go for a solid 15 minutes, and then drug my self out of bed to make the coffee and oatmeal for the rest of the team. It's nice to have some quite time in the morning. I packed my bag, packed some food and we were all out the door to the next race, Vacaville by 7. We arrived, threw the trainers up, registered and I walked the course watching the beginning groups run through all the twists and turns. I went back to the car and began to warm up nice and slow. Boy did I feel the lactic acid from the day before! I spun super easy for a good 20 minutes, did some quick efforts and then returned to my easy spinning. This crit was my kind of race - really technical weaving in and out of the small, old fashion town of Vacaville. Which, I might add is very cool!



I made it to the start line on time (always feels like a rush), and went to the front so I didn't get stuck in the back. Maybe i'm a nervous ninny but i like to stay on the front in crits. I feel like it puts me in position to go if there's an attack and I also feel like I stay out of trouble that way. So, round and round we went - 14 times! The course had a big long hill in the middle with a fast shorter decent and a hard hard right - so that's where all the action happened...14 times! My only saving grace was Anne-Marie jumping up and down waving her arms yelling - go, go, go! What could be more motivating than that!? Every time we came around someone would attack, and we'd have to bridge up. It made for a really fun race and by the end the group of 35 or so had dwindled down to about 15 of which 5 of us sprinted out at the end. Again, it was Michelle and I battling it out for 1/2 at the end. I knew if i was going to have a chance at winning - she was the wheel to follow. So, i made sure I stayed right behind her, ready to attack when she launched. Sure enough she went for it. I ended up second again, but learned a few things i'm not going to give away in a race report. ;) Fun times again! Thanks for reading.





C

Race Report: Winters RR 8/28

Race Report - Winters RR

Dates: 8/28
Events: Winters RR
Category: W3
Result: 2nd

Summary:

The week leading up to Winters and Vacaville can be summed up with one little word - fatigue. It felt like my entire road season had come to a head last week, especially after throwing down some effort at University RR (yeah, i didn't write a race report for that one, but to sum it up we road in circles and climbed a really really big hill 13 times - end result 3rd.) I pretty much spent Monday and Tuesday in a tired haze, and did my best to make it though the day helping people at the shop and getting through computer work. Wednesday I decided to take completely off of everything, and Thursday night I kept it super light on the shop ride (which i haven't seen most of you on!) which was nice. Friday was a coffee ride to Verve lounge, and cruise down East Cliff. Basically, i road a total of 4.5 hours during the week and to be honest - it was exactly what my body needed.

Anne-Marie, Joanne and I left early (4:30 am) for Winters which is between Sacramento and Davis. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which has its perks. 1. There aren't many people on the road, and two....well I can't really think of a second...it's pretty desolate...

I slept almost the entire way, and woke up wondering where they heck we were! I slowly rolled myself up, ate some oatmeal and began to re-start my morning this time with the race on my mind. We parked the car, registered, and went through the ritual number pinning, wheel swap, trainer warm up, leg rub down, suit em up, bathroom stop, rock and roll ritual and headed to the start line - mind you this was my first race as a 3. I didn't really know what to expect, and didn't put a whole lot of pressure on myself since I achieved my primary goal this year - upgrading to Cat3 on the road. I told Anne-Marie that these next few races are just icing on the cake - the good stuff that you just enjoy. But, that didn't stop me from getting all fidgety on the start line. These girls looked way bad ass! They were bigger, stronger, had cooler sunglasses, and matching kits... I was a little intimidated..just for a second or two. We rolled out of town, and the race was on!

The course was freakin' sweet. Nice pavement, super good rollers and a solid climb half way through the course. We did two laps so almost 50 miles of racing. Right out of the gate there was an attack. We let her go solo for awhile, and then brought her back in. As soon as that happened another attack was launched, and another, and another - I was like WTF?!?!?! I helped bridge some/most and quickly decided I was doing way to much work and tried to find a wheel to suck for awhile. Let someone else chase these ladies down. We got to the climbs, and that's where the hurt began. Slow, steady and then BAM attack. I was able to stay with the leader, and we made a dash on the longish/technical decent. We formed a gap from the group, and all tried to assemble to keep and grow the gap with no success. The main group sucked us back. But, we all secretly kept our strengths and what we learned from that climb in mind - cause we got to do it again.

The second time around was similar, except we hit that climb and decent even harder - i dug deep! And guess what - we stayed away the rest of the race. It came down to a group of 7 gals, and Me and a Dulce Vita girl (Michelle) sprinted it out to the finish. I got second by a few wheel lengths. It was awesome, and a great learning experience.

Bike Station Aptos Takes 2nd and 3rd at University RR - August 22

For full results - click here