On  the weekend of May 14, 2011, 19 of our 21 riders made the long trek down to Los Olivos to square off against our NorCal and SoCal rivals in the California State Championships. We’d earned a berth in the championships by placing 4th overall for division 1 in the NorCal league.

We arrived at the venue on Saturday afternoon. The parking, pit and staging areas were situated in a large, flat valley, with Firestone vineyards to the west and a series of low, rolling hills to the east. The race course was laid out in these hills. The start twisted through the pit area before heading off north on a long straightaway, through a creek bed with water running in it, then climbed gradually till it veered east into the hills. There were a couple of short steep climbs that forced a number of riders off their bikes, but other than that it was pretty straightforward. The single track course worked its way up the northern hill to the eastern perimeter road, before snaking its way back down again. From there it headed east on a fire road climb, which gave way to a single track climb, then wound down once again to the valley floor, finishing with a very long flat run back to the pit area, with another dip through the creek bed, then on past the finish line.

The course was generally disliked by all, with the exception of Jonny and Emily Laskin. The kids thought it was boring, and the almost constant hard washboard surface was teeth-jarring and unpleasant. Plus, other than the two climbs in the middle of the course, there were no places to pass. By race day, though, it had improved somewhat. Some light rain came through early in the morning, softening and flattening out the trail.

Our first racer of the day was Bella, in a JV field of 25 riders. She got a seeded start, and rounded the first corner in the front third of the pack, heading off towards the creek bed and out of view. When we next saw her she was fording the creek once again to complete lap one, in 7th place but just a short distance behind the 5th and 6th place riders. When she came around again for the finish, she’d moved up to 5th, finishing just 8 seconds behind 4th and 15 seconds out of 3rd, earning another trip to the podium.

For the sophomore girls, our five riders didn’t have particularly great starts. They came through in the middle to rear of the pack, which meant that their work was cut out for them, with the limited opportunities for passing and the potential for pile-ups on the first set of climbs. But when they came through after lap one, Emily Lane had somehow worked her way up to 4th, followed by Annie in 5th, then we saw Clare in 11th, Emily Laskin in 16th, and Linnea in 18th. And on the second lap, nearly everyone moved up, with Annie finishing 3rd, Emily Lane in 5th, Clare and Emily Laskin in 12th and 13th, and Linnea in 17th.

For the freshman girls, Nicole had a pretty good start, but she had a bit more competition with the SoCal leader thrown into the mix, and her TL rival decided to sprint the start, getting way out in front early. Thalia and Lauren came through in the middle of the pack, and they all headed out into the distance. After lap one, they came back through with Nicole in 5th, just a short distance behind 4th, then Lauren was 12th and Thalia 14th. But they kept at it on lap two, with Nicole passing a Nevada Union rider to take 4th, and Lauren and Thalia moving up into 11th and 12th.

The next wave began with our sophomore boys. Max had a seeded start and had a decent position going into the straightaway in front of the field of 48 riders. Ross, Jake and Michael were though next, in the middle of the pack, off on their first of three laps. After lap one, Max was in 17th, Ross in 21st, Jake in 35th and Michael in 43rd. Somewhere on lap two Ross developed trouble with his rear derailleur. Max finished lap two in 11th, having moved up an impressive 6 spots, Jake moved up to 32nd, Michael was pulled for time at 42nd, and Ross limped on his gearless bike, done for the day. Max finished the race in 9th, having passed a Tam and Redwood rider to get there, and Jake moved up four positions to finish 28th.

For freshman boys, Seth got a seeded start and was up near the front of the pack heading into the straightaway, somewhere in the front 15 out of 60 riders. Evan, Linot and Walker came through near the middle, but shortly after passing through, a San Ramon rider slid out beside Walker, causing him to go down. He was not hurt, and dusted himself off and got back on the bike, but by that point he was dead last. Seth came through to finish lap one in 9th, with San Ramon’s Shane Trento right on his tail. Evan and Linot were 32nd and 38th, Walker had done some passing and moved himself up nine spots to 51st. Out on lap two, Seth was overtaken by Shane, but managed to pass two strong riders from Drake and Salinas to finish 8th. Evan and Linot each moved up a spot to 31st and 37th, and Walker had yet another fall that pushed him back to 52nd.

For JV boys, Jonny was once again taking on Drake’s Lucas Newcomb and Tam’s Skyler Taylor, along with the SoCal leader Joel Turner. His story follows this entry, below, and I don’t want to give away the ending. Our other JV rider, Stacey, got out in the middle of the pack of 48, got through lap one in 30th, riding just in front of a pair of Berkeley High riders. He was still with them on lap two, though they’d moved slightly ahead, and he rounded out lap 3 to finish 32nd. And that was the end of our race day.

We got five riders on the podium, and, using SoCal rules, our top seven riders scored. Those were, in descending order of points scored, Jonny, Bella, Annie, Nicole, Emily Lane, Seth and Max. They combined for a total of 3266 points, enough to earn us 3rd place, putting the team on the podium for the first time this season, at the State Championship when it really counted. Way to go, everyone! It was a great team effort, we had a lot of depth back there in the ranks, and our awesome team spirit and camaraderie really propelled the Bike Dawgs up to the front.

Congratulations on your 3rd place finish, on all your personal achievements both in this race and all the previous races, and on a really fun and rewarding season.  I look forward to riding with you all next season!

Coach Jon

We pulled into the Boggs campground at noon on Saturday under tall pines and beautiful sunny skies to find our epic campsite nestled in a far corner of the camping area, right alongside the starting fire road of the race course. David Horton, Dave Curtis and Armando Quintero had all arrived on Friday to scout out the premium spot, and had set up all the team tents as well.

We set up our tents and unpacked our bikes and were out on the course within an hour. It was a smooth course, narrow in spots, a lot like B17 trail in Tamarancho with a little bit of JT Howell thrown in and even some China Camp similarities. Nothing too technical, although you had to maintain a focused line to get the best path through what few rocks there were. Also, all the climbing was bunched up in the middle, starting with an extended fire road climb that we could tell would be a real challenge the next day when the temperature was slated to be 10º hotter. This gave way to single track climbing, with a few false peaks to get your hopes up, finally giving way to a mostly single track downhill to the finish, with very few opportunities for passing along the way. There were a few sharp turns in the mix, where a fire road descent led into a blind hole shot, usually with a sudden uphill. Also, one twisty S-turn near the end that caused a few problems. Everyone I talked to had a great pre-ride and for the most part enjoyed the course.

I’m of course a bit biased, but I must say we had the best camp of all. No motor homes for one thing, with all their noise and smelly exhaust. We had an awesome dinner from Scoma’s, with penne and meat sauce or pesto, salad, tons of fresh French bread, and some delicious spicy prawns thrown in to top it off. There were even kids from other teams lined up in our food line. In retrospect, maybe the s’mores were a mistake for the racers, especially the 4th or 5th one…

Before dinner though, we had an amazing show of dedication to bike maintenance when nearly every kid was out there at the bike stands, cleaning, lubing and checking over each others’ bikes, and dialing in the perfect tire pressure. It’s no coincidence that on race day we had almost no mechanical issues.

Race day dawned sunny and warm, and our breakfast crew turned out a batch of breakfast burritos which are some sort of Bogg’s tradition. Although maybe not a great one for the riders, as it was probably a big deviation from everyone’s traditional race day fare, and as things turned out, some of them were left out on the trail.

This was our first race since the prologue where every one of our riders was present. And at 9:45 all our girls headed out to staging. Because of missed races, a lot of the girls did not have high enough overall rankings to be seeded, so start positions were not great. I watched the girls’ start from the trail above our camp, and when they flew by us at the ¼ mile mark, Bella was well back in the pack of JV girls, maybe 12th, and our sophomore girls had a bad start, with Clare the front runner somewhere around 10th and everyone else bringing up the rear. The one exception was the freshmen girls start, in which Nicole, who’d been fretting about that long fire road start all morning (and the night before?) got out of the saddle and hammered past every single rider, surging in front of the formidable Amanda Winne just as she passed our cheering section. I’m told she held onto that lead for half a lap, all the way to the first fire road climb.

While the girls were out navigating the wilderness, we got the sophomore and freshmen boys ready to roll, then hiked up to the trail head once more to check up on the girls. Bella was through first, in a pack of three JV girls, battling it out for 6th place. Next through was Annie, who had managed to work her way up to 2nd place, and was 30 seconds behind the 1st place rider from El Cerrito. Then we had Emily Lane, riding sick and pumped full of Theraflu, solidly in 5th place with Clare just three seconds back in 6th. Emily Laskin came through a bit later in 11th, chasing down a group of three Drake girls. At about the same time, Nicole came by, the 2nd place freshman girl, well ahead of the 3rd place rider. Thalia was next in 7th place, trying to close a 30 second gap between her and the Woodcreek rider in front of her. Then came Lauren, in 11th with another Woodcreek rider on her tail. Linnea never appeared – we soon found out she had pulled herself out of the race with knee pain.

We got the Wave 2 boys out to staging and headed over to watch the girls’ finish. Most of the lap one results held for the final lap, with Bella coming in 7th. She did cop to taking a wrong turn out on the course, which slowed her down a bit but not enough to lose a position. The first place sophomore girl came through, and we waited for Annie to appear, which she did, about a minute later, with a scraped up and bleeding right leg. She’d hit a tree, I believe in the tight S-turn on the final single track descent. Then Emily Lane came through alone in 5th place. Our next finisher was Nicole, taking 2nd in freshmen for the very first time, with a huge lead of over two minutes over her nemesis from TL. Clare followed a minute or so later, the 6th place sophomore. Emily Laskin came through in 12th place for sophomores, then we had our final two freshmen – Thalia, who’d passed that Woodcreek rider to take 6th, edging her out by 10 seconds, and Lauren, in 12th place.

The sophomore boys roared passed camp at 11:41, with Max leading our guys but pretty far back in the large pack. Frosh boys were next with Seth up in the front ten, having benefited from a seeded start, with Walker, Evan and Linot powering by in the middle of the pack. The always-grinning Rew pedaled by later, back there with the sweep – but not for long.

While the JV boys were getting themselves ready to go, we headed up to the trail once again to see how our Soph/Frosh boys were doing. The lead pack of Soph boys went past on lap one of three, and it was awhile before we saw our first rider, Max, in 13th place but looking strong and accelerating by to grab 11th place right there in front of us. Ross came by next in 18th, followed by Michael in 25th. We didn’t see Jake, but soon discovered he’d had a bad asthma attack on the fire road uphill and was on oxygen up in the EMT tent.

Seth was the first freshman to go by, in 8th place, 10 seconds behind a Salinas rider and just 4 seconds in front of a Redwood rider.  Next we had Walker, officially in 21st but battling it out with a Branson and a San Ramon rider for 19th place. Evan and Linot were next, riding together in 28th and 29th, and Rew had moved up a couple of spots into 45th (of 47).

We headed over to the finish line to watch the sophomores complete lap two and the freshmen finish. Always one to put on a good show, Max managed to pass from 10th into 9th place right in front of us, smiling and giving the “hang loose” sign to all his admirers. Ross came by in 19th, and Michael had fallen much farther back with some mechanical trouble.

The freshman finishers started to come in, and Seth had held onto 8th, still bracketed by the same riders. Apparently all three had been held up on the trail by some D2 sophomores who would not let them pass on the single track, allowing the 4th though 6th place riders to open up a big gap. Walker, it turned out, had won his battle for 19th and slid up another spot to take 18th. Linot and Evan had managed to stay together, in 28th and 29th but now with Linot slightly out in front. Rew also moved up a couple of spots to finish 43rd.

For the sophomore finish, Max once again gave us a show by taking 8th place in a photo finish. Ross held on to 19th and Michael had to drop out with mechanical trouble.

By the time the JV boys took off it had topped 70º, and the dust was everywhere. Jonny sped by at the head of the pack, and held onto that lead all the way through lap one, flying by in a pack of three with Lucas Newcomb and a new kid from Tam in tow (Jonny’s full race report will follow). Stacey was in the middle of a pack of about 13 riders battling for 22nd while trying to not get pushed back to 35th, and Danny followed in 41st.

When they came by again after lap two, things had opened up a bit, with Jonny in 3rd, just 20 seconds out of 2nd but a long way in front of 4th. Stacey had stayed in the middle front of that group and was alone in 27th, and Danny was still in 41st.

On the 3rd and final lap, the field had opened up even more, with Jonny an easy 3rd, Stacey in 29th, and Danny edging out a challenger at the very end to take 40th.

In the end we got Jonny, Annie, Emily Lane and Nicole up on the podium. We also had a little surprise with the overall awards, where those four plus Thalia (5th overall) and Seth (9th overall) got awards. Our league volunteers got awards as well, for volunteering at four or more races. It was nice for them to get some recognition, and I’m pretty sure our team had the most people out there. Also, it was great to see all the “I Ride for Vanessa Hauswald” stickers on our team bikes.

Our team score was 3706 (scorers listed below), enough to get us 4th place and to push us up into 4th place overall, which is very respectable given that 19 of our 21 kids are freshmen and sophomores, so while there were, as always, a few disappointments, overall the team had a really good day, and certainly everyone on the team put in a monumental effort.

Dawgs scorers, Boggs Mountain Classic, May 1, 2011

Rider: Seth Francis
Freshman Boys D1 (51)
Result: 7th

At staging, Evan, Linot, Walker and I lined up early to get good starting positions. When call-ups started I was 10th overall, but the lanes were 4 wide, so I ended up being the only seeded rider in the 3rd row. When the rest of the field moved up I was happy to see I was still next to Evan and Linot, and Walker wasn’t far behind.

At the start, the top 8 separated immediately from the rest of the pack, and I sprinted madly to close the gap, and worked my way up to 6th by the top of the first climb. A couple of Drake riders passed me on the first downhill, but I passed one of them on the next uphill and then passed another rider later on to re-gain 6th. I slid out on the sandy turn right before the last uphill and lost control and jammed my knee into the stem, which kind of hurt. I was also surprised by how difficult the last steep uphill was at race pace.

By the start of the 2nd lap, I’d lost sight of the 5th place rider, and Shane Trento, a San Ramon rider, was matching my pace, riding close behind. Shane and I had opened a gap between us and whoever was in 8th, which we were able to maintain throughout the rest of the race. For the whole 2nd lap, I kept trying to open a gap in front of Shane, but wasn’t able to keep one, between all the D2 Sophomore boys I’d have to slow down to pass and Shane’s determination to stay with me. At the top of the last steep climb, the coach yelled out that I was in 6th, and just 20 seconds back from 5th, and I realized I’d had the 5th place rider in view for that whole last climb.

I kept him in sight for the start of lap 3, but he lost me on the first downhill and that was the last I saw him. While I was chasing 5th, I managed to build a gap in front of Shane, but he caught back up to me on the cliff-hugging washboard section later on. We stayed close until the top of the climb past the mandatory dismount, at which point he made his move and his tire kicked a stick up into my rear derailleur at the same time, which was a double slap in the face. I was conflicted whether to stop and take it out or keep going and not be able to shift, but I kept going and eventually got it out by trying to shift over and over. At that point I was on the downhill, but Shane was slowly opening up more of a gap as he’s a bigger kid and I just couldn’t descend as fast as him. I chased him up the following hills, gaining on him slowly, but didn’t have enough left in me to close the gap. On the final uphill, Shane got through in time to take the clean line but by the time I got there a couple of other slower riders were in the way so I had to take the bumpy left side, which slowed me down and tired me out even more. At the top, I tried to close the gap before the final descent and got closer but he had too much of a lead, and in the end I came in 7th, 14 seconds behind Shane and 31 seconds behind 5th. Even though I lost the battle with Shane, I felt that I’d done all I could and was happy with the 7th place finish.

Race 3 Report

We all showed up on Saturday for the pre-ride, expecting a soggy course, and were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty dry despite three weeks of steady rain. It was a short course – 4 ½ miles by Brooks’ odometer – and was pretty easy as well. Not technical at all, and just one sustained climb. Nothing our talented and seasoned riders couldn’t handle.

Race day started early for the setup crew, offloading David’s truck at 7:00 a.m. onto the damp, empty field. When we were done we had pretty much the swankiest pit I’ve seen yet. David brought in a new tent, so it was almost as if you were going indoors when you entered the pit. We even had a new changing area with shelves for the team bags, which opened up a lot of space.

We’d gathered all the girls bikes before setting out, so Brooks and his helpers went quickly to work to get them all tuned and race-ready by the time the Lady Dawgs showed up to hop on the trainers.

Wave 1: Girls

The racing began with the JV Girls category, a new category for us  as Bella moved up just the week before this race. It’s a very competitive category, and Bella was up for the challenge, despite being the lone Bike Dawg in the line up, stoically awaiting the countdown. At 10:05 she was off, through the first two corners and disappeared over the first hill, about mid-way in the pack.

Sophomore Girls followed at 10:10, with Annie Brow leading the charge, facing down her Salinas challenger on that team’s home turf.  Emily Lane, Emily Laskin, Clare and Linnea (on her first race back from a knee injury) rounded out our field.

Next came the Freshman Girls, with Nicole enjoying another seeded start, and Lauren and Thalia lined up close behind. At 10:15 we counted them down from 10, they cruised off through the first two turns of the neutral start, then gunned it up the hill and out of view.

Steve got the Soph and Frosh boys onto their trainers and I set off for the finish line to watch the lap placements. First to appear was Bella, in 8th place on her first of three laps, not far behind the pack of 3rd – 7th place riders, which was great considering her new category and that she’d been floating around the Sea of Cortez drinking non-alcoholic margaritas for two weeks.

Then we saw Annie, on the first of two laps for the sophomores, a mere 6 seconds behind the first place girl from Salinas, but looking very confident and determined. Emily Lane was not far back, holding off a Drake rider about 30 seconds behind. Next came Clare in 8th, Emily Laskin in 11th, and Linnea in 15th.

Nicole was our first freshman girl to go by on lap one, in 3rd place but just 34 seconds behind 2nd place, the closest she’s gotten to date. Lauren came by in 7th and Thalia in 10th.

The JV Girls came by after lap two with Bella holding onto 8th place. Then Annie and her Salinas challenger rounded the final corner, neck and neck, but Annie out-sprinted her opponent and won by a bike length. Emily Lane took 4th, having increased her lead by 45 seconds. Clare moved up a spot, coming in 7th, Emily Laskin moved up 3 spots to come in 8th, and Linnea moved up a spot to 14th in spite of that pesky knee giving her some trouble. The freshman girls finished next, with Nicole managing to hold onto a solid 3rd despite her chain coming off on the final lap, Lauren taking 8th, and Thalia fighting her way back up to 9th. Next Bella came in, having had to do an extra lap in the JV category, still a solid 8th place.

Wave 2: Sophomore and Freshman Boys

We’d had a number of our team parents down monitoring the starts, led by Jeannette, and they did a great job maintaining order with the 200 boys lined up for Wave 2. At 10:40 the Sophomore Boys took off, and the Freshman Boys followed at 10:50.

For the Sophomores, who had to do three laps, we saw Max pass by after lap one in 9th place, Ross in 15th, Jake in 25th and Michael in 31st.  After two, Max had dropped to 13th, Ross to 17th, Jake to 26th and Michael to 35th. And after the third and final lap, Max had held onto 13th, Ross took 19th, Jake 27th and Michael 35th.

The Freshman Boys did two laps. Seth was first to pass by on lap 1, 8th place in a pack of about 8 boys, then we saw Walker and Linot in 19th and 20th, Evan in 40th trying to ride out the pain of an early chain ring-to-the-thigh crash, and a smiling Rew in 53rd but easily holding off four other challengers. When they came around for the finish, Seth was in 9th, Walker in 21st, Linot in 25th, Evan moved up two spots to 38th and Rew moved up 2 spots to 51st.

Wave 3: Varsity and JV Boys

Our JV Boys were led by Jonny, once again going up against Drake’s golden boy, Lucas Newcomb. Stacey and Danny were lined up right behind him, all ready to take on this biggest of fields with 57 riders. At 1:10 they were off, cranking up the hill on their first of 4 laps.

After lap one Jonny was right with Lucas, and a pack of 6 other riders just 3 seconds in back of them. Then we saw Stacey in 22nd, and Danny in 39th. After lap two Jonny was still right there with Lucas, but they’d dropped the pack by more than 30 seconds. Stacey was holding on to 2nd, but Danny never came by, having had his tire slashed by another rider’s chain ring in a fall.

After three, Jonny had dropped a bit behind Lucas, but was an incredible 90 seconds in front of 3rd place. Stacey’s 3rd lap was marred by a bee flying into his helmet and stinging him on his head. Several racers managed to pass him as he went about removing said bee from helmet, and he dropped to 29th.  The race ended with Jonny in 2nd, 1:36 in front of 3rd place, and with Stacey clawing his way up to 28th.

When it was all over and done with we put four riders on the podium: Jonny, 2nd Place D1 JV Boys, Annie 1st and Emily Lane 4th Place Sophomore Girls, and Nicole 3rd Place Freshman Girls.

We had hoped to take 3rd place for Team, but were edged out by San Ramon Valley by a mere 8 points (3642 to 3634, a 0.2% difference) and got 4th.  Our team scorers were as follows: