SCNCA Road Race Championships

The Golden Empire Classic and SCNCA Road Race Championships are coming up on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 & 7th in Bakersfield, California. I would like to race in both.

Silly me. My last post discussed racing up North in San Jose on May 25th and that this would be my first race back after my accident. Well, I forgot that is the birthday weekend of my youngest child Jade. She'll be turning 8, and though I'm a fanatic when it comes to bicycles, I certainly know what's more important between the two events. So scratch San Jose to Livermore and bring on Bakersfield.

Saturday, June 6th is the Masters' Championships. At the time of this writing, the Kern Wheelmen site has not put up a profile or race map. I did find a race description on their site and created a MapMyRide map, which can be checked out below. Their site does promise a video of the complete course to arrive on May 1st - so I'll look for that. The course is 31 miles and I plan to enter the Men 50+ group that goes off at 7:30am. We only do 1 lap but the course looks challenging, with one good hill and a few rollers tossed in.

On Sunday, June 7th, we have the Elite Championships on the same course. I would like to enter the Men 45+ 3/4/5 group going off at 7:15am. Again it's only 1 lap of 31 miles. Now I've got to talk my family into staying in Bakersfield for a couple of days. No disrespect intended toward the City of Bakersfield, but that might be my hardest sale for the weekend.

Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Cycling Classic

Here I sit in room 214 at Littlerock High School waiting, more patiently than my students, for the bell to ring at 12:13. It's only 11:13 and my kids finished their State mandated STAR testing over an hour ago - just another hour of baby sitting on my side, and another hour (might as well be 100 hours)of socializing on their side. I thought I would put the time to good use (at least use)and post on the next upcoming race on my schedule. I'm still on the fence for this race but I really need to get back in the saddle and put a race behind me after my accident. My wife has to leave race day for Calistoga so my attendance in the race is "up in the air."

The race is for Sunday, May 3rd, and is in honor of Mark Reynolds. Mark was killed by a mountain lion while mountain biking in SoCal.

The race is an 11.6 mile loop (my MapMyRide says around 11.3)with a fair amount of climbing to separate out the riders. I believe I will compete with the Masters 45+ to take advantage of the more experienced racers - didn't help me at Murrieta but let's hope my accident was a fluke.

Here's my MapMyRide with profile:

Napa Valley - Bicycling Paradise

I'm pretty recovered from my bike race injuries but continued headaches made me drop my April lineup of races - the headaches are now over and I'm looking forward to May. Something new has popped up though. My wife is the new school superintendent of the Calistoga Joint Union School District in the beautiful Napa Valley of Northern California. She officially starts July 1st but we recently spent 5 days in Calistoga, and yours truly got a chance to do a couple of rides there. So I thought I would dedicate this post as a travelogue of sorts on the two rides of hundreds that exist in this cool place. Hell, Levi Leipheimer left Montana to look for the best place to train as a pro-rider and found Santa Rosa (right next door to Calistoga)and never left. He's been there 12 years and I believe he has been quoted as saying it is one of the best places to ride in the U.S. I have to agree. In one hour you can ride through redwoods, hit the Pacific Ocean, ride great hills and valleys. So here's a couple of rides that I mapped on MapMyRide.com.

Photo Credit to: Travel4California.Com

The Silverado Trail from Calistoga to Yountville:

Around 40 miles total in this out and back route right down the center of the Napa Valley. It's a fairly flat ride through the vineyards with pretty vistas on all sides of the road. The traffic is fairly heavy but there are wide bike lanes on both sides of the Silverado Trail. I was not alone on this Sunday morning ride as many, many, other roadies were out and about. Here's the link via MayMyride:



You've got options in this ride. You can continue past Yountville and travel down to the city of Napa and come back. You can make it a loop ride by using highway 29, etc. All in all, a 5 star ride.

Photo Credit: © 2007 Solage Hotels & Resorts

Pope Valley Loop:

The 2nd ride, which I did on a Monday morning was perfect. I decided to check out the climbs and ride a big part of the 2009 Tour of California, Stage 1 route (by the way, the Silverado Trail route is also a part of the TOC.) Stage 1 brought the riders from California's Central Valley (the town of Winters) over the mountains and down into the Napa Valley. I rode it backwards, leaving Calistoga, riding up over the hills to the Pope Valley and then deviated from the TOC route because of lack of time, and made it a great loop. Check it out in MapMyRide:



This ride, another 5 star, had almost zero traffic once I cleared off of the Silverado Trail. The climb up to the town of Angwin was tough but harder yet, was the descent down to the Pope Valley. Definitely a technical descent. Later, talking to locals, I was told to use Ink Grade Road which has a better descent. It looks good on the map and I can't wait to get back to Calistoga to give it a try.

I should have a race in May, though the coming move to NorCal may make racing problamatic in the short term. I for sure will have races in late summer, as NorCal has a lot more road races than SoCal. I'm going to write off crits, as I don't want my daughters to see me lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm again.

When you come to the Napa Valley for the wine, make sure you look me up and I'll hook you up with all the rides the Valley has to offer!