Diamond Valley Road Race (NCNCA Masters Championships) - July 25

I've got the SCNCA Masters Championships out of the way - see my earlier post on this race held in Bakersfield - now I'm ready for the NCNCA Masters Championships held in the Sierra foothills, close to the town of Markleeville, California.

By July 2nd, I'll officially be a Northern California resident again, after living in SoCal since 1991. However, my racing license will still show that I'm registered in SoCal and I'm still attached to the San Diego Cyclo-Vets as my club. This means that I can't officially race in any of the masters races but the kind folks of the Alta Alpina Cycling Club have created an open Cat 3/4/5 race to allow racers out of the NorCal zip codes to enter. From the race flyer,

"this category added to allow Category 3/4/5 racers, male, female, juniors the opportunity to race on this classic Eastern Sierra Course. The zip code requirements do not apply."

Click the graphic for a larger image



I'll be living in the Napa County town of Calistoga by then (check out my post on a couple of excellent rides in the Napa, Calistoga area), so the drive to Markleeville will be around 3.5 hours rather than the 6 hours I would be facing if we still lived in the SoCal city of Lancaster or the 9 hours if we were down in our San Diego apartment.

I found this good web site by Steven Hill where he talks about his race in 2005. It has plenty of pictures of the course but better yet, talks about camping, rather than staying in a motel. I'm an avid backpacker who also loves to car camp - this race could allow me to compete as well as take the family on a camping trip to the Eastern Sierras. What's not to like about this.

Below is an estimate of the course that I mapped in MapMyRide:



Scroll down the map and click "view full" to open completely and be sure to check the elevation box to view a profile of the course. Pics from Steve's site show a somewhat scenic but very dry (and hot?) 11 mile course. They talk about two small hills but the elevation, as given by my MapMyRide estimate shows only 1 relatively small grinder type hill.

Here's the link for SportsBaseOnline to get information on the upcoming NCNCA Masters Championships.