Races, races everywhere!

  
Whew!  There has been a whoooole lot going on since the beginning of April. U.S. Cup races, Sea Otter, Catalina Gran Fondo, Tour of California and even the Midwest is beginning to warm up a little with racing action.

   We'll try and get to all of it right here, right now. SO MUCH to discuss! Let's start with the U.S. Cup series updates. Mark, Ara and Bob are slugging it out, all inside the top nine in their categories. With the most recent event in the series being my home-turf of Sycamore Canyon in Riverside, California..we just had Mark and Vegas Bob as the Fuzzy One was out for some travel and family needs.

     Vegas Bob had a solid effort at Sycamore, finishing in 7th after a strong start led to major muscle cramps in the arid Sonoran Desert heat of the day.  Mark went all in as usual, and ended up in 11th place in the "leathery old bastard" division. The overalls for the series thus far have the guys sitting in pretty good shape. Ara is in 10th overall, and that's having missed the Riverside race. Vegas Bob is sitting very well positioned for a podium spot in the series in 5th place. He's actually tied for 4th in the points at 140, but is in 5th due to the way the split is handled. Can the Ginger One bridge the gap and land in the top 3 before it's all over? Mark Thome has been riding a TON, and showing up to a PILE of races. The effort has him perched at a very comfortable 6th place for the overall. He actually has a shot at jumping into 5th, so with one race to go, everyone is doing very well! 

   Mark Thome also just crossed the channel to ride the Catalina Gran Fondo. With 55 miles to cover, 90 degree temps on the island, and fifty billion feet of climbing..it was a long hot day. In true team fashion, Mark took advantage of the island lifestyle and completed more margaritas than miles on that day!  One race left in the series....GOOD LUCK GUYS!

   The Amgen Tour Of California was also on tap for the weekend, and Randy Rush rode his Giant TCR through his hometown of Ramona, CA for the finish of Stage 1. His wife Kim was on hand with
the family pooch to cheer on the racers. Hopefully Randy is keeping the amount of available alcoholic beverages to a minimum...said no one EVER!

   On the other end of the continent, Jeff "Tookie" Williams is starting the season of races. It's been crazy-cold here, and the racing season is way behind..as is everyone's fitness..thanks to a recurring theme of freezing days and rain. Ugh. He did however roll north out of Kentucky to hit the Scioto Trails park system for "Tecumseh's Revenge." He would slog through muck and mud on the fire road system there, a venue that certainly favors road racers with almost no singletrack and zero technical riding. Jeff's winter legs managed to take home 10th place, after a massive battle with the sloppy course.

  That's all for now!  Hope to see great snaps and hear of much fun at the final U.S. Cup race, and hope to see Jeff and Sean at the pending OMBC series events coming to the middle of the country. Holla'!

Chris

Hydrapak TAMARACK Review

I had the chance to ride my bike in to work today..my mountain bike..which was equipped with a nice new 2 X 10 XTR drivetrain thanks to Stuart Hunter over at roll: bikes in Columbus, Ohio (and now Chicago!). I hadn't had a chance to ride it yet with the new kit, so my commute was knobby-love today.

 

 

 

My dilemma was this; How do I get a pair of comfortable shoes, my sunglasses, keys, wallet, cel phone, a spoon, a ceramic bowl, a banana, my Bermuda shorts, a granola bar AND a can of deeeeelicious Chef-Boyardee Italian sausage "overstuffed" ravioli on my back and up to my place of employment? Enter the "problem solver," a.k.a. the Hydrapak Tamarack.  with a retail cost of $109.99, this thing is worth Easily double the asking price.

Small in stature but cavernous in capacity, the wondrous Tamarack (mine in orange) delivered the goods today. The seemingly odd shaped zippers actually have a plan. That plan is to abjectly devour everything you cram in that bad Oscar. I was astounded that this mid-sized pack was able to efficiently and oh-so comfortably gobble up all that gear, all the while feeling like a cotton-ball strapped to my back. That is a direct result of the Hydrapak's industry leading design features, like the

Soft AirMesh Panel with Air Chairman Ventilation, dedicated fleece lined electronics pocket w/cord port, padded shoulder straps, and silky slider sternum strap..this baby was non-existent on my person.



 

 

 

My coworkers were stunned. Mouths agape as I peeled open the onion-like layers of my Hydrapak, it's heavily laden contents poured from it's seductively shaped zippered compartments. I think I just heard Barry White...wow. I have had about six different Hydrapaks in the past five years..and this one is my all-out fave. Be sure to visit www.hydrapak.com for this and other well-designed products, like Backbone team favorite GEL-BOT!

2013 Sea Otter Classic Update From Mark Thome

Backbone Race Report from Sea Otter is up! Might have to submit this one for the next Hemingway write-alike contest.





... Backbone Race Report from Sea Otter Classic!

It was a dark and stormy night. No, scratch that, that was some of the previous years in Monterey - in 2013, unlike the entire northern tier of the United States, the Sea Otter Classic saw perfect weather all weekend. The kind of weather the semi-native Californians would proclaim, "Dude, it's kind of chilly" - - at an evening low of 49. Bright, sunny, breezy days. The kind of days that make for world-class wine growing regions, and world-class bicycle racing. 

  The turnout was huge in every way, too. The Sea Otter Expo area was packed with industry companies, including Backbone sponsors Kenda Tire, Xpedo Pedals, Sigma Computers, Hydrapak, KMC Chain, Formula Brakes, Royal Racing, and many more.

 

  Yours truly (Mark Thome) was on point to see and be seen for the Backbone team, and the weekend did not disappoint. Good conversations with many of the vendors (check out a bunch more photos over on the Malakye FB page), and plenty of time on the XC course, pre-riding on Friday, and racing the HUGE Cat 3 Men 50-52 class on Sunday. How huge? For an age group of fast old geezers across just three years, there were 53 racers on the line in this class!

 

  My race went just about according to plan. Ripped a big holeshot off the starting line putting the Backbone colors in the lead in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, then settled in behind some uber-fast roadie to draft in second partway around the famed Laguna Seca raceway, then sorted into my customary mid-pack position by the time we got into dirt, just below the Corkscrew, and headed out into the Fort Ord backcountry.

 

  I was already sipping on the first of my two bottles of Amino Vital Pro (Grape) by then, just recovering from the dizzying pace around the paved course. Recharched, I began passing back some of the guys in my class as the dirt section picked up the rolling high speed sections. There's a fairly new "wall" that I climbed easily enough on the pre-ride, but so many people were flailing around on the race line, it was faster to just cyclocross-push-carry my bike up the hill, and I grabbed back about another 8 positions right there.

 

 

  The singletrack sections kicked in shortly after that, yielding to a mix of rolling gravel fireroad fire road climbs, and technical sandy sections to navigate. The sheer size of the field was evident in the number of broken bikes and bodies littering the course. My chosen tire combination of Kenda's Small Block Eight in the rear, and Slant Six in the front of my Raleigh Talus Carbon 29er were perfect for the terrain and surfaces we were racing on, allowing complete confidence in the predictability of the handling. My simple little Sigma 1009 bike computer was working flawlessly as well, giving me just the right info I needed to monitor the mileage and time clicking by out on the course.

Last year, my buddy David Zaitz got all serious with his diet and training, and beat me for his first time ever at Sea Otter, by three minutes. My main goal was to not let that happen this year. Sure enough, "Inappropriate Dave" caught & passed me in the same exact spot as last year, up on the top fire road about halfway through the course, after the long switchback climb. The guy's built like a freakin' thoroughbred, long and lanky, born with a natural hairy man-sweater that would make Sasquatch envious. Anyway, once iDave gets on those flat sections and winds out that diesel motor in his legs, it's hard to keep in sight, which was all I hoped to do - at least enough to keep him close enough to have a shot at sprinting him down for the finish, if I could.

 

 

  Thanks to perfect visibility through all the dust with my Ryders Eyewear, I caught iDave in the ridiculously fun new twisty singletrack section, and tried every shenanigan and moto trick I could to spook him into letting me by, but to no avail. Even verbal panic-revs weren't working, so we hit the next long fire road section, and all I could do was watch him motor off into the distance again. Crap!

The rest of the race was spent trying to minimize the time gap between me up to iDave. We popped out on the long rolling fireroad combo climb back to the finish, into the wind, with iDave looking around 2-1/2 minutes up the road. I put it into roadie mode, sitting on some faster wheels to draft guys (and girls, and little kids - anybody going by me) as best I could to grab every advantage to reel in iDave. The gap was slowwwwwly closing at the top of each of the Bitches, as they're pretty universally called, but it was still a little ways to iDave when we were about done with climbs. Fortunately, he didn't look too perky, so I put in one more hard effort before we got the drop back down into the Corkscrew.

 

  Sure enough, that put right on iDave's wheel down the sketchy descent leading to the wooden bridge, and I put a fairly hard pass on him before we got to the other side. Heading into the singletrack dirt that parallels Rainey Corner, a guy in front of me ate crap right on my line. I had to adjust, and barely got around him. Fortunately, my Xpedo pedals allowed be to unclip and clip back in with confidence through the MX-like section, and then (thank goodness for paying attention to the lines through there when we pre-rode), picked lines through the next few corners that allowed me to gain a little more time on iDave, while passing other riders who were crashing all over the place.

 

  At the finish, I got across in 27th place (out of 53 in our class) in 1:44:34, while iDave was just 24 seconds back in 28th. All in all, a great race, really fun, and everything went about as according to plan as you can ever really make happen in the chaos that's called mountain bike racing.

 

 

 

  Thanks again to all our Team Backbone sponsors for your support - we really couldn't do it without you, and it was great to see everyone in Monterey this week!

Next stops =
4/28 US Cup XC, Sycamore Canyon, Riverside, CA
5/11 Catalina Island Gran Fondo, Avalon, CA
5/19 US Cup XC, Sagebrush Safari, Lake Morena, CA
5/21 Over the Hump Series Opener, Irvine Lake, CA
5/28 Over the Hump Series Round 2, Irvine Lake, CA
6/2 US Cup XC Finals, Big Bear Shootout, Big Bear, CA
6/4 Over the Hump Series Round 3, Irvine Lake, CA
6/11 Over the Hump Series Round 4, Irvine Lake, CA
6/16 CA State XC Championships, Big Bear, CA
6/18 Over the Hump Series, Round 5, Irvine Lake, CA
6/22 Hammer XC, Missoula, MT

 

Smelly Bonelli U.S. Cup Race Update, Fuzzy Style.

Captain,

Smelli Bonelli! Not so smelly and hot anymore. Actually the course is technical and demanding with punchy climbs and singletrack o'plenty. We were split into two days with the Cat 1/Pros on Saturday and Cat 2/3 on Sunday. 8:30am start on a Saturday, I'll take that anytime. The weather was a little chilly (52F) and foggy right before race time. They had cut a new singletrack downhill section on the backside that was a blast to pre-ride in the morning. Rode with Tinker Juarez for the maximum of two seconds before he dropped me on the warm-ups, man that guy is amazing!

We had 18 riders in our Cat 1 30-34 category which is the largest I've seen for a long time. Had a good start off the bat. Mark, Joy, Mr. Margve and his daughter AJ were on hand cheering on. Felt good on the first lap. Drinking my Amino Vital Mandarin Orange Performance. Got a little too giddy on one downhill section and had to unclip out of my Xpedo pedals just to save myself from flying off into the hillside.

 Those pedals take a licking but keep on clipping! My first lap time was descent at 26 minutes, Sigma Rox 9.0 is always accurate, and had a good handoff with Mark Thome for my second lap. Rolling well, got 4 guys behind me, and was sticking with another two infront from my category. Started to get some momentum and made a good surge on the slow-rise climb on the backside to make a gap on them. I wouldn't see them until the last lap, its called foreshadowing.

Right before getting to the start/finish line we had to go through the grassy park area and I head Mr. Margve yell "Its wet! Be careful". But come on, I've done cyclocross. RAM!!! Slipped out going Mach 2 around the corner and slid in safe. I love my Kenda Karma's, but man that was a surprise. Jay and AJ from Royal had sent me their new Core gloves and those gloves are awesome. Low profile, breathable and great sticky index finger for braking. The Royal socks are very breathable and dry up quick. 3rd lap was going well, was losing some power, and could feel a twinge in my hamstrings. Its all good, I got my Amino Vital. I got worried when my stomach started to growl.

4th lap starts off horrible. Dropped the bottle on the handoff from Joy (my fault?) and it was downhill from there. On the first climb my left hamstring seized up and then the right one. Did the cardinal sin of stopping on the climb and I could not move my legs. Just stuck there in pain and I see one by one the other riders in my category passing by.

Finally lifted my leg up and over the saddle and tried to walk to no avail. The only thing that saved my race and got me to the finish line was my last bottle of Amino Vital. Chugged it all and chugged along in a snail pace through the whole last lap. Even Steven Marshall passed me on the backside, I still love you bro! Thanks to Mark Thome for yelling in my ear on the last climb or else I would have not made it up and over. Ended up in 13th out of the 18. Could have gotten a top ten easily.

Its all good, eat more for an early race, live and learn. I NEED a 29er! Getting killed out there, but its still fun and I'm pushing myself.

Thanks to all that came out; Mark, Mr. Margve, AJ, Troy, and Joy. Of course, thanks to our sponsors Amino Vital, Xpedo, KMC, Formula Brakes, Kenda Tires (Roger), Hydrapak, Sigma, Voler, Royal, and everybody else!

Fontucky is next, gotta get my 26er ready for that,



Fuzz

Bob On The Box; Southridge Race Report!

 

 

 

!Hola, El Capitan!

Saturday I warmed-up my racing season with another Southridge Winter race in beautiful Fontucky! The temp was a perfect 68, with a crystal blue sky. My Kenda Karmas were aired up and I was ready to go. At least as ready as I could be after suffering for a few weeks through the flu that everyone has been getting out here.

They started us with the age groups younger and older than us to get a nice big pack start, and I took care not to ride the wrong way up the SuperD course like I did in my first race! Haha. We all remained together for the first doubletrack twisties, but at the first climb three guys already broke away. A minute later on the pavement climb the group started sorting itself out, and a quick look at my SigmaSport computer confirmed to me that my heart was going to explode out my nostrils if I tried to go any faster. So I settled into the middle of a line of riders as we got to the top of the asphalt and hooked a left onto the curly, rocky hillside singletrack and climbed some more. As we got into the downhill section I wanted to go faster, but traffic prevented me. I think it was a good thing, though, because it allowed my heart rate to settle. It was also interesting to be in a race group again since it's been so long since I've raced and I could watch the lines the guys in front of me were taking through technical sections compared to the ones I was taking.

 

 

Their winter series courses are a smidge shorter than the US Cup ones, only about 5 1/2 mile laps, so before I knew it I was 3/4 through the first lap and was dropping down the fireroad behind the houses on the back of the course and speeding along the chainlink fence next to the concrete barranca toward the start/finish line. I had picked up a tail, but with a slight headwind and not knowing if he was even in my age group, I didn't bother spending energy trying to shake him. It worked out to my benefit, though, since as we started lap two he pulled through and towed me all the way to the first climb. But he faded as the pitch turned upward and I was back on my own. As I started the dirt climb, Vu Le, a great guy I know from racing mtb and cyclocross went past me. Although he's 15 years my junior I know we have a similar pace so it was a great motivator to stay up with him. Especially since he was riding a 1X setup and wearing baggy shorts because he was doing SuperD later that day! On the last steep climb I was able to power past him, and had the dh section wide open ahead of me to fly through all by myself.

I came through for the third lap and could hear I had picked up another rider on back wheel. As I made the hairpin turn from pavement to dirt it was easy to glance back at his number plate and figure out that he was definitely in my group. It was fairly obvious he knew he was in my group as well, because in a flatter doubletrack section of the uphill he flew around me. He was hauling, and I was sure I wouldn't be abe to keep up with him on the climb. Strangely though, we curved around a switchback and the trail got steeper and he slowed dramatically. There weren't tons of places to pass on the course, and since there were technical rock sections ahead I didn't want him to hold me up I struggled past him. He was still right behind me, but not directly on my wheel through the crooked rocky stuff. I was sure all I had to do was keep him behind me on the last climb by the water tower and I could hold him off until the end. The climb came and I gave it everything I could, managing to stay ahead of him. As we wound around the downhill for the last time I could hear his tires fading a little further back every few turns. I charged up the last fireroad and got to the top and he was nowhere in sight! I kept on the gas to the finish and ended up beating him by a paltry 22 seconds! What a race.

The first three to take off at the beginning were all in my category, so I came in fourth, which I'm very happy with for the start of the season but hope to improve upon in short order.

I definitely want to thank my sponsors Amino Vital for hydrating my and fueling my muscles, SigmaSport computers for providing me with all the data I need to train and race, Kenda tires for keeping me glued to the course, xpedo pedals for giving me the lightest, strongest pedals out there, Hydrapak for making the incredible Gel-Bot so I never have to fumble with gel packets while I'm racing, Royal Racing for gloves to keep my hands protected and comfy, KMC chains for making sure my power gets to the back wheel, Ryders eyewear for keeping me stylish in the bright California sun, Marzocchi for a fork with all the functions that still keeps my Tomac fully at just over 24lbs, and Voler cycling clothing for keeping my body cool and my butt cushioned on a tiny-ass race seat! I look forward to a great 2013 representing you all! See you next week at Vail Lake for the US Cup Series opener.

Team News!

  
  It's 2013!!  Happy New Year everyone!  Lots of fun stuff coming, and one old thing that left (no, not me..sorry). First I guess I should tell you all that after thirteen long and fruitful years, the team battlewagon has finally been sold. The '99 GMC Sierra (pictured below with "Glendale Heavy" Alex) that has driven the team stuff to just about every race from the CFR days to the present is gone..sold...and I'm kinda sad.  In her place though is a shiny new car with better mileage..but a bit less storage space. The old truck had 185,000 miles put on her and most of that was added driving to rides, races and Interbikes!  She will be missed...just not the money it took to keep her running.:)

    Jeff Williams has announced his desire to return to his roots. Not so much standard XC racing this year, but a full-blown attack on endurance racing again. past events that he did very well in, like the 24 Hours Of Burn in Wilkesboro, North Carolina will be his deal. He has even reached out to sponsor Amino Vital, who's corporate office here in the U.S. is just down the road from there..to come join him at the race!  Jeff had a stellar season here in the midwest, taking home the series title in the Clydesdale category against some amazing athletes.

   Mark and The Fuzz have been racing a lot...especially the Fuzz...in the So Cal 'Cross series. Mark has been snapping pix when not racing..THANKS!  Mark's son and Backboner Matt Thome has also rejoined the ranks now that his school is slowing down a bit. Great to have him back for 2013!  Fuzz has really been plowing out the races this winter in So cal, racing 'cross on his Tomac Type X hardtail. That's a LOT of work! 

   In other news, the team orders from Amino Vital and Ryders are on the way, and we are even working on a fun partnership between Amino Vital and Hydrapak!  Look for the west coast orders to land any time.  I am perosally working on a great event for this weekend at the nation's leading children's museum, COSI, here in Columbus. I'll be putting together a killer kids bike rodeo with wooden Push bikes, and a great "Kids Vs. Parents Speed Trap" that is being backed by SIGMA COMPUTERS!  Next week I return to COSI to have a second meeting with their set designers on a project/exhibit I pitched to them last month called "The Science Of Cycling." Details soon!

  OK guys...have a great January, hope to see you all soon.

Chris

Ara's Double-Cross Day.

Hey Captain,

This past weekend was the 9th annual SoCalCross Turkey Trot race here in my hometown of Glendale, California. After taking a month off of racing the cross series I felt prepped for this one. The course is a fun technical affair with tight turns, steep uphill runs through mud, and alot of dirt on the hillside of Verdugo Park. Grew up playing in this park and now racing in it is pretty nostalgic. Family, friends, and colleagues came out to support. Sadly, Thome was away for the Thanksgiving weekend to visit Matt in Missoula.

Decided to race the Class C category for fun and as a warmup. That turned out to be a mistake. Even though I didnt go all out (was messing around splashing spectators with my water bottle). Showcasing my new Royal Racing cross country kit was the main purpose. Epic Jersey and MW365 BioFlex shorts were so comfortable to ride in. Came in 7th out of 54 racers with a hot dog in my mouth, a good friend handed it on the last lap, dont get any ideas but it tasted good. Thinking I have 30 minutes to recover, drink the fluids of the gods Amino Vital, spin a little to loosen up again but no... the Class B race was going to start in 5 minutes. Because of the late start in the morning, the organizers were rushing through trying to get back on track. Quick jersey change back to Backbone and a new bib number was back on the the start line.

Started off well. Halfway through was in the top 15. Missed a major pileup in the sand and was gaining on all the technical sections. Was trying to hold on for dear life in the tall grass and straightaways. Kenda Small Block 8's were hooking up really well, best choice of the day. The final two laps were starting to hurt and cramping started. Muscled through but dropped spots on the final lap to finish 20th out of 48 racers. All in all, was happy with the results because of the circumstances. Good to be back on the race course again representing out team and sponsors. With there was more Backboners out there.

Thanks to the Family for coming out, friends that cheered us on (need more heckling), Mr. Margve for bbqing hot dogs during the race, and others. Major shoutout to the High School kids who came out and threw down good results : AJ, Simon, Chelsea.

Big Thank you to Royal Racing, Jason "Shipwreck" Shippers, for the amazing technical and casual riding clothes. Next race will be dedicated to Amino Vital this Saturday at the Downtown Los Angeles UCI After Dark race. Should be raining and muddy! BOOYA!

Fuzz