Category: racing

Sea Otter Stories: Fear And Loathing In Laguna Seca

Cain Ramirez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cowgirl Bike Courier. He has been designated by Cyclelicious as part of the less-than-one percent of transportation cyclists that identify as “Strong & Fearless”.

It started off as a joke.

Rich had just posted a press release for the Sea Otter Classic on Twitter. In it was mention of the Second Iteration of their infamous eMTB Race. I laughed. I don’t ride mountain bikes. Truth be told, I don’t particularly like mountain bikes, or mountain bike culture for that matter. Despite these preconceived notions, I’m a complete sucker for erratic and quirky cycling concepts.

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SSCXWC 2011 aerial footage

Somebody’s been bringing his RC helicopter to the local cyclocross events to shoot aerial video of the races with a mounted GoPro Hero camera. Here his video from last weekend’s Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championship in San Francisco, where it was wet and cold for perfect CX racing weather.

Via Jenny, whom you can see in the cowbell outfit near the beginning.

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Santa Cruz in 2012 Tour of California?

Update: AEG confirmed Santa Cruz County as the Stage 2 finish next May.


An anonymous source in the Santa Cruz County local organizing committee (LEC) says we can expect a stage finish for the 2012 Amgen Tour of California, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel. We’ll know for sure tomorrow when AEG releases their list of host cities.

The Santa Cruz LEC has a couple of interesting proposals for routing the stage finish: One involves a finish in Aptos after a route along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains via Skyline Boulevard and down Old San Jose Road; the other route takes the race along familiar ground via Highway 1, Bonny Doon Road, Pine Flat, Empire Grade to the UC-Santa Cruz campus.

An early proposal that’s no longer on the LEC website proposed Empire Grade to Felton-Empire to Mount Hermon Road for a finish in Scotts Valley at Sky Park. As a Scotts Valley resident, I would have really enjoyed that, but racing downhill on Felton-Empire Road doesn’t sound especially safe.

USA Pro Cycling Challenge begins

Although I cannot be there, the race begins today. There were quite a few more cyclists seen about town this past week, dressed in their best kits, rolling their aero wheels and latest technology (I have seen some Di2). The Governor even gave a brief interview at the Broncos game on Saturday – this is a big deal for Colorado Springs, and seeing as this is the inaugural event, let’s hope it comes back for years to come.

UPDATE: A photo gallery of downtown Colorado Springs preparing for the event.