Wrapping it up

Whoa........I (Mary-Anne) did 19 cross races this year!! Including the early season DFL cross dress series! I guess I sort of geeked out!

I had too much fun, I loved meeting new people and seeing them week after week. I really loved all the cheering and encouragement from Rick and his friends and even complete strangers. You just don't get enough of that sort of thing in your daily life. Cross is a good thing when you're a rookie.

A year ago Rick was still showing me how to get in and out of my pedals, and I thought that I would never want to race a bike! but now I'm encouraging everyone I know to try it. "It's easy" I say. "Well no..... it's really hard, but the people are super nice, so it's not that scary!" I think I have even convinced some of my Canadian friends to try.

Sunday was my last race and it was bittersweet. I was really tired from the ride the day before and I probably should have been a beer drinking spectator, but I was talked into it. I took a wrong turn on the course and went down a hill, which I had to climb back up in order to get back on the course....twice......in the same place! I was so embarrassed (that scenario was similar to the nightmares I had prior to my first race!!) I wanted to quit but it was a really fun course, and the last race, I had to finish!

Here's some pictures I stole from the SCCCC team page

The nasty run up at the Watsonville Fairgrounds.

The slippery S turn and my first race with drop bars!!



James from the Freewheel took the S turn with a lot more grace than I....... on his fixed gear!!!




I am already looking forward to next year!!!

Pt. Reyes rolling...

Howdy Folks
Rick here doing some blogging... I haven't been on this computer thing for a while and trying to re-remeber how to do it all, not as easy as riding a bike....
Mary-Anne and I took this last Saturday off to meet the City Boys for a nice ride out to the Pt. Reyes lighthouse and back... Took some pixs which I will share with you now...

Here's our friend Ginger looking smug and upright, nice posture...



Here's a boat that ran out of water !


Here's my sweetheart...


Here's a water reclamation set-up at the lighthouse, should have brought my skateboard...


Here's the stairs to the actual lighthouse, thats the Pacific O' in the distance and some migrating whales..


Here's Mary-Anne rocking the track back down from Mt. Vision...
We always have a good time with the City Boyz/DFL'ers, vulgar and smelly like sailors but still polite and friendly....

Speaking of Suffering

Check out these guys



Goat, Jacob and Sean are all former UCSC students on a serious adventure. Their plan is to ride from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.
They started in late July and Rick and I have been following their progress on their website ever since.
Now in my personal opinion the end of July was a little bit late to start in the Arctic Circle what with winter literally right around the corner. I figured they would make their way through Canada and into Montana where they would settle down, find themselves jobs and wait it out until Spring. Instead they just kept going despite being hit by large winter storms in Alberta as early as September. They are in Arizona now and unfortunately for them, it is icy cold there as well.
The one guy, who calls himself Goat doesn't even wear shoes, seriously! and they are riding something like 80 miles a day through the snow!

Take a look at their photos and journal here. Riding the Spine.
Kind of makes me feel like a bit of a sissy.

Upcoming Suffer Fests

Click on the link below to see the flyer for all the details.

Yesterdays Race

Cameron came out on top, taking the overall win for the Elite Men.


Our often lazy hound dog named Woody managed break free and chase after Cam on the course for a minute, blocking the rider trying to pass him (sorry about that) We don't give Woody enough credit sometimes, but he knows who his friends are!

Here's a picture with Josie Beggs behind me!!!! This only happened because she tripped on the barriers at the top of the hill off the start and I passed her. After that I think I just held her up and very shortly after that she shot by me, but it felt good for just a second. Of course I was wondering to myself, can she hear how hard I'm breathing right now? Why does it seem like no one else is breathing as hard as me?

I managed to get second overall in my category, and shared the podium with these two lovely ladies, Rona and Soni.

By the way I stole these photos from Rick Rasmussen

Beer and Jelly Beans

That's how I'm preparing for tomorrows race in Fort Ord, I love Beer and put some candy in front of me and I eat it all!

This is what it looked like at the last Fort Ord race. This weekend is the finale in the CCCX series and it is supposed to be warm and sunny. That means only 2 really muddy races here on the Central Coast, so far. I liked the mud, and splashing through puddles at full speed like a little kid.

After this weekend there are 2 more Peak Season aka Glutton for Punishment races. Rick keeps telling me that next year I need to upgrade and race with the As, or I'm going to be called a sandbagger! I'm already nervous, I mean they are really really fast. They're going to kill me. I'll have to cut down on my consumption of Beer and Jelly Beans!

Team Development Program

This is pretty much the cutest thing we've seen in a long time.


Cooper Jones- Martin in his baby Hunter uni, custom made to match Dad. Complete with a pocket to hold his bottle.



You can bet that if his parents have anything to say about it he'll be riding a bike as soon as he can put one foot in front of the other without holding onto Moms hands.