8 Hour Race - Billy Cross Racing

Race Report by Dave McCrimmon

Oh so much fun to be had by all. TWW podiums:

1st - Kathleen Meyer - female solo
1st - B-Ham and Rich - Catagory 4
2nd - Team Fast MoFo's - Catagory 3 (Troy, Nick, Isaias, and Loren)
4th - Catagory 3 - (Urbina, White, Chase, and Todd L)
5th - Team Slugs - Catagory 3 - (Robert, Peter, myself, and Jerry)

Congrats to all poduim finishers and participants. This was a great day of fun with TWW representing.

7th - Catagory 3 - Team Pussy Willows (Lloyd's East Bay gang, cant remember all of your names just Chris who kept killing me on the climbs.)

8th or 9th - Catagory 3 - The Replacements minus Paul Westerberg (John Weathers, Mark Ong, Alan Sherlock, and John ?)

Jeff Hane looked to be having a great time with his team of Kathleen's boys (Patrick and Garret). Patrick had a smile on his face all day!!

Race Report by Kathleen Meyer

Jeff's team actually consisted of Julie Brown, Patrick and Jeff. While they didn't podium, Ken gave Patrick medals for the three of them (for the effort of having a kid on team?). Whatever, Patrick was thrilled and had a blast. When we pre-rode he walked many sections. During the first lap I followed him for awhile. He rode four of the first sections he had walked while pre-riding.

Garrett offered great support to all of us. He too had a blast!

Race Report by Dave McCrimmon (again)

Wow, now that was fun. The 24 hrs is an experience but the 8 hours allows you to really see your competitors and race all day. If you haven't done this one, I highly recommend it next year.

Team Slugs was made up of Jerry, Robert, Peter, and myself. Jerry being the youngest and most mature was voted to go first. That left Robert, Peter, and I fighting for fourth. Well I ended up being the looser after Robert had some mechanical issues after converting his SS to a geared bike the night before. So I went 2nd, followed by Robert, and then Peter.

My Lap 1: Jerry comes in flying and has us in 3rd overall. Very cool but all the "MEAN" guys are behind me. I take off and quickly realize that my legs are more like lead blocks. My first lap is more a mode of survival with many ventures off the side of the trail because my bike's skills have vanished not because of rider fitness. Reminder to self, ride bike atleast once prior to racing. I bring us back around in about 7th or 8th overall.

My Lap 2: As I am waiting, up to line comes Urbina and Chris from Lloyd's team. Great!, we are still in the thick of things. Once again I take off slightly behind Chris and abit in front of Mike. Once again I beat them both all the way to the bottom only to have them clean my clock on the climb. I also get the nice hello from Mr. Weather's as he climbs by.

My Lap 3: Roll up to the line with Urbina and Chris. Well atleast we are turning consistant laps. Chris takes off but I am still waiting, about 15 seconds later Jerry yells for me to go. I say goodbie to Urbina, mental games! I dont think he bought it. At the top of the climb Chris has slowed down to allow me to do the descent first. Something about not wanting to get in my way. I say thanks and say I will see him on the way up. Once again I see Chris and Mike on the way up passing me as if I have a plow down.

My Lap 4: Chris and Mike again. This time Jerry and Lloyd come in neck and neck. Chris and I take off only to get to the top at the same time. Chris says go ahead and off I go. This is my last lap so I am letting it hang out. No one was in front of me on the descent and I felt smooth as butter. I built up a nice lead because as I start to climb there is no sign of Chris or Mike. I am pushing but before the final section of single track Chris goes by. On the final steep climb Mike goes by but I am only a few meters behind him at the finish. I scream out for Robert to go but dont see him. I ride down to the climb and see a TWW jersey leaving and figure its Robert. I start heading back to the S/F and I run into Robert coming from the car. He takes off in a flash trying to hunt down Lloyd's teammate and Todd Lindeman (Urbina's teammmate). Robert finishs less than 30 seconds behind Todd after giving him a 2 minute lead. Oh! It was close and so fun.

Thanks Chris and Mike for all the fun throughout the Day. Thanks to my teammates for making it possible for me to have so much fun racing these guys.

We had to protest for 5th. They gave Urbina, White, Chase, and Todd Lindeman 4th and we finished right behind them. No rider finished between Todd and Robert but we didn't put our final time down. It would have been nice to be told some of the rules prior to the race but what a fun day.

Dave

Race Report by Chris Down

Oh, the Billy Cross 8-hour. My new favorite race (just behind Downieville).

What a phenomenal time. It was not only a fun-as-heck course, with great hosts, it was also the debut of 'TEAM PUSSY-WILLOW' (Lloyd, Eug, Chris H & Chris D). Go-Team! Okay okay, so we didn't shoot out of the gate in the PW style that we had imagined while rigorously training for the weeks prior, knowing each others' moves like we shared the same brain. Well, actually, we really hadn't ridden much together prior to this race... okay, truth-be-told, we had never ridden together at all. Actually, we all (formally) met in the parking lot just before the race. All that said, it's not so bad that we got 7/11 in cat 3, eh? We're just managing expectations for the next team race, where we *will* podium! Riiiight.

Like so many Bay Area races, it was like home, seeing all the TWW jerseys, even though I only knew about 10% of 'em. I'm at least starting to recognize faces. The race itself was soooo much fun, but only a fraction of the event. Barbeque (food and my toasted face), hanging out, and looking for toilet paper dominated much of the off-saddle parts of the day. The trail was cool. I found myself getting faster on several parts of it, while slowing down on areas previously not causing any problems. I was never able to break 30 minutes... my first lap being the fastest at 30 and change. My last lap found me chainless up the exit of one of the creek crossings, quickly falling back-first, fully clipped, into the creek. I guess Lloyd had the same mishap last year. That was like a 15 foot fall, right Lloyd?? Team PW had no major mechanical problems... Eug lost his rear derailleur on the last lap, about 1/3 into it, still pulled it in the low 30s! Yeah Eug!

All in all, this race was top notch fun. Please offer Team PW support (as a faction of TWW, 'course), as we engage in many more exciting team style events. Please look for the striking [read hot-pink] uniforms (including special socks that Lloyd can describe).

Till next time,

Chris Down

TWW/TPW

PS: Lloyd, great pix… I especially like the Pug shots.

Race Report by Nick Relampagos

John Weathers, Mark Ong and I carpool up to the Lake, stopping off at Mr. Mom's in Petaluma for some 12" pancakes. Isaias, Troy and Loren camped on Saturday so now we're a team. But! Not fully a team until I handed out their custom TWW number plates! (Check out Lloyd's Pics). Loren was leading off, then came Isais, then Troy, then myself. All of us were coming in with some fast times and myself bringing up the rear. The course was great! Lots of stutters on the downhill singletrack and they even threw in the Wrong Way loop this year so there was a bit more of the course, this was the loop where you had to cross over the log on the uphill climb. The weather was great, 70+degrees, overcast with a few cool breezes, not your normal Hot Lake Sonoma race.

Our competition:
Team Roaring Mouse 1 had a few fast mofo's of their own but we gave them a run for their money, They came in a few minutes before the 8hr time and were able to click off another lap. I came in 16 seconds after the 8hr mark trying to make Loren do another lap. There was a two man team of Todd and Matt, young expert racers that really did well and for the first part of the race were ahead of us. They finished 16 laps, 7+ minutes behind us.

We had a great team this year and we managed a solid 2nd place. BIG PROPS to all the people who came out to fly the TWW colors, we had a great showing and brought home a ton of 'metals'.

Nick

I wrote down some times from the 8hr race, sorry I wasn't able to get Keith's team, they only initaled their sheet with no times. I wasn't able to get Team HamThorn or Kathleen's team or Jeff's team.

Team Fast MoFo's
Loren Thomas 28, 28, 28, 28:50
Isaias Job 30:41, 31:18, 31:08, 31:06
Troy Wenski 29:19, 29:45, 27:22, 29:37
Nick R 31, 31:55, 32:40, 29:47

Team Slugs
Jerry Brown 28:10, 27:19, 28:35, 28:42
Dave McCrimmon 32:25, 40:01, 34, 34
Robert Ouye 35:15, 30:59, 35, 34
Peter Sterlacci 34:51, 34:25, 34:18

Mofo's 2
Allan Sherlock 30:55, 30, 32, 32:24
John Weathers 29:20, 29, 29, 29:47
Mark Ong 35:40, 45, 36, 47
John Coomes 42:20, 38, 38,

Team Pussywillow
Lloyd Ranola 31:55, 32:28, 33:55, 33:42
Chris Hansel 32:27, 31:18, 33:10, 33:18
Eugene Medina 33:49, 34:19, 34:07, 35:47
Chris Down 29:40, 31:50, 31:53

Race Report by Keith White

"1.5 Hours of Billy"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. That mostly sums up my race.

Stupid #1, don't ride at all for 2.5 weeks before the race.

Stupid #2, crash in the first 30 seconds of dirt.

Stupid #3, ride that freakin fully rigid single speed.

As usual the Billy Cross gang put on a fantastic race. The course is sweet as usual, the food was flowing, the beer free, and just an all around great attitude. Those guys should put on all the races in Northern Cal and push the other promoters out.

Anyway, I was on team 'Mighty Nuts'. We "talked" the new guy into doing the first lap. Chase had never been in a race before and we told him it would be good experience to take off with the pack. He did fairly well, comming in mid field at lap 1. MikeU took lap 2 and was turning good time, consistently around 30, give or take a few. Todd and I RoShamBo'd for the 3rd out, and he "won". So, I was fourth, no complaint, and as it turned out, a damn good thing for me.

My first lap was off up the hill and feeling ok. Trying to get the cobbwebs out. Hit the singletrack and the stutter bumps really felt harsh. All the pick and shovel work the previous day showed up quickly. As I turned on to the old trail, something went wong and I was on the ground. 30 seconds in to dirt and there I lay. Ok, relax, get into the groove. I was just too uptight. Needed to let the force take me. There was a bunch of talk around the starting line about how the creek crossings were way worse this year, and everyone was walking them all. I was prepared for running. I get to the first one and ride it no problem. Second and third were impossible on a SS for sure. All the others were a grunt, but never stopped me.

For some reason it took me until lap 3 to really get a flow going. I started to rail the corners and loosen up on the bumps. Of course by then, my legs were starting to feel the lack of recent experience. After lap 3, it was obvious we weren't going to be fast enough to send me out again. So, I settled in for a couple of burgers and beers. Spent a lot of time talking with Ken(the guy everyone thinks is Billy). If you had any doubt, he really is a cool guy.

The weather was the best ever for an 8 hour. Max temp couldn't have been 80. Actually had to put a fleece on around 6. Love the race, love these guys, they are putting on several other races soon. Check out the billycross web for details(I hope).

The 'Nuts' took 4th in class 3. As you've seen, medals up the wazoo for TWW.

Next ride...hopefully before the next race.

Keith

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