First the good news:

Eve - 2nd Beginner babes. She was still in her jeans 20 minutes before the start.

Kirsten- 5th Sport sweeties, 27-34 (paced by her new coach, Jammin' Jeff Hane)

Loren - 3rd Beginner men-folk (one spill over a log, came in smiling)

Keith - 3rd Sport Masters (hung-over and hated the race, came in 3rd. Nice)

Bad news:

Dawn - Not sure, I think she *just* missed the podium, finished with a bottle of Bud in her TWW Jersey pocket (she's working on pulling in Anheuser-Busch as sponsor), made new friend in sweet, loveable singlespeed brute by following him to his campsite DURING the race(!)

Rich - 24th sport Masters (flatted, but still crushed Jeff and Mark :) - see below)

Jeff - much later, sport master (flatted and seatpost/saddle mishap, paced Kirsten to 5th)

Mark - DNF (flatted twice, three flats total for the weekend. We need to get that boy a pump with an accurate gauge, not one that reads '45' when there's actually '15'. Either that or he's interpreting the reading in some sort of commie metric units)

There were others, but I haven't a clue how they finished. Sorry.

-Rich

Race Report by Keith White

Ok, first off let me just say if you don't want to hear a whole bunch of bitching hit delete now...

Who on earth (jeff you bastard) ever said this was a fun course? All I ever heard was 'what great buff singletrack' or 'wide open middle ring, fast and fun'. What a crock of shit. This was by far the hardest race I've ever been it. By freakin far! There was not one single spot to stretch out and relax. Every time I tried to relax I'd hit a rock that would practically knock me off the bike. By about 1/2 hour in I was thinking I should have bought a full suspension bike. By about 1 hour in I was thinking, no full suspension necessary, I'm never racing again. My lower back was screaming....ok on with the story.

After a nice 3 hour drive up in the AM, I arrived in plenty of time before the race. Glad it started after 12 so I could get at least some sleep the night before. After a little warm up on the starting climb, I head back down to the race start and hang out with some of the TWW folks. Then Jeff(you bastard) and I start the lineup for the sport 35+ category. Figure first off the line is not a bad thing. Well then people start crowding and pushing and experts moving up and around. Then Mr. Announcer Guy says we're all starting together. Great, from front row to about 50 deep. And we're off... wait, now, no wait, go, ok now...worst start this season. Off we go in a cloud behind most of the pack. I start the weave and bob. Stuck here, stuck there. Finally break out and start passing. See several of the TWW racers and make comments about the start. Continue up the climb passing as much as possible I see Jeff(you bastard) up ahead. Push to catch him. He's moving pretty good.

We all jam into the singletrack. These guys aren't going that quickly, so it's a lung break since there is no easy place to pass in the early part. Man, what's with all these rocks. Can't sit. Can't take a break from the pounding. Slowly but surely my lower back starts to hurt. A little tight singletrack decent with some short climbs goes on for a while. Then we break out onto a fire road. Spin it up, and pass the guy who was holding me back on the singletrack. Around a curve, and splash right through a big mud puddle. Nice. The guy passes me just in time to hit another mud puddle and cover me with mud. That's just great. So, cruzing down the trail bouncing all over the place, and back into the singletrack. Weaving and bobing in and out of trees, over rocks.

Finally hit the mud climb people were talking about before the race. Yep, no way to ride it. Now we are passing some of the pro/semi-pro women. They let us by when convenient. More fire road, more single track through the trees, more rocks. More climbing, more fire road, more single track, man will this ever end. Down a hill sharp turn hey, there's the start...finally. Grab a nice cold bottle of water from the sidelines. Drink and douse. Toss it away and start the real climb. Oh man is my back screaming in pain. Still climb ok and pass several people.

Back around again. Not so many people this time. I get caught and passes a few times. I hold on to people for a while, but I can't push due to my fn back. Plenty of leg and lung, but no way to pull with that much pain. So, I let people go as they pass. Then on one of the tight twisty sections...I repeat the Sea Otter experience...hit a friggin tree again. Damn, same shoulder, same spot. Ouch. For a brief minute I hope it takes my mind off my back. Nope, not painfull enough for that. Grind, grind, grind, whine, whine, whine. I'm just glad no one was with me to hear all the complaining.

Finally around that last corner for the jump before the crowd. Very small cross up. Not enough energy to get it going. No water in the post ride jugs, no food, no place to sit, nada. Good thing I brought a few beers and some grub. Next time I'm taking "man candy" before the ride(that's advil for you young pups).

All in all, I almost didn't even wait around for the results. I figured I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. So, after waiting for a while the results were posted. I started at the bottom and looked up. Didn't see my name. Started again, still didn't see it. One more time. Wait, what's that. Turns out I finished 2nd(it said 3rd, but the first guy was a dnf).

Moral of the story....never believe Jeff...and take pain killers.

Keith

Race Report by Mark Davidson

The weekend and camping were fabulous! The race course was fun (despite what Keith White says) and Eve and I had a great time.

Eve and I arrived early Saturday afternoon and grabbed the last site with a picnic table and fire ring. The only bad thing was that we were really close to the "Dog Lady" - a crazy woman who talks to her four undisciplined dogs like they were teenagers. i.e., "How many times do I have to tell you to shut up!". Each dog was tied to a different part of her camp and would all bark when someone would walk by. The dogs and the dog lady were the one sore point of camping there that weekend. A lot of other bikers were upset as well. We spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and tweaking the bikes.

The rest of the TWW campers showed up just before the 4 pm pre-ride. Jeff Hane, Kirsten, Rich and his son Brendon and then Dawn.

We pre-rode the course I got my first flat of the weekend on a rocky downhill fireroad that I rode way too fast. Serves me right for kranking on a pre-ride. Jeff kept the pace nice and slow but Kirsten decided to hammer a little more. The slow pre-ride allowed us to enjoy the trails and the quietness of the forest. We ran into Dave and Linda during the pre-ride.

Potluck dinner was a great affair. Dave Longnotti and Linda joined us and provided the beer. Lots of food, meats and vegetables. Rich's brownies were a huge hit. No one brought firewood so Jeff and Brendon led the brigade to forage for some nice wood to burn. Most of the campfire talk was about roadie stuff. It's another world to me.

I was woken up way too early by the Dog Lady's dogs and cheezy music from the promoter's P.A. Eve and Loren were racing at 9 ish so they had to prepare. Eve was taking her time and didn't even bother to warm up. We cheered Loren and Justin out of the gate. The beginner women category started with a 3 bike collision out of the gate right in front of Eve. She used her excellent bike handling skills to steer clear of the mess. Eve and Loren were back after an hour or so while it was still relatively cool.

I DNF'ed at the race due to two separate flat tire incidents. This was the first time that I haven't finished a race. It's too bad because I really loved the course. Technical, rocky, singletrack is usually the stuff that I can excel in. It's races with uphill fireroad grinders that really do me in.

Out of the start, I felt pretty strong. I kept Keith White within my view for about a mile or so up the climb. I was passing some riders and being very conservative on my energy by cruising through the singletrack - following the line of least resistance, avoiding the big rocks and staying seated as much as possible. I hit the rocky downhill fireroad and I took the smooth right side line and kranked the big ring. I tried to be light on bike but I guess I must have hammered a little too hard because I got a pinch flat at the bottom. Damn!!!! It was the same place as the pre-ride. I had about 45 psi but it may be those super light thin tubes. After I changed the flat, I rode like the devil to try to make up for time. I passed a few people on the singletrack along the hill and accidentally rubbed handlebars with a rider I was trying to pass. This knocked me off the trail and down an embankment into the forest. I didn't fall but I had to climb back up to the trail. A rider who was following me too closely fell down the embankment. I asked if he was ok but he just cursed me. Better to move along.

I was tearing it up on the twisty turny singletrack - pretending I was riding in the dual slalom. Once out of that forest section, I saw Jeff Hane fixing a flat. I raged on down the fireroad in the big ring. I took a gravely off camber turn with way too much speed and my front tire slid out. I was lucky that I had the instinct to put my foot down and recover or I would have been road pizza. At that point I decided to slow down and finish the race in one piece. I changed into cruising mode and rode calmly. All that raging drove my heart rate through the ceiling and I was starting to get stomach cramps and a headache.

The downhill singletrack and fireroad sections made me ride the devil again. Passing some riders and big ringing it inspired me to ride hard again. There were a lot of riders who pinch flatted along the course so I figured that maybe I can get a good placement. I was having so much fun on the downhill that I pinch flatted again at about mile 8. This time, I didn't have a spare tube or a patch kit. So I ended up taking a leisurely hike and pushing my bike through the forest for a mile. The weather was great and the forest is really quiet until someone yells "track!" and you have to get out of the way. A little while later, Jeff Hane stopped by. We chatted about our mechanical difficulties and he gave me his patch kit. Kirsten and some of the sport women were passing us at this point. I fixed my flat and rode hard but not competitive. I had some small moments of glory as I passed some of the sport women riders and straggling sport men.

Eve and Loren were waiting at the start/finish line as I approached. I didn't want to do another lap because I didn't have any competitive spirit left. Also, with my current record, thin tubes and the questionable effectiveness of glueless patches, I knew that I was going to flat again on the next lap. Besides, Eve and I had to break down camp and boogie home because she had to catch a Red-Eye to Miami for a business trip.

After the races I was looking for Keith White but I couldn't find him anywhere. We had plenty of food and water back at the camp that we could have given him.

Eve and Loren had a great weekend. Loren took 3rd despite a crash. Eve took 2nd in her class. This was her debut race on her new Moots and she believes that she cut off at least 5 minutes by racing her Moots over her Monster Trek.

I'm not too happy with my DNF since it's my first. I could have finished the race but I couldn't be bothered. In retrospect, I should have taken Eve's Moots onto the course for the second lap. Plush Titanium with 1 1/8" of rear YBB travel and those mondo WTB 2.1 Nanoraptors would ensure that I wouldn't pinchflat for the last lap. However, I only had that idea when I was back at the campsite. I'm going to have to race at the Boggs Mountain Forrest Race on May 21st to redeem myself.

I've had 4 flats in the past week (3 snakebike, 1 piercing). I think that I've taken the crown away from Adam S as the new "Flatmaster".

I have a lot of pictures - some digital, some analog (try to get them developed this week). There's enough content for a web page.

--Mark

Race Report by Dawn Weathersbee

Well, it all started off as an innocent desire to try a notoriously fun course. Then came the controversy over whether or not it was ethical to support the greedy capitalist pig promoter. Being an ethical sort of woman, I lost sleep over trying to decide between taking the road to notorious fun or the road to higher principals. I eventually opted to choose the low ground, and then only began to sink lower.

The evening before the race seemed all too clean and wholesome, with good food and good company, all around a nice fire. Mountain bikes and those who love to ride them were everywhere, I saw some old friends, and got caught up with all those whom I used to race. That didn't seem too unethical, in fact, it seemed rather like good, clean fun. I was purely enjoying Boggs Mountain, without even noticing that I was sliding slowly into the path of the fallen woman.

Up early the next day, birds were singing, dogs were barking, the Counting Crows' singer was wailing, the crazy lady next door was screaming...ah, the great outdoors...I went and registered, made my coffee, tried to stoke the fire, and watched the world of sweet mountain bike slumber arise and reach out to grasp the challenge of the coming day. I was ready to race, then I was ready to nap, but noon came, so I warmed up, and made my way to the line up.

The first lap was nice. I chose an ass to ride for a while, and managed to keep up just fine. Then I passed this girl on a technical section. I was feeling really great. Soon, I approached another girl, and eventually passed her, again, on a technical section. I couldn't believe it was me who was riding like this. I passed two more women, and I was getting confident. Then came the second lap.

If there's any one thing to blame for my decent into hell, it's lap two. My back was screaming, by shoulders were aching, and my legs were suddenly made of lead. I began to be revisited by those same women that I passed, getting a second glimps of their diminishing backsides as they rode away from me. Far, far away. I couldn't push any harder. But just when I had lost all hope, HE appeared.

Laying at the intersection of a tight switchback was the largest mountain biker I had ever seen. As I approached him, he got out of the way, and remounted just in time to approach my body lying upon a tight technical section.

He picked me up, dusted me off, lubed my chain (okay, that didn't happen) and introduced himself. "I am Johan, I am racing Clyesdale," he said with a boyish grin. "I am DFL, so I'll stay with you, I'll make sure you don't get hurt." His hair was fire red, his arms and legs enormous, and his face belonged to a twelve year old. That innocence mixed with that humble strength couldn't lead me astray. Besides, I was too tired to ride away from him.

So, Big Nordic Johan and I rode on together, sharing our pain and sorrows. Within an hour we were close. I trusted him, and that's exactly why IT happened. Please don't judge me, you weren't there, only know that the details are too shameful to repeat. He talked me into something BAD! I was tired, I was weak, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Once I had accepted the suggestion, carrying it out was easy. We went by his campsite, about three minutes from the finish. He reached into his cooler, and handed me an ice cold Budweiser. I put it in my jersey pocket. It felt good against my aching back, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. Then we climbed a little more, decended into the finish line, dumped our bikes, twisted the caps from the bottles, and tasted the sweet, cool flavor of illicitly gained beer. Being bad never felt so good.

After the first few, sweet swallows, I looked about; the other TWWers were around, tired, but smiling. It was a sea of dirt stained red and black, all except for Keith White, who was suspiciously clean in white tee shirt and plaid shorts. He, too, was drinking a beer...

Dawn

Race Report by Loren Thomas

I decided to race Boggs because it was only 13 miles and there weren't any hard climbs.....only 13 miles kicked my butt. I started off in 4th place out of a small group (about 16). I didn't want to push too hard at the start, so I decided to let the three guys ahead of me tire themselves out. Well only one of them did. By the time I passed him, the other two were out of my sight. I pushed myself through the single track, but I couldn't find them. After about 6 miles of trying to catch-up I was too tired to take advantage of all the flat fire roads and single track. It was all I could do to just keep spinning. My back started to hurt too. I felt like I was helpless prey waiting to be swallowed up by everyone behind me. I kept hearing someone sneaking up on me. Once I spotted him I knew it was only a matter of time. He caught me on a long up hill but didn't pass. I started to think I had a chance to keep him behind me. We got to some downhill single track and I took off. I got enough ahead of him to make time for one crash over a log. Picked myself up, said a few words to god and started rolling down a rocky section trying to get my chain back on. He closed in and passed me in a switch-back. I was relieved to have him pass me(it turned out he was in the class that started behind me). I settled back into a comfortable pace till the end of the race. Tried to pull a wheelie over the finish line, but I don't think it qualified. 3rd place - the other two sandbaggers were faster than me!

Loren

Race Report by Dave Longinotti

Boggs Mountain Bash 2k

I won't attempt to top (or less) Dawns race report.. (But you did 3:04 and stopped for a BEER!)

The drive up Cobb on Sat. took a LONG TIME.. Note for future.. Driving thru Napa on Saturday after the Tasting rooms open is NOT a good idea. Somebody mentioned I should have taken the Silverado Trail which would have helped a lot. The climb from Calistoga to Middletown is impressively steep and so is the climb from Middletown to Cobb.. Trouble is there is ZERO should so it would be very dangerous on the Road bike.. Oh well.

Since I guess Dan Barger bashing is "in".. The directions in the flyer were WRONG.. It's actually MORE than .8 miles from Cobb to the turnoff to the State Forest, and the blue sign says "State Fire Station", NOT "STATE FOREST". No Matter we made it to the race site by 3:30. We located start finish, but there were no TWW insignia in site so we parked a got ready to ride. We wanted to take our time riding the course, so when it got to be 4:15 we left to pre-ride. We only saw Rich at this point and we told him we were going.

The first 1.5 miles or so are uneventful.. Maybe 1 miles of big ring road and .5 mile of mid ring climb. The single track was another story. I'd heard from a Valley Spokesman guy and several TWW people that this was a "midring course with no long climbs" and "like a dual slalom"..

But the Single track is far different.. Yeah, it's not Rockville, but it has rocks.. Much like taking the 5 miles of trail at Rockville and STRETCHING IT OUT to 13 miles with the same rocks only farther apart. With a rock every 10 feet or so, so no place to rest mentally or physically.. There were enough rocks on the climbs that you could hit your pedals on them a lot if you didn't concentrate.

Linda was going ahead and having to wait because every time I found a section I couldn't ride I have to top and go back and figure out why.. About 2/3 around the group caught us. I rode with them and awhile this section fairly straight very fast and resembled the speeder scene in RETURN OF THE JEDI, then stopped to what for LINDA.

LINDA and opted for a Motel after the Barbecue in the campground which worked well for us. We got back to the campsite by 9:30. Loren and Eve rolled in and seemed cheery with the results (3rd for Loren in Beginner 19-28) and 2nd (or 3rd) for Eve in Beginner 35-44.

There was plenty of time to get ready.. I was racing Master 45+ Sport (running combined with 45_ expert).. The HELL of this was that the Senior Sport Sprouts 19-28 were starting BEHIND us and Senior Sport 29-34 behind them..

My field was about 20 total about half expert and half Sport.. John Barmettler was in the Expert Field who I met in my Roadie Days. Once upon a time I could out climb John ( 1994/1995).. My strategy (stupidly conceived or not) Was to hang in with John and experts for the first 1 mile where I figured drafting could be a factor and then try and hang on the end of experts to the start of the Single track where I figured I might have a gap on the other sports.

Our race was off and one expert jumped off like a bat out of Hell. At first I thought it was John, then I realized he was riding at the front of the group I was in. I should given some given some thought to why John wasn’t jumping at the other guy off the front. (Like he would have on the road!).

I entered the 1-track roughly I figure at the back of the experts although I thought I recognized some of the jerseys from my class. The first track was smooth, it punctuated by rock just enough to screw up rhythm.. The rest of the surface was pine needles so one of the so-called experts washed out his front wheel right in front and I had to stop.. What seemed like the rest of the Sport 45+ pack rolled by, I got going but wasn't very 'rthymic' in the 1 track. Before virtually no time at all the Senior Sport 19-28 was on me like giant Horde> Let them by in-groups because it seemed more civilized. Then I would try and keep up with them for while. Oddly, I noted that all the places I couldn't ride (the tight left with the rock, the first switch back etc), the other sports weren't riding either! )

I cleared all the hard parts without stopping. I was thinking it was looking up, EXCEPT THAT THERE WAS Continuous PARADE OF SENIOR SPORTS wanting to pass. Finally back to start

Finish my legs were starting to blow up! At the feed zone a TWW member offered my gel pack and some water. I should have taken BOTH. But I wanted to save 30 sec. (Yeah, that was smart!).

At the top of the climb, a guy with graybeard came by with a 4XX number. Mine was 367 so I asked if he was expert. He goes. "Yeah right". BY now I understood I couldn't waste energy keeping ups with him I had to save my strength for the single track.

The second time around there were fewer pursuers from but still too many senior snots. I tried not o hold anyone up. But my speed in the technical parts felt faster. I made the left hairpin back onto the fire road and cruised along, a senor passed me. Then cam a rocky and technical climb and because there was no gridlock I managed to ride up it. I was sooooo pleased. (FOR 2 SECONDS) before both legs totally cramped.

The finally 2/3 lap was a long procession of doing the FRANKENSTEIN WALK, spinning in the Granny ring on big ring climbs, I was still riding fairly well downhill (at least for me). On the second to the last climb, the finally indignity happened. I was caught and passed by the leading CLYDESDALE. And he passed me ON THE CLIMB!!

I limped on the finish, as far as I caught tell I was DFL!.. But turned I was 4th of 8 or 10.. My time was 2:50 and change (45+sport winner was about 2:35, 3rd was 2:41 and 3rd was 2:47). (Of course Kirsten was within 6 minutes and Dawn BEER STOP AND ALL was within 14!! Consider that Logan the Boy Wonder turned a 2:420)..

Except for Keith the fast TWW guys all flatted, which is too bad.. Rich managed to to finish ahead of Jeff with one flat each.. I sensed there is some kind of rivalry their.

It was good race, the barbecue was great.. Of course, the starting order for Sport Really sucked.. Starting the 45+ AHEAD OF the all the Young Buck Sports was STUPID.. Similarly the Sport women started ahead of the Clydesdales..

Anyhow it was a fun race and the TWW only feedzone was great, next time I'll take better advantage of it. I'm looking forward to one of these sport races that's like 3 x 5 miles laps instead of 3 8.5 miles laps or 2 13 miles laps!!!.. Sure Sizzler is 22 miles but there a LOT of smooth road there!! I have NEVER felt this bad after a race, including the year I got dropped in the Death Valley/Whitney Portal Stage race and had to ride the last 50 miles by myself..!!!

The setting was pretty and the company was great. Linda and had a great time at the Barbeque..

Dave