Bringing the WOW to Santa Cross

Victor "Elf" Robles

So this past Sunday Greg, Victor and I raced at the Santa Cross this past weekend. We brought the WOW with our phenomenal racing kits. The socal cross scene wasn't ready for the Christmas Cheer. It was a pretty fantastic morning, I was called many names in my greenman suit: green machine, green dude, elf, santa's helper, but my favorite was when someone called me a f**cking leprechaun as I was passing them.









Scott "Greenman" McClave

Cross racing is ridiculous amounts of fun, brutal too (especially when I've been racing endurance races the whole season), going full balls to the wall for 35 minutes hurts. My legs didn't cooperate I ended up with a frustrating 19th out of 47, not bad for a first time crosser and for not taking anything serious that day (how could I in a greenman suit). Victor on the other hand laid the smackdown and pulled off a 2nd place finish, great success. Greg forgot his inhaler so his lungs almost exploded on him. Cross racing is sweet I we're going to do more next season: rocking the ridiculousness loudly.

Greg "Ugly Xmas Sweater" Dolder


Merry Christmas
Scott

Big Kitty

So I was riding by myself on my friends cross bike today up in long canyon (1st time I've been on one, what a blast) so I can get a feel for it for Sunday's Santa Cross Race. Everything was going great, trails were nice and tacky due to the recent rain and it was cool out. It actually felt like cross season compared to the rather warm winter we've had up until this week. Came down the fire road that connects with Albertsons motorway and turned right heading towards Lang Ranch. I was rounding the left hand sweeper just before the fire road turns to singletrack and spooked what looked like a bobcat or some sort of medium sized feline. Thought it was pretty cool seeing one up close if only for a split second while it scurried into the bushes. I dove into the singletrack where it makes a right handed u-turn, and then I realized what I'd really spooked, an adolescent mountain lion and it was walking right beside its mother about 15ft in front of me. As soon as I saw her my brakes were on and the last thing I wanted to do was tick her off. My mind immediately kicked into overdrive and I was super alert and ready to fight if I had to, in a slit second I'd surveyed the scene and realized the disadvantaged situation I was in. Fortunately they were both walking away from me, down the trail I was planning on taking. Once I realized that she didn't hear me I turned around and started pedaling back the way I came. My head was turned around like an owl as I pedaled off making sure she wasn't setting up an ambush or chase attack. After pedaling out of there had a nice chance to reflect on how blessed I was that the situation didn't turn for the worse. Mountain Lions are absolutely awesome animals but they demand an incredible amount of respect, seeing one in the wild especially a mother and cub is a true blessing in disguise that most people will never experience, so I consider myself very fortunate for that. For me this was the second encounter I've had with a mountain lion about two and a half years ago while night climbing on the planet of the apes wall in Malibu Creek State Park, my friend Cristine and I were stalked by a full size adult, a very eerie experience. The mountain lion had just seemed to have gotten a kill and it wasn't happy that we were in its dining room and it let us know by letting out a huge roar at us. Then were in a fifteen minute bluffing match with this magnificent predator, staring each other down eye to eye. We were able to make it out okay after rigging up some makeshift weapons from our arsenal of climbing gear. Fortunately we didn't have to use them.

Cheers
Scott

Almost got taken out by a Tumbleweed

Today Cory and I were out riding in the cold (by socal standards) mid 30's at the start and mid 40's when we wrapped it up a little over three hours later. Just a nice cruise on the flats with some gusty winds, almost got blown over once. As we were cruising up Moorpark road this giant Texas size tumbleweed (had to be 5 or six feet in diameter no joke) decided to mess with us. The winds shifted and this thing starts barreling towards us. In my head I was thinking, crap this is not going to feel good as it was bouncing around the road towards us in a unpredictable manner. Right at the last moment we missed our run in with this thing and started cracking up. Good times despite the cold weather, nobody else was as crazy as us that morning, didn't see a single other rider out there.

Scott

Photo Shoots and Windy Night Rides

Victor and I have been at it again, teaming up with John Ker (Mountain Bike Action's head photographer) and lending our riding skills for the magazines. Between the two of us we've been in almost every issue for a little over a year or so, which has been an absolute blast. Last week Vic was out riding the new Top Fuel and today I was testing out a set of Geax mountain tubular tires on a Carbon Reynolds wheelset. For those of you that thought tubular tires were only for roadies be prepared to be wowed cause this wheelset was crazy. They had a totally different feel to anything I've ever ridden, supple, fast, and great traction. Be sure to look for the full review in upcoming issues of Mountain Bike Action. If you're ever paging through MBA and see a pair of "Simi Cycling Center" socks, that would be Vic or myself. Don't forget that you can get your hands on these sweet socks at your favorite shop (SCC of course) for only $10.

Scott on a Cannondale 29er

Oh snap! Victor's got blood on his arm...

Aside from all that Mountain Bike Action jazz, the shop's Tuesday Night Ride is picking up steam. Tonight we had one of our best turnouts with nine riders and it was a gnarly one weather wise. I thought I've felt the wind before on a bike, but at night going up Chumash with 60+mph gusts now that's wind. Despite the insane conditions we still had a blast and nobody was blown off the side of the mountain, great success. Thanks again Doug, Tom, Steve, Jim, Ed, and Chad for making this such a fun ride. And big congrats to Chad for winning the Solo Beginner Men category at the November 12 Hours of Temecula.

See ya out on the trails
Scott

Single speeding around....holy tree

So I was riding my single speed rigid 29er this afternoon up in Long Canyon / Cheesebro area, nice day weather was great no wind and the weather was awesome nice cloudy and cool (socal winter weather lol). Trails are sweet right now, the rain tacked down the sand and didn't cause any erosion issues. Riding with myself and my ipod went up to china flats and headed into Cheesebro via palo comado and sheep corral. Then headed up over powerline road and was planning on using the chute connector (little singletrack that can be easy to miss) to get back to albertson motorway. Right where the entrance to the trail was a huge oak tree had uprooted itself, presumably in the recent storms and feel accross the trail, pretty awesome sight. I think we'll have to get back there and put an up/down ramp to get accross it, that would be fun. Fun ride today, life is much simpler with one gear no suspension and big wheels.
Cheers
Scott