Friday, January 29, 2010

Home Depot Velodrome Invaded By Team Chicken Ranch!

The Chickens took over Home Depot Velodrome in Los Angeles. Check out the photos and video. Good Times!



Friday, January 15, 2010

Gibralter Time Trial, Ouch!

Hello Everyone,

What a morning for a ride up the Gib! It was surprisingly warm this morning as we rode up to the start of the race. Thankfully Luke was there driving Dave's truck up to the summit so everyone could throw their extra clothes in at the bottom and get 'em back at the top. Pretty decent turnout for the race as well. Lots of Chickens that's for sure. Some new faces and a few guys I haven't seen for awhile. It was nice to see Ben Stefanski back out there again. He hasn't lost a step. The scenery was so awesome this morning it almost made me forget all the pain and suffering that's required to haul yourself up to 3,900ft on a bike.



I don't really know anyone's times but everyone looked pretty good and it wasn't long before the whole group was reassembled at the summit and we began a nice leisurely ride across East Camino and down Painted Cave. Hard to think of a better way to start your Saturday morning! Great job everyone!

Check out the results

Hope to see you all on MTB's tomorrow morning!

See ya,

Matt

Jan 2nd, Death March!

Hello Everyone,

What a day! We started out with about 10-12 brave souls heading out for the full monte. A surprise visit by multiple time National Cyclocross Champion Tim Johnson and his wife Lynn made all of us work a little harder than usual up Old San Marcos and 154 but we pretty much stuck together and got to the Armour Ranch turn-off as a group. There we were joined by a few reinforcements including Kim McD, David Jurist, Mike Abbott, Gene, and a few others. A little later we were also joined by a few of Mike Hecker's Coastal Tree care riders so we had a pretty good sized group as we approached the base of Figueroa Mtn. The climb was long and relentless but with some pretty spectacular scenery. As would be expected there were riders spread all over the mountain but everyone made it to the top in one piece. Except for Carson Blume. He ended up taking a little dip in one of the small creek crossings on the way up. Luckily the new white Chicken Ranch kit is "water safe". Near the top of Fig we were joined by Susie and Kimberly and we rode as a group into Los Olivos for a little lunch stop at the Country Market. I was feeling pretty worked at this point but a nice tri-tip sandwich and a coke brought me right back from the edge. At this point some there was some dissention in the ranks. Tim Johnson decided he was going to ride back home along 154 and back the way we came thus shortening the ride considerably. My guess is he was intimidated by the depth of talent within Team Chicken Ranch and the relentless pace that we maintain and he felt that to continue on would simply be too difficult. Afterall he has Cyclocross Worlds coming up in 3 weeks......Then again maybe he was just bored of riding around with a bunch of weekend warriors?....I'm going with my first guess. Several other riders also opted for the "shorter" loop leaving only 5 brave, hearty souls to continue on. Gabe Garcia, Dan Rudd, Carson, Blume, Randall Tinney, and myself. Fortunately we had a few Coastal Tree Care boys willing to escort us all the way to the end of Alisal and the 101. Thanks guys we owe you one!



We did a great job of working together and made great time down the 101 taking turns on the front. Once again I slightly over-estimated the distance of this ride and it only ended up being 104 miles (from In-N-Out) instead of the 117 I had originally thought. I took us just under 7 hours total time including the lunch stop and a few regroups....not too shabby. We have to do this ride again! It's a great loop and not as difficult as I intially thought it might be. Don't get me wrong...it's tough....but it's not a death march. The only real mishap on the whole ride was when I dropped my camera going about 30 mph down the back side of Figueroa. Thankfully, it survived. Looking forward to doing a few more big rides next weekend!

See ya,

Matt

Happy 2010

Hello Everyone,

What a great way to start out the new year! We had a fantastic ride up Little Pine and Camuesa Connector this morning. Great turnout! with about 20 riders starting out at 9:00am from Lower Oso. The fireroad had these sections of sticky mud that made the climb a little tougher but we all made it up without to many problems. It was good to see Greg Knowles out there ridin' like a champ. Angelo showed up for I believe his first Mountain Chicken ride and showed that he's been hiding some impressive MTB skills from all of us, but now the cat's outta the bag. Steve Boelter showed up in his new CR kit lookin' good! I've seen him plenty of times in his old Platinum kit and I always thought he was a nice guy, but until I saw him in a CR kit I never realized just how handsome he really is. Black and red are definitely his colors.....he must be a summer.



The Santa Cruz trail is world class, and in great condition. The ride down was a blast. I'd forgotten that Little Pine is higher than the front range and you can still see the ocean and the islands from the summit....stunning. When we got to the bottom a few of us decided to climb the 19 Oaks trail as a "shortcut" back over to the top of Camuesa Connector. Dave has appropriately renamed the 19 Oaks trail the "19 hikes" trail but it got us where we wanted to go. When we finally got back to the cars Luke, Jonathon, and Greg were already there drinking beers and hanging out. I was a little embarrassed for Luke 'cause he was drinking "girl" beer......bud light with lime. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just pictured Luke being more of a Sam Adams, or Colt 45, kinda guy, but at least now I'll know what kinda beer to get for the Team Chicken Ranch end of the year party.

Well, time to rest up! I want to make sure I have plenty of energy to lay on the side of road with double leg cramps during tomorrows ride! Anyone who didn't ride today is going to have to do all the pulling at the front tomorrow.........Aaron Baker, Dan Rudd, Randy.....this means you!

See ya in the morning!

Matt

December Mountain Bike Fun!

We had a nice little turnout of 6 Chickens for a great ride on Sunday.

It was a bit chilly early, my computer showed as low as 41 degrees early in the ride, but it warmed up quickly and the trails were in epic condition, very Nice! The Magnolia contingent registered about 40 miles and 4000’ feet of climbing in just over 4 hours, others probably came in a bit lower.



A couple high/low lights included Fastrack, Iron Mike and Platinum Nick cleaning the rock wall, then Big Rob pausing to take a bath trailside, and I got the chance to ride the final 25 miles or so with only one foot clipped in due to a pedal spring failure.



Hope to see a few more ‘smiling’ faces next time. It looks like the first Team Big Bear XC race event will be Sagebrush Safari on Feb 28, not too far away at all….

Ride On!

Paul

Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Years Day 2010-Little Pine

In case you missed all the muddy fun on New Years Day, you check it out by watching the video.