Ouch!!!!!!!

Big Rob, better than ever!

Stumpgrinder Update! (from August 25th)

With all due respect to Kimberly and Chicken, I must say that there might
have been a more enjoyable way to spend your Saturday....... You could have
made the short trip to enjoy Mike Hecker's Stump Grinder Dirt Club XC race
in Los Olivos.

Since Hecker is still working on perfecting his marketing techniques, the
numbers were low enough to allow all cats and ages to go off in one mass
start. Yes, Pro through beginners of all ages went off at once, staged in
descending order of Cat. This led to the only real downside of the event,
because the dry conditions and big field size meant things were crazy dusty
for the first mile or so. There was a long stretch where I couldn't see
anything except Fastrack's back tire and I was just hammering ahead on faith
(thanks for not running us off into a ditch or a bull by the way, Dave).

Other than the pig-pen effect on the start, the event and weather were
nearly perfect. The laps went opposite direction on much of the usual
Firestone course, with each loop being just over 8 miles and 900 feet of
climbing. It was about 50/50 fireroad vs really fun well groomed single
track. There were a few fun new sections thrown in that I had not ridden at
previous events, but it all seemed new in a way, due to the backwards
effect. Beginners did 2 laps, sport class 3 and Experts/Pros 4 laps.

We had 4 + 1 Chickens all racing Sport. We made a show of force hanging
pretty well together for much of the first lap before Fastrack and Nick
Davis eventually dropped Iron Mike Abbott, Big Rob Higgins and myself like a bad habit toward the end of lap 1. (BTW - Nick Davis, the +1 Chicken, was looking good in CR colors now that his signing by Chicken has been approved by the league commissioner)
Not far into lap 2, Iron Mike did his best Alberto Contador impression,
leaving his embittered domestiques, Rob & I, in the dust to fend for
ourselves half-way up a wind-swept Col.....


In the end, after 24+ miles and 2700 feet of climbing, the Chickens put up
some respectable results. Two of us even came away with prize money (at
least enough, or maybe nearly enough, to cover a Tri-Tip Ranch Burrito).
Rob, Mike and I did cap off the race-day with lunch and refreshments back at
Cody's in town by about noon, priceless!


RESULTS (from memory)
Sport 40+
------------
Big Rob Higgins - 8th
Iron Mike Abbot - 5th
Fastrack Lettieri - 4th
Nick (don't call me Platinum) Davis - 3rd - prize $

Sport - under 40
-------------------
Paul (Formerly Freeride) Donohoe - 2nd - BIG prize $, see attached


I strongly encourage anyone who can possibly make it (even if you've never
raced MTB before) to come out to represent Team CR at the Stumpgrinder
Summer Race Series Final on Sept 12. ( www.ridesb.com )
A cool $35 entry fee and no racing license required. I'm not trying to be a
shill for Hecky, but rather this is the type of low-key event that I'd
really love to see thriving here locally. The racing was tough, fun,
cheap, near-by, on-time, good humored (and nobody got DQ'd, not even Rob).

Ride On!
Paul

Big Rob = Champion!

Chickens and Chickenettes-

This past Sunday was the finale of the So. Cal. Series and as usual, Big Bear was beautiful. Temps in the high 70s and clear.

The course was the same as the first race but we went around it backwards. Racer turnout was moderate as I believe alot of the divisions were decided at the previous 7 races.

Chicken Ranch was represented by 1 (me) and Fastrack was there (Mark Rusin, my radiologist) and we were in the same race.

We even had strategy. I told Mark to just go as fast as he could to the top of the climb and then we would just work over any body that was left.

30 minutes of climbing later there was no body in the same zip code. We ended up finishing 1-2 in the race. After the free taco's and beer (not free), the state series results were posted and what do you know, there was Big Rob winning the whole shebang and Mark Rusin in second.

Now all I want to do is be like my hero, Dr. Kim Turner and win the State Championships so I too can wear the Bear.

Thanks to Chicken and Dave for helping me win the first thing I have ever won in my life, and to ALL the Chickens and Chickenettes. What a team we have. Thanks to God too.

Rim Nordic, Big Rob Style

Hello Chickens and Chickenettes. This is the Big Rob version of the Nordic race report. First, I would like to say how nice it was to see some fellow team mates at the signup table. We were well represented and made a fine showing of true grit racing. The cat 3 race started in the cool of the morning and stayed that way for about 2 minutes then got hot. Our group strung out immidiately and after a mile it was just me and another guy.I was the better climber (no upper body, right Dano) and he would catch me descending. It was Elings Park all over again. I crashed on the last down hill and had to chase the guy down. I needed about 2 more feet of race course as the posted time was measured in 10ths of a second betweeen 1st and 2nd. After some food and oxygen, we enjoyed watching Gabe take the cat 2 to school. Congrats Gabe, it was fun chatting while we waited for the rest of the group. We saw every one come in except for Paul and thought maybe he flattted when around the final corner he came and didnt stop till he reached the medical tent. It was all macho talk until the "it might sting a little" stuff was poured over his wounds. Its been a while since i have seen that much blood on some one who was still moving. I was glad to see him walking around later but i'm bettin he did'nt work today.Mark Rusin and Mike Roberts ( both from Ojai but Chickens at heart till next year) both had podium finishes and it was traffic free on the way home. All in all it was a great experience. I am now putting out a challenge to ALL Chicken Ranchers. The 12th of next month is the last race at Big Bear before the State Championships. This is the time to get some racing in on the course. Its a very fast and beautiful race and they really put it together nicely. Lets make a great showing and show them the CR Team is not to be messed with. Lets go and get some.

Rim Nordic Part Deux

Awesome race Gabe! Props to Big Rob who pulled off a second place, missing the top spot by inches. And congrats to Bob, Paul and myself for ... well ... for surviving (barely).

Though Gabe's win was mighty impressive, it was rivaled only by his all-out 100 yard sprint to hand me my dropped water bottle on my second lap!

It was a tough course, probably the only course all year which required the "granny gear" to make it up the climbs. It was a lot of singletrack, very narrow, sandy terrain, just technical enough to keep you on your toes and steep. There were precious few sections of fireroad where you could grab some water or pass. And with temps near 90, lots of dust and the sun blazing through the thin 7000 ft air, the conditions were tough.

By the time the Cat 1 30-34 lined up, it was way too hot out and I was already feeling the sun and altitude. The field was small but super-competitive. Looking around at the start I realized that we had all been trading spots all season.. there was no clear winner and I could just as easily get first or last depending on my luck. About 1 hour into it, I found myself battling with the top four who were all bunched together within a few seconds (a pretty rare occurrence in MTB races). The brutally steep climbs got the better of me and the smaller riders pulled away but I kept 4th place and was satisfied that I left it all on the course after finishing 3 laps in 2:12. Bob was close behind.

After the race, I was surprised to see Gabe and Paul hanging around waiting in vain for their results to get posted. There were all sorts of screwups with the results from all categories - supposedly they gave the win in one Cat 1 race to a DNF. How hard can it be to keep track of results and post them in a timely manner? Pretty hard apparently.

As always a great time with great people. It was a lot of fun despite the "bad and ugly".

And one final note: The announcer (don't recall his name) must really love Chicken Ranch since every time we walked by, he commented "How 'bout those santa barbara chicken ranch riders and their carbon weave jerseys". Apparently we have big fans all over socal.

Some photos attached.

- matt

Calling All Mountain Bikers

Originally sent 6-13-09

Matt Perry, Big Rob and I hit up the SGDC Summer series #1 today. About the opposite turnout of the PreOtter with only 15 people across all classes.

Weather was great, course was new (no middle climb/downhill); faster with more laps and there wasn’t much competition. In the Pro/Expert Field, Matt Perry rode away from the competition (me) on the first switchback climb and never looked back. I finished in about 2:28 for four laps/30 miles and Matt was probably 5-10 minutes in front of me. Smokin! Big Rob – gotta let us know how you ended up. Last I saw you were being eased into your van, holding your wrist/shoulder. Hope you are OK!

Come on out for the other SGDC races this summer. Support one of the best racing venues in all of CA (where else do you get a cash payback for sport/expert/pro classes??!). I’ve been racing MTBs for 20+ years and isn’t this what we all ask for – local venue, lots of races, varied courses and great people to race with?

The other Summer Series races are; 7/25, 8/22 and TBD.

VERY IMPORTANT (one of my favorite kinds of racing) – Wednesday Night Dirt Crit Series starting 7/1 and running weekly through 8/5. Cash payback, short, spectator friendly and a great mid-week workout.

See you all out there!
Pete

Bonelli Race Reports

Bonelli Park was a big success.. that is for the race organizer Over 700 riders showed up, double last year.It was a fast course completely different for other years. Perfect warm temp with snow capted mountain in the distance.


For team Chicken, there was a VICTORY for big Rob in the 45 beginner! I was about 10th in the Sport. Matt Perry was 2nd in the expert. Others racing were Bill Cutler, Rob Ramirez, Bob Whilcher, Rod Garrett, Kim Lyons, Mike

Abbott. Lets here some reports :))
More soon,
Dave

Now Dave is just toying with me. I ALMOST got second in the Cat1 30-34 race but was beat out by a few seconds. But I did get on the podium and had some good racing.


This was the first day in recent memory that I rode without arm and leg warmers. The heat was kind of a shock to my system. Didn't get a chance to pre-ride the course but the word from some of the other chickens was "easy" .. I'm not sure what they were comparing it to. It wasn't technical at all but had a few sketchy fast, loose corners. And the climbing was killer.. there were 2 miles of exposed fireroad climbs to start the lap, then a series of really steep little punchy climbs intermixed with some singletrack and short sections of pavement. A really fun course!

Before the race, I realized I had forgotten to bring any food with me


- Ramirez and Cuttler saved the day by donating some Gu packets. Bob W and I started out pretty conservatively and tried to just work our way up through the race. But Bob got a flat half-way through lap 2 and had some issues with his CO2 which set him back 10 minutes. Without that mishap, I'm convinced we would have 2 chickens on the podium! I kept motoring and was able to put a lot of time on those steep short climbs in the middle of the course. Everyone else was shifting down into their granny gear but you just had to keep it in the middle ring, crank up it for 30 sec, quickly recover, repeat. At the end of lap three I had no idea where I was compared to everyone else in my age group and I burnt my last match chasing down a group of three riders in the last 1/2 mile. Turns out one of those guys was the eventual 2nd place but my brain was not functioning properly and I convinced myself that he wasn't in my age group so I didn't need to out-sprint him. The way the finish was set up really discouraged a sprint finish; a 180 degree paved turn about 50 feet before the finish line with a narrow roped-off shoot leading into it so there was basically no way to do it safely. At least thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it.


Next stop Keyesville.. hope to see everyone there!

Matt

I'm calling this race the "Bonelli Park Hair Club For Men's race".


Billy C. and I drove down together and we are hairy. Not as hairy as DanO, but gaining fast...

Also, there were some hairy climbs and some fast hairy descents on this course. The descents were so fast they made the hair on the back of your back stand up. Then we met up with Mike Abbott and he has hairy legs and rides the hairy Super D in addition to the XC. Plus, to cap it off, some guy commented to us on the pre-ride about our hairy legs!


Oh yea, and the race...it was beautiful weather with warm temps and clear air. Billy and I got to race some platinum dudes (Aaron Transky and John Reveles) which made it fun. Right out of the gate there is a big hill. I started out on the front row with my furry friend Billy for this race but ended up at the back of the pack by the time we reached the top of the first hill. From there it was racing through traffic which made it fun. Dave Lettieri started in the group behind us but by the second lap he was right behind me. Not sure where I finished, but it was well worth the trip down there. The race organizers really put in a big effort to make this a good event. They had shwag bags, free T-shirts, vendor demo areas, free In-N-Out, a motorcycle show, and good race organization.


Thank you,

Rob Ramirez

I met Dave at 6:15 and off we we went. First I would like to say that Dave could double as a stock car driver if he ever decides to hang up his cleats. He saved the day with his lightning quick reflexes to avoid your typical idioit driver. No warmups were necessary as my heart rate was 195 after that. 550 people signed up and it was about 85 degrees at the start time. We pre road the course to kill of the time we had to wait till start time as we made it down to San Dimas in about 7 minutes.. I asked Dave how to race MTBs and his sage advice was "don't crash."Start times were staggered at 1 minute intervals. At my start time I just went as hard as I up the first hill and was just hoping that I would be in the mix after that. At the top I was all by my self (bonus !!!!) so I thanked God and just tried to keep catching the riders who started in front of me. .it was all over I had won my Cat 3 old guy catagory. It was and awesome trip and CR was well represented. Riding in the dirt is alot of fun and I cant wait for the next one. Thanks Dave and all CR.z


Big Rob

sounds like a great vegas trip, as for the mountain chickens i think we had 8 riders all did well, i think we had 3 podium finishers we will get their stories as they report, it was nice to meet and see what a great job kim lyons did with her race(hope you got that first aid) beer. matt pulled off a 3rd what a great effort, and big rob first place in his first race!. good job in the largest class for rob ramerez and bill cutler. not sure how the others did, let us know. as for my races i finished 6th in xc and 5 th super d, my legs were gone by the time the super d went off, it was still a great event, the new us cup program seems to be a great draw for larger classes.


mike abbott

We had a great day of racing at Bonelli indeed. It turns out that Dave "The Clock" Lettieri got on the podium after all - 5th according to the results posted a little while ago. Congrats to Dave and everyone else who went down. Matt P is a feekin' stud and won that race in my book (yes the 50-foot finish was pretty lame) and I know he will pick one off as the season goes on. Big Rob got the sweet taste of success with his win and believe it or not, the Clock even let him pick up his award ("go, go go", I heard him say to Rob). No kidding, Ramirez finished within a minute of Dave and then went directly to the car to change after the race - Dave had already mounted his bike and was changed, ready to leave. Wow! Others who raced and were not mentioned were Rod Garratt and Mike Abbott who fared well in their respective categories. Also, Ramirez got an awesome time in the top 10 - hey you beat Reveles after all but missed Transki (recently downgraded from Expert...har-umph!) by 20 seconds. Speaking of the "other guys", they had some good results as well but as you might imagine did not have as much fun as we did. I know this because due to the heat, Rob and myself were proud to keep our jerseys unzipped, proudly flaunting our Sasquachlike rugs in the blazing San Dimas heat while the other guys...well, let's just say I don't think the sponsors allow them to unzip their jerseys, no matter how hot it gets. Anyway, Dano, we thought of you and know you would have appreciated this. Anyway, I had an OK race finishing in typical Cuttler style for a MTB race; that is at the bottom third of the group. The first lap felt great and then, again, in typical Cuttler fashion, proceeded die and go backwards on the second lap. I must say that I am looking forward to the flatter lands this weekend. The highlight of my trip was of course off the trail. If you guys think Benko goes out of his way to make sure his teammates are well taken care of and have a good time, well you guys need to hang out with Ramirez. After our race, we bummed around a little while and then the hunger started to creep in. Rob kept going on about how he didn't eat after the last race and really didn't need to eat after a race. Of course, I was telling Rob how I needed to eat within 10 minutes of finishing a race or else I get headaches and can be a real prick. After Rob decided it was time for us to go, he agreed to take me to In and Out. "Phew", I thought, "I can hang in another 10 minutes or so, I know there is an In 'n Out somewhere close by". Well, we proceeded to In N Out alright but this was not any 'ol In N Out. No, I was to be taken on a detour to a special In N Out...the In N Out that he and Carol had their first date at. No kidding. "How sweet, now get me something to eat dammit!" I thought to myself gritting a fake smile for my fellow marmut-like friend (after all, he did drive...even though I paid for the parking). It gets better...unfortunately we did not go directly to In N Out. Rob actually took the time to give me a tour of Arcadia where he grew up while I sat patiently starving to death. Yes, I got to see the street Rob lived on, Rob's High School (where he and Carol met), the 7-11 that had Rob's favorite Slurpy(tm) flavor, and of course Rob and Carol's first apartment. Now you can't do that in Vegas my friends! Anyway, about an hour after my race, the hair on Rob's leg was starting to look mighty tasty when fortunately we pulled into In N Out. It was indeed a romantic spot. Needless to say, thinking about Rob and Carol and that first date made me feel extremely closer to Rob and I became slightly jealous of Carol. It was a weird feeling and I'm pretty sure in my weakened hungry state Rob and I had "a moment". It was at that point that I officially decided to leave Gabe for Rob. Call it a double-double if you will but racing a mountain bike in the extreme heat and then being deprived of calories for too long will do that to you. Good times...good times...



Bill Cuttler
 
What a blast! This was my big comeback to mtb racing after 3 years of loafing around. I planned to win but came up a bit short with a 2nd place finish. The good news is that the girl who beat me is trying to get pregnant and doesn't plan on racing much of the season. Yeah, good for Kim, good for Chicken Ranch! I am excited about racing with an actual team this year and look forward to meeting more of you.


Perhaps a little more team time at the next race? Coolers full of beer or something? I'll hook it up.

Cheers!!

Kim