Racing In The Redwoods!

Hey Gang,

Last weekend, two chickens flew the coup to race in the North. While I was sensitive to all signs on how this one may turn out, seeing Matt in the Team Chicken Ranch suburban support vehicle as we turned on to 101 N was one GREAT sign. Our second sign besides the price of gas was a huge wildfire to the West while cruising up 101, looked like a big damn chicken roast but we had none of that action. Fish was on the menu at the local tavern and we were having some of that! The Red Snapper w/ mashed and green beans was a racer delight after a pre-car ride of the course and throwing down the bags at our killer campsite next to thirty shrelping kids was set! Now for some log sawing, EB woke on the other end of the campsite from where he went down, hmmmm ....

Masters 45+
OK, now race day and twenty-two urinations and I was ready but EB was still in the Johnny-line that was some 15 minutes long so races in essence were about 15 minutes behind at start. With Fred and Dave and Luke all nursing my Trek to race condition the past week, only question was could I hold on to her during the race! Well, I did not let them down since I spent the next 2 1/2 hours advertising with my tool bag still on my bike :) and the Chicken Ranch burro earlier in the week was still revving in my stomach .... and well with training and focus this time instead of just showing up, I managed to HOLD-ON to both the bike and burro this race!

About 75 of us started and rolled out casual but by the first climb (400') it was heating up, I stayed back and watched but was able to climb up through the slackers, when we hit climb two (400') it was a frontal assault by then but I managed again to be hanging with the leaders and to my surprise my forearms were not locked up with lactic ...we (about 30) re-grouped on the road to the bigger climb of the course and well when we hit it, we hit it hard and I was able to hang on to bitter end and fought and struggled but re-grouped on downhill, where only a couple risks were taken, all was well at this point, had gotten water, gone to bathroom, ate my snacks and kinda kickin' it with a smile no less. We hit climb #four, first hill (400') and it was getting faster but no worries yet and then it was time to worry ... climb #five separated the boyz from the men, me. I lost contact on that uphill and worked with 5-6 other riders to within 30 seconds along the road to final climb (900') ...in that final climb, I dropped five of the six riders while two of us chased and reeled in a couple bonkers and then it was ova ... 47.22 miles in 2 hrs 21 minutes .. and not sure of the place or cats of the other riders yet but maybe top 25 for me, top 35 for Eric.

Here are some pix of the trip ... not so much of racing :) where I hammed it up for course photographers!



This was a very cool race with good setting and good course. REDWOODS!

PEACE!
RD

Esquire's Elings Race Report

The following is the Team Chicken Ranch Race Report from last weekend's Elings Park races:

"The Chicken Ranch Cycling Team raced in the Cross Country, Super D and Downhill races last weekend at Elings Park, with the Jellison family leading the charge. On Saturday Bradford Jellison took 1st place in the Beginner Jr. Men 14+ under race and on Sunday Christopher Jellison took 1st in the hotly contested Jr. Men's 10 + under race. Also on Saturday, Mike Abbott took 1st place in the Downhill Sport 40+ race. In the Super D races, Pete "Super P" Sproul took 1st in Men's 30-39 race, while Jelly Jellison, Dave Lettieri and Mike Abbott finished 2nd, 4th and 5th, respectively, in the Men's 40+ race. In the Cross Country races Sue Fish took 1st in the Women's Sport 50+ race. Matt Benko took a hard-earned 2nd Place in the very competitive Expert 40-44 Race, while Pete Sproul took 5th in the Expert 35-39 race. David Jurist (Beginner 45-49), John Nygren (Beginner 35-39) and Mike Abbott (Sport Clydesdale 35+) each took stellar 2nd places in their categories, with Nygren having the 6th fastest time out of all of the Beginner races. Gabriel Garcia powered around the course for a fast 3rd place in the Sport 35-39 race, while Sean Edwards took 3rd place and a raspberry in the Beginner Jr. Men 12 + under race. In the Sport 40-44 race Robert Ramirez and Craig "Blinger" Zimmerman crossed the line holding hands to finish together in 4th and 5th, respectively. Brian Bermudes took 4th place in the Sport 30-34 race, with Seth Sproul finishing behind Bermudes in 6th place. And Brad Jellison took 5th in the 35+ Sport Clydesdale Race."

Also attached is a photograph that could be captioned: "Team Chicken Ranch's Christopher Jellison is all smiles after his victory in the Jr. Men 10 + Under Cross Country race at Elings Park last Sunday""

Best,

Kim R. McDaniel

A Couple More Elings Race Reports

Mike Abbott, who is Mr. Mountain Bike has a quick race report below followed by Mr. Sproul (dirt boy) and some photos. The photo credits go to Pete and Gabe. Thanks for sending them in guys.

it was a great weekend, got to see a lot of ranchers out beating the trail, thanks to matt and the feed zone we were all in good supply fluids, I was able to catch the first place rider in xc on the decent of the second lap, but on the end of the second lap climb he got by, i kept him in sight on the last lap up the pavement but did not see him till i was going south and he was crossing the line for the finish, he got me by more than a minute. the down hill on the other hand I got first!!, the super d came in fifth, due to the rule i did not know(you are suppose to drink a few beers shortly before the start if you want to claim a podium spot) that rule may need some tweaking to fine the proper mount of courage fluid!! Great job everyone.

Mike


Hard?!? Yeah, that was hard, one of the harder races I’ve done in a long time. I blew so hard on the fourth lap I wasn’t sure I was going to finish. Actually, maybe that was the second lap? I started off with what I though was a pretty mellow effort but after checking my first split and seeing around 27:30, I knew I needed to back it off a bit. I was sitting in 8th or 9th and had to figure out how to slow down and still pass people! Fortunately, that turned out to be quite easy as guys started popping big time about halfway through the second lap. By the end of the lap I’d moved up to 5th and just tried to maintain. The laps got harder and the lap times slower; 28 something for lap two, 29 something for lap three and about a 33 minute final lap. On lap three I was seriously overheating so I decided to roll around in the dirt for a bit. Didn’t really help but made for some good pictures. Best part was forgetting I was cramping in both legs and could hardly pedal and being able to pretend I was racing and sprint the last 100 yards with Matt! I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as fun to watch as Ramirez and Blinger but we gave it a shot. Fun times, too bad we have to wait three months to do it again!!



Great job to everyone else who was out there racing or just hanging out and yelling. Especially Jelly for talking me into racing SuperD on Sat. I’d forgotten what it was like on the podium and the 8 min race effort didn’t affect putting one foot in front of the other like I’m having trouble doing today!

Pete

Elings Report: Wow! That was hard!

Hello,

We had a great turnout for our local MTB race with quite a few Chicken Ranchers taking the line. In the Beginner Class we had new Rancher David Jurist taking 1st in a blow out, John Nygren with an impressive 2nd, and Mr. Greg Knowles with a hard earned 5th. Ashely Edwards was out there representin' as well but I don't know where he finished. We also had a bunch of mini-Ranchers riding the big-boy course too. Paul Donahoe and Ben Edwards kids made it all the way around the challenging course. Ben's son Sean even has a big ole' Raspberry on his hip as a reminder of how hard the course was but he tuffed it out a finished strong. Which is more than his Dad did since he elected to "sit this one out".

The race of the day was definitely the duel between Brad Jellison's son Christopher AKA "Tick" and Ron Tekada's son Reny. They duked it out all the way around the course, never seperated by more than 10 yards. Tick had a little more in his legs at the end and outsprinted Reny for the win but it was a great race. Brad's older son Bradford also won the Downhill on Saturday. Fortunately Brad's kids inherited their Mothers athletic ability.

In the Sport race we had some excellent results with Mike Abbott pulling down a 2nd place, Gabe Garcia riding strong for 3rd in his class, Brian Bermudes with a "Best Ever" 4th place in the sport 30-34 class with Seth Sproul hot on his tail in 6th. Brad Jellison hung on for a hard earned 5th place in the "Big-Guy" Class. We also had Paul Donohoe, Dave Lettieri, and Philip Friden out there but I'm not sure how they finished-up the full results should be posted shortly.

The battle of the day in Sport was clearly the show-down between the "Crafty Spaniard" Robert Ramirez, and Craig "Blingerman" Zimmerman. They went back and forth for all 3 laps but somehow at the end they practically came across the line holding hands. There are only two possible explanations for this:

1. It was mutual show of respect between two friendly rivals.

2. It was a blatant show of support for California's recent decision to recognize Gay marriage.

I'm going with number #2.

In the Expert Class we had me and Pete Sproul flying Chicken Ranch colors. Pete rode to a very impressive 5th place in the stacked 35-39 class. I rode in the "Old Guy" 40-44 Class and I'm almost embarrassed to say I finished 2nd......again. I can't seem to break out of my 2nd place rut. I was actually trying to finish 3rd just to mix things up but the guy in first broke his chain and foiled my plan. I think next race I'll go for 4th.

When it came time to stand on the podium I didn't have a clean Chicken Ranch jersey to wear so Brad and Rob improvised and wrote "Chicken Ranch" on my chest with a Magic Marker. I think it looks classy.



I had a great time racing and hanging out with all of you and look forward to doing it again. Ride Ranchers Ride!


Matt

SB Bikefest Day 1

Thanks goes to Mr. Lettieri for being our on the spot reporter.

Today was the first day of the SB Bike Festival. It was a multi event day at Elings Park. Just a quick note that the Super D race was SUPER COOL.

It is basically a time trial on the flats and downhill of the Elings Park Cross Country loop. 8-9 minutes total. 30 sec intervals.... So no knarly downhill and no long term suffering, The 40+ group was Ok represented. I do think we all could have done it...I was surprised so few from Santa Barbara raced this event

There are no ability ranges, just age groups. We had Brad J, Mike Abott and my self in the 40+, and Super fast man Pete Sproul in the 30+ Pete smoked all but one to get the second fastest of the day.

In the 40+ Ron Tekada beat the field by 20+ secs to win. Brad J was 2nd, A state champion Super D guy was 3rd and I was 4th .4 secs behind him. Mike A was 5th. (After winning the 40+ downhill earlier in the day) Between 2nd and 5th it was only about 10 seconds.... Another cool thing that the results were up and the podium was held within a half hour of the finish.


After the Super D, I heard that they were serving Chichen Ranch at the BMX track. So I figured I could get in a few more races for the evening or at least get some good food.

I raced the crusier class and we had a good group of 5 riders. I finally beat a couple and finished 3rd!

Should be an interesting cross country race in the AM!

See ya out there,

Chicken For A Day

Having received the bad news that my Platinum Performance pal and cycling mentor/motivator, Mr. Mortgage, wasn’t heading up for the Big Bear Shootout June 1 reminded me that my bicycles currently out-value my autos and none qualified as appropriate (read: reliable) transport to the start line. Enter one Former Olympian. I was down at the shop buying a really fine seat bag for the race rig (you know, the ones that come with a yellow bag with a square hole (I thought it was a free with purchase “Elephant Man”Halloween mask) when I mentioned needing a lift to the big day. The FO said he’d mention it around town and give a shout if somebody had an open seat. Seemed like one of those things that gets said and then floats off like a smoke ring. To my great shock and pleasure FO called at the beginning of race week and said that there was a cancellation and did I want to ride with---drum roll---the great chicken ranch trinity. Now, I have only been riding on two wheels without a beer in my hand for about a year and am new to SB, but not so new that I don’t know when my life is about to change! The fam and I relocated to Goleta last year from the Alamo City (clap, clap, clap, deep in the heart of Texas) last year and so we know a thing or two about ranches. I pulled up at the biggest chicken’s coop at the crack’o for the get-a-long and sure as heck, them boys showed up all a wearin’ stretchy pants, just like back in the Republic. I knew I was amongst kin.

Loaded up with the big one and the bling one, we went to Milpas and picked up what appeared to be a homeless man on a bike. But, whoa moses, there’s those stretchy pants again, spare that brother a dime! You can imagine the amount of cataloging my newbie mind was doing given this “all access” pass to observe the super chickens pre-race routines. Let’s see: there were the TWO cupcakes and a bottle of water for the homeless guy; a mysterious, peanut buttery smelling mixture eaten out of a plastic bag for the bling one and damned if the big one didn’t eat a peanut butter and jelly an hour before the race like it was 2d grade lunch period! All that restraint made me question the Belgian waffle, sausage patties and Frappacino I had slowly eaten precisely 3.4 hours before the race start.

One unfortunate episode on the way to the race, a spirit woman named Gigi, who’s voice seemed to be channeled through the bling one, gave us totally bogus directions that had us perilously close to losing almost 7.3 minutes of drive time and the homeless guys sanity. On the bright side it did give us a chance to check out Jeff’s white Yeti, TWICE! Not to fear, the troops landed with mucho tiempo to spare.

Once on the mountain everyone got right down to the business of race-preparedness, which way to the port-a-potties?!? After registrating and getting free-taco ticketed we got our collective arses in the saddle for what seemed like a 45 minute climb to the race start. The weather was fab-you-los, maybe 70 and almost no wind and the staging area was pleasantly cool. The big one was made to start early as he is big and must go further. Then off went the bling-y one with the FO on the medium loop. Sometime later, off I go with a huff and a puff or I’ll blow at altitude on the small one (and it was just right)!

The course was super fun, a long climb out of the start and then some rolly fire road. Things got interesting when the trails merged and I was greeted from behind by blingy and the FO who gave a much needed “atta boy” to the slaving limbs below me. There were some nice single track sections with varying degrees of difficulty from soft loamy dappled shade prettiness to sharp rock, pick your line or you gonna hurt, bomb-a-thons. My “glory” moment was chasing down my category foe, Mike Rauls, from team SHOW-OFF on a single track section. We had passed each other several times on the course and he made a move and got to the single track ahead of me. When we got to a fairly large spot of water, he decided to dismount and go around the edge. I quickly reflected on the situation, “what would the b team do?” I hopped off the war pony and went cyclocross through what turned out to be knee deep water and never looked back.

About 2 miles from the finish after panting up yet another climb and coming down some fairly sketchy fire road, I felt something falling on my legs. Was that thirty minute port-a-potty visit not enough to clear the bulkhead? When I looked down I saw my “Elephant Man” mask from the new seat pack wrapped around my cassette. I also realized that the recreational bikers on the trails were going to score some nice tire levers, a tube, patch kit, multi-tool and the overdue DVD’s from Blockbuster that I was going to return on the way home. Ten seconds into the argument with myself about whether to stop and clear it the jury came back: There was no flippin way daddy-o was pullin over. So I managed to shift into a gear and got a pedalin’, single-speed style. The chicken karma worked its magic and I got across the finish 4 minutes ahead of the dreaded SHOman.

The big one came in fifth in the papa category, just 7 minutes off the pace and is truly a spectacular captain of the good ship chicken ranch. FO and the bling one crossed the line 6th and 7th closer than a slow dance at the high school prom in the mama category. I, dear reader, managed top of the boxes , but then, I was chicken for a day.

PS One last amazing moment from the trip. On the way home, the FO, who is not one to camp in the outdoors, showed us how he makes “urban” s’mores. To celebrate the big right turn at the ocean and the home stretch, he produced a perfectly melted Almond Joy from his stretchy pants! Who knew the power?

A Chicken 29er

If you haven't seen this Chicken on the latest Specialized 29er. You should, check it out at testrider.