NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

Welcome back, roadie nerds!

It’s been a long winter here in Hernandito-land, but I’ve emerged from my seemingly interminable hibernation with a renewed vigor for the blogging lifestyle…and a notable lack of fitness.

I was reminded of the cyclical nature of the cycling seasons by fellow blogger seabiscuit’s most recent post. Each year, summertime blog posts about roadies give way to wintry writ about trackies and ‘crossers, followed by a January resurgence of the roadies. It’s reminiscent of the classic Volterra predator-prey model, shown below.

Being a road racer myself, I’m biased to lump trackies, ‘crossers, hipsters and MTB’ers into the category of “prey.” Deal with it.

As you can see, it’s the time of year when the hungry pack of roadies rapidly expands, concomitant with an increased frequency of blog posts by…well…me.

Without further ado, are you ready for the 2010 Road Blogging Season [cue ]?

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The Mount San Bruno Hillclimb – Jan 1, 2010

Photo from Illuminix Studios

I have a question for anyone that participated in this race. What is wrong with you? It’s 10am on January 1st! You should be hungover and asleep on some random acquaintance’s couch. My guess is that you want to die tired, sad and alone, because that’s the only outcome I envision for you hillclimbing lunatics.

OK. Not really.

In all seriousness, I have a lot of respect for those who participate in the San Bruno Hillclimb. It takes an awful lot of willpower to drag yourself out of bed and up a huge mountain that early in the season–I mean, look at the face on this Wells Fargo rider–and so, for your willpower alone, I salute you.

Photo from Illuminix Studios

Chris Phipps (Morgan Stanley Old Guys), perennial climbing freakshow extraordinaire, was my pick to win the P/1/2 race for the billionth time, with Tracy Colwell (Webcor) a close second. However, as Phipps noted in twitter-mangled English, he was upstaged by young climbing phenom Menso de Jong (Metromint).

As far as the women’s race goes, it appears (according to the oft inaccurate USACycling Database) that category 3 rider Rebecca Rising took the top placing.

Now, I’ve heard rumors of a Mount San Bruno curse, whereby the rider that wins this race each year fails to perform for the remainder of the season; I bet it’s a lie. Mythbusters, where are you when the really important debunking is required? I say, be on the lookout for these two San Bruno victors for the rest of the season!

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Speaking of Chris Phipps (how’s that for a segue), am I the only one that finds it a bit ironic that an old Masters racer is the only guy who has figured out how to use modern technology? I recommend everyone follow him on Twitter (), because he’s been quite diligent about tweeting results within minutes of their finality.

If Velopromo has figured out how to use online registration, we can collectively figure out how to post results online the day of the race!

Come on everyone, use those stupid iGadgets you’ve been lugging around in your pockets! I’ve even hopped on the bandwagon with my very own twitter account. Follow me, my twitter name is . I apologize, I just set the damn page up and I haven’t quite figured out how to type anything useful in 140 characters. When I get the hang of the confounded thing, I’ll try to update with some frequency because, let’s face it, tweeting is easier than blogging; both, incidentally, are easier than bike racing.

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Admittedly, I may have returned to the world of blogging a bit too early. The real bike racing season won’t begin for another month, so I’m a bit short on content at the moment. I suppose the Early Birds have started, but since those races have neither results nor spectators, I have no idea what’s been going on over there in Fremont. No crashing, I presume.

Anyway, I hope you’re all excited for the upcoming road season. Get your comment-fingers warmed up and prepare for another onslaught of mindless, bicycle-themed bloggery!