NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

Dave Mayer of CleanBottle fame has his bikes ripped from his garage this weekend.  It’s in the Portola Valley area, so please report if you see anything at all.

Thanks for spreading this info to all you know in the area … this always sucks when you hear about it … but this is CleanBottle Dave, ferchrissake.

Call in the guard!.

Here is a description of both:

Leopard M1SL road bike,

white. Size smallshimano dura ace components
Shimano Ultegra crank
Wireless powertap with accompanying cyclometer on a mavic open pro rim
front wheel is a williams 19
speedplay pedals
specialized toupe seat

<no picture available>

Ridley X-Fire Cyclocross bike, dark gray. Size small
black saddle, black handle bar tape
mostly shimano ultegra components
no pedals
FSA cranks

Just when you thought the season had a fairy tale ending with Rand Miller winning NorCal Crit Championship over some SoCal hard boys, and Beth Newell taking two national championships at the US Track Nationals the weird stuff starts dropping.

Pistelero in Marin

A few days ago Contador tweeted that he would be leading a ride in Sausalito.  Today it all got confirmed, again, via Twitter.  And when Contador tweets, the world listens.

I’m sure it is tied into a visit to Specialized HQ down in Morgan Hill, and maybe he will sneak in a Lady Gaga like visit to Twitter, Google, or Apple while he’s at it.  I suppose it’s not any different than running into Armstrong in Portola Valley, or Cadel Evans on Old La Honda but it totally has a awkward TV appearance feel to it.  If you go, and hang out with him in Sausalito, please try to talk to him without thinking of this video…

 

SBO OUT OF BUSINESS?

In slightly more alarming news a letter was circulating today that apparently came from Sportsbaseonline.com informing their client base of pending dissolution.

From: SportsBaseOnline Admin

To: undisclosed-recipients:

Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 11:23 AM

Subject: SportsBaseOnline

We regret to inform you that due to financial reasons Sports Marketing Concepts, Inc. DBA SportsBaseOnline will be dissolving as of October 15, 2011 and is ceasing operations. We have explored every option to avoid this outcome to no avail. There are no funds available and no tangible or other assets owned by the corporation that could be monetized to make restitution or pay claims.We apologize for this unfortunate circumstance.

Sports Marketing Concepts, Inc.

The chatter amongst promoters on Twitter would indicate that there will be some carnage once the smoke clears. It is unclear from the email, but the way I am reading this, any money that might still be owed to promoters, from athletes, could be gone.  I hope that is not the case for any of our local promoters who make NorCal racing what it is.  There is nothing on their website yet, www.sportsbaseonline.com, to indicate they company is going under but chatter amongst promoters indicates folks are pissed and are looking at figuring out next steps which I assume means finding a replacement registration system, and trying to recover any revenue that might be tied up with the organization.  I just tried looking up events on Sportsbaseonline and there is currently nothing listed in California.  I’m currently unclear if this is a surprise or not, though I’m surprised – but I am often behind the 8ball (FYI -did you know Hernando is dating Beth?), but it does appear promoters are not happy.

Send us any funny Contador pic’s and if you have any more skinny on SBOgate let us know.

 

Fort Ord, 1 October 2011

It took a few moments for the correct spelling and their impersonation of the Village People was just awful…in the end, Mack Kelly has much to live down after finishing the 1/2/3 race at Central Coast Circuit Races.

 

Win it when it counts.

Photo by

So – if you’re in town, and want to kick your heels in our hood …