Firestone Walker

This weekend the fam made the 6 hour trek to the Santa Nynez Mountain Bike Classic near Buellton/Solvang. We had never been to this neck of the woods so we made a three day trip out of it. We stayed the first night in Morro Bay at a cheap but clean room and walked the beach the next morning, watching the surfers and the kite festival that was underway. We then headed to our campground at The Flying Flags in Buellton. It was one of those RV parks filled with obnoxious gas guzzling homes on wheels, but unlike the primative camping at the venue, there were clean hot showers, flush toilets, a playground for the monkey girl, pool, spa, freshed baked cookies upon arrival- the works. After setting up, we were off to pre-ride the course. The race directors were a super nice couple who were a little in over their heads since this race became a Norba National a couple months ago. There were like 400 extra athletes, some big guns at that. It was sweet to see Shonny VanB, Georgia Gould, Marla Streb, Barry Wicks, Kabush, JHK,( just to name a few of the pros racing). The course was pretty sweet but we definitely would have benefited from full suspension bikes as there was a ton of peddling over bumpy singletrack carved out of the side of the hill by cows. It was private land normally not ridden by bikes. They shortened all the race distances due to the 100 degree heat and the firestone beer was flowing at this place. I knocked down 2 alone while waiting for the hubby to pre-ride, Simone was napping of course. So without being too graphic, that nights sleep was a mess- Chris got some sort of tummy bug and was up puking most of the night. I knew we were in trouble when I tried to wake him to gossip about the camper next to us blowing chunks and all I felt was a pillow next to me. That coupled with sleeping with a 1 1/2 year old required extra caffeine the next morning before my 8 am race start. Mind over Matter is our motto. They were a bit unorganized at the start, they had the clydsdale men, tandems, 16 and under boys, etc start all before us. I wanted to ride expert but lack of childcare had me in sports.They combined us with the beginners just to make matters even more interesting. So off we went, trying to maneuver around all riders walking up the first hill- uggh Sea Otter deja-vu. At least there was some passing space this time. One gal and I took off, she gapped me and I lost her, riding alone, aside from passing the aforementioned riders who started before us, I finished second. She was - yes - 9 minutes ahead of me. Third was 6 minutes behind me. The race was not the full distance they told us it would be and a bunch of us men and women were quite bummed that we were conserving for what we thought would be a longer race. I think they cut it 4 or so miles short. the course was fast, loads of pedaling and some steep screaming downhills. The climbs were challenging as well but all and all it was a fast one. The first place gal and I drank beer and chatted the rest of the day, I guess she could not upgrade due to not having an annual license. The cool thing is she grew up in Santa Rosa. Chris, poor eloctrolyte lacking thing, managed a 4th place expert finish, finishing seconds behind 3rd. I was still proud of him for coming back from the rough night. We then spent the rest of the day jumping in the jump house with Simone, playing with the other naked babies in the kiddie pool, which was quite ripe by then, and watching the pros race. I recommend this event, it had that rootsy feel to it and we hope to return next year.

-Sarah P.

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