Gist.James's blog

Almost 30 women came out on Saturday to enjoy the sunshine and pick up a few tips from three local racers. Johanna Kraus, Michele Co and Christy Tankersly spent some quality time at Walnut Creek with various obstacles and drills to instruct and fine tune skills that relate to all aspects of mountain biking.

The weather actually held out until the last 20 minutes of the race and the course was in great shape. The music was excellent and so were the burgers. Anyway, here are the results.

There was a lot of racing going on this year. I decided to forgo the Hillclimb in favor of one of the best races in the state of VA…the Middle Mountain Momma. It’s an epic battle between rider and gravity. The climb over the first mountain is about an hour of grinding away hoping that the next switchback brings you over the top…and even when you do hit that last switchback making the rise to the glorious descent is an effort that will shake even the strongest of minds.

Johanna and I just got back from Sea Otter 2008. When we were able to sneak in some expo time between pre-rides and hanging out at the Velo-Bella tent we saw some pretty cool stuff and even found some great deals. One of the first things I wanted to do was check out Ryan Leech’s show. We caught him on the first day. Here’s a short video clip.