After the Big Bear round of the U.S. Cup West Series was canceled due to too much snow on the ground, the Santa Barbara Bike Festival at Elings Park was scheduled to take the place of the high altitude event. I’d much rather race in the mountain town of Big Bear, but Santa Barbara isn’t such a bad place. Of all the “urban” cross country race courses in Southern Californian, I think the one at Elings Park is the best. It’s got a few good climbs and a lot of descent singletrack. Come to think of it, it’s probably got more singletrack per 5-mile lap than the Big Bear course does.
The Santa Barbara race marked my first on the new Superfly and the bike did not disappoint. It’s a rocket ship – that’s for sure. The only things that kept me from making the podium was my lack of fitness, my poor fork tuning abilities, and the few guys that finished in front of me. I can’t claim to have won the “Old Pro Class” or “Daddy Division” this time either because Tinker came out and torched us all from the moment Larry Long said “Go” on the Team Big Bear P.A. system. But, I made the top 10 and considering I haven’t raced a mountain bike since March, I’m cool with that. The next couple of months are packed with good races, so it’s time to do some catching up.
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