California Dreamin' 98'

Well that was a tough one....pretty obscure....I thought Paco's article on the history of the SID summed it up pretty good when he could only dream of having a fast bike like our mystery rider(not JHK).

Our mystery rider M.G. was also part of the Devo Elite Team w/ Jed Schneider and Zach Shriver(Matt's older bro) when I was on Devo in 1996.

Which brings me to a few more 1996 California Big Bear Flashbacks. I first met Garrett Heitman, another super fast rider from back in the day, at Big Bear when he was dating Devo Team Mate Beth Hausam. Garrett introduced me to Johny Sundt who busted out an amazing 11th place in the pro field after a rough hangover from the night before, and last row start, and a wheelie up the first climb. He told me it was all about being relaxed. Tommy D was hooking up with Jenny South. JHK was racing Elite as a Jr. and I was hanging with Derek and the Ritchey Crew. Derek worked as a head mechanic for Specialized for a year and took a few side jobs with other teams. It was pretty crazy one night we were hangin out with Tom Ritchey, Shari Kain, and Tim 'Gay Johnny' Rutherford. The talk was X-Rated but extremely funny.

In 1998 it was back on the road, but this time in the Saab Turbo. Back to the Cabin in Nevada City, but this time around for a little longer. It was pretty sweet to have a place like this to train. The riders in the area are super strong including Jason Moeschler and Travis ' Colfax ' Waters. The mountain biking was endless and the secret local trails went on for miles.

We spent even more time in the Yuba river, I learned to play a didgereedoo, walked on the rocks like Tarzan, almost accomplished the full body tan, but it wasn't all fun and games. This time we worked. We had to Thompsons Water Seal and Stain the entire back deck, clean out the forest, and unload a trailer of homeopathic books. The worst part of course was the nastiest cases of Poison Oak known to man kind. Sleepless nights with cold baths at 3:00am to soothe the pain. Once you fell asleep you were awaken by one of the others who was itching so loud you thought he was.....going to die.

We did some races too....a local race in Napa where Justin Robinson ripped my legs off at the Eagle Mtn Knobular(first time ever we coaxed a girl into flashing us out the sunroof from anothe car, and boy was Travis Colfax impressed) , a local near Tahoe at Donner Pass, and the night series at Death Star. When all was said and done it was off to Mammoth with a slight detour through Sacramento....I can remember dripping sweat in a traffic jam at 112 degrees, leather seats, and no AC in the Saab in the SAC.

Mammoth produced some more avg results for myself...I remember battling Jeremiah Bishop on the last climb....at that time I was faster than him on the descents(it probably had something to do with the MOXEY) and finished 32nd in the Semi-Pro race/ Skyler on the other hand was still a Jr and landed one of his first Norba podiums.

Can anyone name his podium partners...one of them races pretty succesfully on the road now?

Doesn't it look like Sky is going in for some action on the podium girl?

Here is what happens at the end of a long summer.....blown out and can you say 'yard sale?'