OTB

That was Mike Hernandez, aka Olaf Vanderhoot. He's a really strong all-around rider and his early departure was uncharacteristic. Although he's not in the same league with the top-5 guys, he should have done better. Anyway, you can check out his very entertaining blog here...

https://vanderhoot.blogspot.com

...where you can count on a good post about the race when he gets some time.

Also, I took some pictures and put them in my blog here...

https://marcofanelli.blogspot.com

It was interesting to see so many top riders watching the race. Ivan Dominguez to name one...

bitingduck

He doesn't do much track-- did he get pulled on one of the miss & out laps?

Speedee

Yes, I was talking to him before the race. Great guy - just like a big kid having fun. He raced with a camel pack outside his jersey, and eventually tossed it to the infield - probably because the beer in it was getting warm.

thomson

OOps. duck, I owe an apology, if was Chad Hartley as 2nd, not Brad Huff. Geee I am bad with names too.

thomson

Nice pictures and commentary OTB!!

[edit to add]
You took those pictures near where I was standing at the end. I had the blue jacket, black beanie, and blue gloves on. You were probably right next to me.

bitingduck

Great writeup!

from looking at the spectators in the last pic, it looks like it was cold.

mhernandez

hey ya'll. new to these forums, but got forwarded the note that my "cheering" was seen as riotous.

yup, sorry about that. but, you know ... fun and all.

here's a quick write up i did to our Hellyer e-list about the race. it's not much on the entertainment value, only a bit of info and description pecked out late at nite after driving back from the so-cal.

we've got a bunch of pictures we'll put up of the event in the next day or two. I'll try and get a link to them posted here.

great race and i loved the swap meet. i bought one of those handmade wallets from that guy who makes them out of discarded tubes. very cool.

anyway, here's a quick recap, and i'll get more pictures and blabby on my site, vanderhoot.blogspot.com later this week.

cheers,
michael
----


Results were:
1 Gunn (actually, 'bazooka' better describes his form right now)
2 Hartley (teamed up with Creed a bit to try and take down the Gunn ... valiant, but no chance)
3 Creed ... after his car broke down in nowhere'sville AZ, he was desperate for some cash
4 Bahati ... rode pretty damn strong. bridged a dozen gaps and was easily the fastest cat out there ... but he couldn't match the tt/attacking strength of the others.
5 Cody oReilly ... rode like a champ and will be teammates with Gunn next year, so don't know if that was a factor. very strong, brave young guy.
6 Roman Killunit ... not as fast as the others, but definitely had superior fitness to all but Gunn. great race for Roman, he just cramped up a bit in the last chunk of the race and lost contact ... and since they only paid to 5 ...


leftovers:


Copeland stuck in the final 10, but said he just didn't have the race fitness carrying over from nationals. he sounded ok with his ride, but you could see he was disappointed. all i saw of him was he looked strong and smooth.


Rob 'hooptie' Evans ... was on fire until the monkey crawled on his back. I'll admit, he was the unlucky recipient of a couple of pretty bad gaps opened by other riders. He closed a bunch, but it eventually took it's toll.


me - shyte. 1st one out. There were maybe 22 starters ... small field because i think a lot of people were intimidated by the format. 2+ hours of riding flat out on the track is ... daunting. The pace at the beginning was a bit slower than our last Friday nite race (RidetheWorldCups.com) ... but, got faster after a dozen laps, or so.


last nite Sabine and I got hosed by the closing of I-5 at the grapevine. There was some wicked storm that hit the top, causing a white out (that hooptie was the last to get through, btw ... *******) and forcing CHP/CTrans to close it ... 9:30'ish in the pm.


well, i had already made a reservation in Encino for a room and ... of course they wouldn't cancel even if we had no way of getting to the hotel. So, we grabbed a room at the Ramada right at the base of the grapevine (yay! i LOVE paying for 2 hotel rooms in different cities). unfortunately, something the Ramada used in the laundry for the sheets/pillows gave me a severe allergic reaction in my respiratory system. it closed up my throat and gave me the ***** of all coughs through the night. This has happened 3 times now in the past 5 years, or so. I'll need to call Ramada tomorrow and try and pin down what is causing this to happen.


Durng this morning's prep pedaling before the 1pm scratch race, I thought i worked out all the gunk or whatever f'ing infected me ... but, no. A few laps into the race my lungs and throat closed up and i barely skidded off the track before collapsing in a ****ty mess. i cannot embrace that suck too much, i must say. it was entirely too expensive of a weekend.


meh.


Overall impressions? Encino is pretty dam fun and the socal crew that runs the track (and this event in particular) are EXTREMELY cool folks. Good humored, on task, professional. It's not as nice a venue as Hellyer in my opinion, but still has a very, very good vibe. The socal crowds were a bit too cool for school, i thought. They stood around the banks like they were watching a polo match, or something. or maybe they were just looking in mirrors. whatever. But luckily, the NorCal hoodlums were in-effect and we heckled and cheered those riders the rest of the hundreds of laps to make sure they felt appreciated and made fun of at the same time. cheering and heckling at the same time ... is that 'checkling?'


Beth, Karla, Hanan, Alecia, and Jen all rode the track for the Women's Day at the ADT center on Saturday. They said they had a BLAST. Jen also mentioned to Sabine how well run our Beginner Sessions are at Hellyer in comparison to ADT. That's rather flattering, I thought.


They all remarked how fantastic the ADT facility is and what an exciting and challenging difference riding those steep banks are. Very cool.


anyway, we all went down there to the lowlands and spread the good word of NorCal riding. even when we get it handed to us, we still cheer those buggers on.


and spit on them a little bit.
mhernandez

Speedee

Thanks for the report Michael - and for yesterdays entertainment. Awesome!

thomson

Agree with Speedee!!

One reason we SoCalers were quiet may be of the cold. Ya know, cold for us anyway. Seemed a light crowd turn out but I have not been to that velodrome on 20 years so I don't know what it is typical.

I did have a great time, both from the racing and the NorCal sideline entertainment.

OTB

Thanks for the summary OV. It was obvious to this observer that something in your engine wasn't working right. Hope you clear it out asap and get going fast again. BTW, I've been talking to M-Noble and stoking the fire for an Ojai rematch betwix the two of you...

mhernandez

Some pictures Sabine took of the Encino 100K race.
https://www.pbase.com/sdukes/encino_07

hope to have some ridiculous writings up at vanderhoot.blogspot.com soon.
m

thomson

Mike, when do you think your voice will return to normal? About 3 weeks???

VanceMac

Damn, I can't believe I missed this.

Happytime

The UCI World Cup Classic is coming to the ADT Center on January 18-20.

Speedee

I'll be there Sat night - the 19th.

Come on down... it will be rocking!

Happytime

I was thinking about being a volunteer... until I read the part about having to wear khaki pants.

zzzwillzzz

i'll be there, i've seen most of the sessions of the world cup and world championships at the adt. lots of good events, don't miss the madison

bitingduck

It's pretty fun, and depending on what you get you get to see a lot of the riders up close...

I've been organizing the "runners" the past few years, which is actually more photocopiers since they moved most of the press and everything to the infield. It used to be a lot of exercise for someone to run up and down the stairs with the various communiqués. The whole event runs on the communiqués, because that's the only way everyone knows where to be and when, and what happened.

This year I changed clubs and the new club usual handles infield coordination.

mhernandez

more coverage of ADT/Encino madness at some NorCal talents:

https://velobellababble.blogspot.com/...ncino-men.html
https://bethbikes.blogspot.com/
https://hananrabia.blogspot.com/2007/...cino-2007.html
https://karlajanekingsley.blogspot.com/