As I ponder what useless things I am going to post on the www I find myself compelled to quote the grate 80’s poet LL Cool J “I’m going back to Cali”. Having no mtb racing options in good ol’ AZ, John, Jen, and I decided to head west to sunny California to inflict some old fashion AZ OK-Coral-style pay back for Californicating AZ. Actually, we just wanted to race and there happened to be a California state series race at the Rim Nordic ski area near Big Bear.
MBAA Take Note. Upon arriving we found the promoters very friendly and excited that we drove all the way across the desert for their race. They were however, somewhat apologetic that they had not finished marking the course, but assured us that if we followed the arrows we should be fine. Even incomplete, the course was way better marked than any MBAA race day and it was mostly single track. Anyway, all three of us were scheduled to do three, 9 mile laps with about 1100 ft of climbing per lap. No kidding, 1100 ft and single track.
How it unfolded: Two more podiums for Schampa! 
Jen fell off a four foot bridge crossing on her first lap but was still able to hold on to third place in the pro women’s category. I had no such drama in my race and placed third in the pro men’s category, and John, riding strong in the semi-pro category, had to abandon the race due to a flat tire.
One final note. The local riders were pretty upset after the race because, according to the times, there were many experts with faster times than the pro and semi-pro men. We think all the pro, semi-pro and experts were started together, but the timers thought the experts started 4 minutes back, giving a four minute advantage to their times. Or maybe California just has the fastest experts in the country. Whatever!
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