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This is internet home base for the SyCip Racing Team. Here you will find all things digitizeable and worthy of the team. Be sure to jump over to the sponsors page to see what keeps this well oiled, finely tuned, burrito ingesting, bubbly drink gulping machine running.

Cheers!

Looking For New Team Members!

Thanks for looking. The deadline has passed and we are no longer accepting resumes.

The SyCip Racing Team is looking for new members for the 2006 season. Our team is a mix of all ages, categories, and disciplines. Take a quick look at the current Team Roster and you will find a diverse selection. You could be one of them. We will be accepting race resumes until October 31, 2005. Please include a short description as to why you feel you would make a great member of the team. Send it all off to Brett "Mr. I Check Spelling" before the cutoff.

Ride Strong!

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A few of us spiked the team kool-aid and convinced several members that they needed to do a 24 hour race. Before the bug juice wore off we had several team members on their way to Languna Seca. They hit the course solo and as a team. And they did so with a vengeance. We weren't sure who they wanted to punish. Us for tricking them into racing? Oh well...

Luckily the punch lasted just long enough for our members to kick butt! How well? Three of our team members on a 5 man team WON!!! One of our team members raced solo and WON!!! So let's hear their stories.

2005 24 Hrs of Adrenalin - Laguna Seca Raceway

5 Man Team

Aron's report (5 man team):

Prelude

Brett's dream of an all Sycip squad came to an end when both Lauren and Hans bowed out to injury. Fortunately, we found an eager replacement with Eric about four weeks before the race. He hadn't been riding much since cross season, but he'd done a bunch of 24 hour events before as part of four man squads. And he was motivated to get on with the training. When Hans was given doctors orders not to race only one week before the event, things didn't look so good. Eric came to the rescue with his connections at GravyWheels. Julia (GravyWheels co-owner) recommend we call Todd, who we recognized from the DFL cross races last season. Todd was psyched to join. We were psyched to have a complete team, and even more psyched when we found out Todd had posted the fastest expert lap time in the last 24 hours of Moab.

Race weekend.

Following an epic drive down that included three failed attempts to find firewood, getting lost in the parking lot of a gigantic strip mall in Union City, and two aborted breakfast stops, Brett and I showed up at Laguna Seca about thirty minutes before the race start. We had Eric's bike and gear with us, leaving it to either Joe or Todd to do the LeMans style start and first lap. Todd was fired up and ready for it. He came off the run and started his lap in 5th place overall! Rolling by the campsite, everyone was screaming for him. Even better, Todd passed three guys on his lap and rolled in second, followed closely by a WTB rider.

Eric was next up, but was passed by WTB's next rider (Norcal hotshot Mark Weir). We won't hold that against you Eric. Weir posted the fastest lap of the entire race. (41 minutes) Third in the lineup was Brett. When he rolled by the campsite, he was being closely followed by the Luna Chix own Alison Dunlap. No pressure there. Can't let her pass you dude. I don't care how many world cup races she's won. Or that she's not even racing in our category. Can't let her pass you.

I'm next in the lineup and am waiting in the start/finish area when Alison rolls in. Doh! I asked her when she had dropped the Sycip she'd been riding with. "On hurl hill", she replied. Ouch. Brett rolled up right then and I took off. Fortunately for me, Marla Streb was the next Luna rider in their lineup. She's not quite as speedy on the climbs as Alison, so I couldn't take too much pleasure when I caught her. But it was nice to have someone to chase for a while.

Joe was the last rider in our lineup. Joe's been working a ton of overtime lately. Not sleeping a lot, and riding even less. He was worried about his fitness coming into this weekend. Brett and I pretty much coerced him into not dropping out. He was going to regret if he skipped this race. And we probably weren't going to be able to find a replacement either. Sorry dude. Joe's worries were for naught though. He raced solidly and consistently every lap. Rounding out the team was Joe's wife, Chris, our volunteer. Chris and Joe had driven down early in hopes of getting her a daytime volunteer slot. Not early enough though, she was left with a choice between a midnight to 4am or 4am to 8am shift. Sorry.

Our first team lap was excellent. Everyone turned in lap times between 43 and 46 minutes. Rolling.

Disaster struck on Eric's second lap when his chain came apart on the descent leading to Hurl Hill. Not having a chain tool on him, Eric turned around and ran back up what he had just come down (with his bike). Fifteen minutes later, he got back into camp, told us what had happened. Brett, who had just finished suiting up, jammed down to the start/finish, canceled Eric's lap and started out on his own. The mechanical cost us around 30 minutes. The next time the splits were posted, we had dropped to the third spot in the 5 man category. TeamTam/GravyWheels and EMC/Documentum were occupying the front two positions. I had seen a few of the Gravy guys at races recently. Definitely not slow.

Anyone remember the "Racing for a cause" email that was posted to the NCNCA mailing list last week? Turns out that was the EMC guys. Their captain (Joe Oliveri) is an ex-pro mountain bike racer that still races Cat2 on the road. Rich Thurman won the Semi-pro Sea Otter XC this year. And Ron Castia won the Expert (35-39) Sea Otter XC this year as well. Shit. We could only assume that the other two guys on their team weren't slouches either. Time to dig in.

We were into our third rotation as the sun went down. Todd caught the last bit of light and Eric was treated to the first full night lap. Brett followed with a stellar 46 minute night lap. Coming alive baby. At the end of my lap, I caught and passed a TeamTam rider, and we moved into second place behind EMC.

Fog rolled in sometime after midnight and made for some tricky riding at times. But the wetness helped pack down the sandy sections and made some of the corners faster. Brett got stuck with a third night lap for the second year in a row. Probably for the best. He rides faster when he can't see what's up ahead. The first morning lap was still foggy, but it was burning off quickly. It was going to get warm.

Around 8:15 Todd was in the middle of his sixth lap. I went down to the infield around 8:15 or so. We had moved back into the lead!!! The EMC guys were ten minutes back. And TeamTam had faded during the night and was almost a full lap down. Talking to the EMC guys later, they told me one of their guys had a horrendous night lap. Lost a contact and then had a light malfunction.

As the morning wore on, it looked like we were going to make it out for a total of 30 laps. (1 more than last year, even with a mechanical.) Brett killed it on his sixth lap and extended our lead to 13 minutes. I was up next and suffering hard on the long climb home. I rolled in with a 50 minute lap time, fighting cramps for the last 15 minutes. My slowest lap. I was toast. Joe was next and took off as I handed him the baton. When I rolled back into the campsite, Brett asked me what had happened. I was confused. I wasn't that slow was I? The EMC guy had taken a ton of time out of me on that lap, and the gap was down to 5 minutes when Joe rolled by the campsite. Apparently, the EMC team had put their semi-pro hammer (Rich) on the task of reeling us in. He took time out of me, and then immediately went out again chasing Joe.

At the end of long climb home, Rich had closed to within sight of Joe. And then caught him just before going over the bridge to the infield. When he came through the tent, he had a 15-20 second lead. Ron Castia was EMC's man for the last lap. And we had Todd. Todd was fired up and ready for his seventh lap. The rest of us were up at the campsite waiting for them to roll by. When Ron came into view, Todd was right on his wheel. We went nuts. He'd closed the gap coming out of infield and was now just sitting on him. They rolled by the campsite with us screaming and cheering for Todd. Then dropped out of site as they started down the roller coaster descent.

We pulled out the binoculars and kept an eye on them as best we could on portions of the decent. But when they hit the gully and started climb towards Hurl Hill, they moved out of sight and it'd be about 35 minutes before they appeared again in sight of the finish. When we went down to the infield, the promoters were playing up the Sycip/EMC battle big time. Seems like it was the closest finish they'd seen in a while.

When Todd appeared first, heading toward the infield, we were all wearing stupid grins. Ron was nowhere in sight. Way to go Todd!!!

Out on the course Ron and Todd had stayed together over the top of Hurl Hill and then Todd had turned on the gas. He got a gap on the rolling fireroad section and then got out of sight on the singletrack. He maintained and extended the gap all the way up the long climb home and to the finish, coming across over two minutes before Ron. We were all at the line waiting for him as he came across, making as much noise as we could. F*cking awesome.

Back to campsite to pack up and then back for the podium. Another ugly jersey that's too big... sweet. Didn't matter, it was the most exciting race I had ever been a part of.

Props to Brian, Karl, Roger and their crews. I can't even wrap my head around doing a race like that solo. Congratulations. It was great to see you guys out there. Thanks again to Chris, our volunteer. Giving up your weekend to deal with the 24-Sports organization (or lack of organization) was huge.

And thanks to Team Retrotec and posse for their support and heckling. Wouldn't want to do it without you.

Aron

24 Hrs of Adrenalin - Laguna Seca Raceway

Solo Single Speed National Category

Roger's report:

Finish: 1st place (2nd overall)

Totals: 23hrs 21 minutes; 16 laps and 200 miles and change

Several things learned: 24hrs is a long dang time, a real long dang time. Overall, mental strength outweighs physical strength. Pay attention to race rules. Oh, and Sustained, apples, peanutbutter and a bagel, chased by a Red bull causes immediate purging.

First, all I can say is that having a pit crew or pit man for these races is a necessity, without, you're race would be short, very short.

At the race start, Brian and I shared greetings and I got to meet Karl for the first time in person.

0-4 hours- What am I doing? Having fun, not sure how I should be riding, some guys seem content to spin an easy gear. I guess because of my single speed I can't and seem to ride away. These first fours did hurt though and it was hard to get comfortable. Mentally, it was hard to believe I could finish 24hrs.

4-8 hours- Cross paths with Brian R. and Karl on the race course, exchange words and each of us is off on our own epic journeys. There's only three guys in my class, one guy who's running a huge gear has been off the front the whole time. Sean Sullivan from IF and I have been swapping back and forth. At th 6 hour mark, the guy in first takes a half hour break and is now back with us.

8-12 hours- Stomach distress, a lil too much Heed and Sustained, have my stomach churning, and the intestines doing there thing. I struggle through and go to straight water and Sustained. At about midnight, I'm feeling better. It's dark and I like it. Have the MP3 player jamming and I'm bellowing a Billy Idol "eyes without a face" as I climb toward Hurl hill.

Frank my pit guy becomes a bit stunned by arrival times, I've got a nice flow going and I don't need much long breaks from the bike. The guy who was initially in first place has called it a night and has crawled into his bag. Sean Sullivan and I are still trading spots.

12-16 hours- I'm in a groove now, had a couple pieces of pizza and some strange tea, I feel like I'm on crack, just rolling up everything without effort…feeling good. Crazy fog comes in at about 2:30 a.m, you can't see 15 feet in front of you. Half way up the climb home, I'm on the far left side of the road passing a few slower riders when I catch a glimpse of guy standing and going hard on the right side of the road. I see the guy glance back at me, I also see enough to know that he's riding a SS. Sure enough it's Sean Sullivan he was trying to sneak past me. Our testy was flowing good at that point, because he kept punching it to get me off his wheel and drop me. I matched him though, and than punched it hard past him and dropped him well before the top of the climb. I guess that took it out of him. When I took a 10 minute break at the end of the lap, I waited for him to come by, he didn't. I went out on my next lap and when I came by his pit area at the end of the lap his bike was still there.

Woohoo, I'm in first place by a lap. Eventually I got two laps on him.

16-19 hours- I've done the math in my head, and count out 16 laps as the # I need to assure my win. I put in a few more good laps, still running on Sustained and pizza.

19-24hours-They're right about the adrenaline rush of the sun rising. It rejuvenates you for sure. I ripped out a fast lap and even climbed Hurl Hill during my 14th lap. When I came in, I found out was leading the whole dang national category at 19hours in. How things have changed since how I felt the first four hours.

There's no prize for the overall though and I'm sticking to my game plan of 16 laps, finishing just two more in the next four hours. I knocked the first out, and went out on my second. I stopped and chatted with the Sycip/Inglis camp…who of course offered me a beer. I turned down the beer as I probably wouldn't have stopped at one and likely would have DNFd. I worked my way through my lap, got to my pit at just before 11am and sat down for a beer and to goof off, thinking 11:30 was my first opportunity to check in. About twenty minutes later a friend came by and asked why I hadn't finished…doh, guess you could have gone in at 11am! Oh well, knocking back a cold one was worth every minute I lost.

Will I do another, probably, will I go to Whistler, not sure.

Do know one thing, that really hurt but it was a dang good time.

Congrats to both Karl, Brian R, and the Sycip team for great races.

Thanks for reading.

Roger

24 Hrs of Adrenalin - Laguna Seca Raceway

Solo National Category

Karl's report:

Finish: 2nd place

Howdy folks,

Got my race report on the web at: http://www.ride424.com/journal_page.php?Id=25

Also here is my "blog" with photos & a training log leading up to the race: http://www.ride424.com/karletzel.php

Thanks to Roger & Brian for sharing some solo Sycip mojo, and to the team for all the cheering as I came by the camp (and as you passed me out on the course!). Sounds like a great time was had by all.

Cheers,

Karl

24 Hrs of Adrenalin - Laguna Seca Raceway

Solo Open Category

Brian's report:

Finish: 6th place

so, yeah, 24 hours is a long time to ride a mountain bike. this being my first (perhaps only) attempt at solo, i set pretty manageable goals for myself. 15 laps, which was about 10th place last year. i'd gotten good training volume in all spring, but my longest ride going into it was 7 hours, so i wasn't really sure how i'd react to more than tripling that.

it was definitely cool to have teammates roger and karl to start out with, all the other soloists at the start were also really cool.

the first 6 hours were easy. too easy, but i hear that is as it should be. gorgeous day. partly sunny, comfortable temps. not too windy. just chillin', enjoying the gorgeous day. all was well until the energy drink i was depending on started to repeat on me after about 8 hours, so i had to start reducing my intake of it, and ended up giving up on it entirely by midnight. so that meant water and a whole lot of pb&j and assorted other energy foods. which ended up working out just fine.

it was cool watching brett tying to chase down allison dunlap on the grind. she's all little and spinny, and he's all tall and lanky. team sycip was averaging 5 laps to my 3 most of the time, which meant brett flew by me every three laps on the grind. the luna chix were on a similar schedule, and allison always had a kind word for us soloists as she motored on by.

i think my hardest lap was my second dark lap at around 10:30. the novelty of night riding had worn off, and the realization that i was less than halfway done and had 6 or so more dark laps to go was settling in hard. also the fog had settled in so visibility was way down, and the wind that blew the fog in hadn't died down yet. and my stomach had not really settled into the dietary changes yet.

eventually, that fog lifted, the wind died down, my stomach settled, and it was all good again. just tried to keep moving.

the 'ole unleaded held up great. not a single mechanical besides a few missed shifts and skipping from my admittedly old drivetrain when i didn't lube it for too many laps. disc brakes are a god send for these sorts of races. the braking bumps got pretty tough on the hands, and it was great to be able to take care of all braking with one finger. i pretty much never use more than one finger to brake. nice.

so i'd say it was a successful venture. i easily made my goal of 15 laps, finishing 18. according to the course map, that was 188 miles and 38,340' of climbing. i figure if i had had my routine more streamlined and limited myself to shorter rest stops, i could have squeezed another lap or two in, but that still wouldn't have gotten me on the podium.

the next day was the most all over fatigue i've ever felt. now my hands still feel a little weak, and i think i'm still catching up on sleep, but i'm recovering pretty well. i can't say if i'd do it again. it feels like i had more success at it then regular xc racing, at least in the expert class. i'm not sure i ever want to ride that course again, though...

thanks to charlie and hans for the loaner lights. i was hooked up with 4 Light & Motion arc batteries, so no recharging necessary. by shutting them off for the grind, i only needed three.

next comes downieville and 'cross. it will be good to ride fast again...

Brian

Sea Otter Classic

Lots of happenings going around. The team is busy as the spring season hits hard. The Sea Otter... or Sea Slaughter as some like to call it has just left waste to thousands of two wheeled folk. Only the lucky ones were on SyCip bikes.