Old Caz Hopper

On a early mid-february morning in the beautiful, laid-back town of Occidental we met with the CVC crew for the first race (aka supposed to be a fun group ride) of the year. The Old Caz is a traditional mixed terrain race, you could call it a gravel grinder. Some folks use MTB's, some even Road bikes, but most were on Cross bikes.

Uphill right away after the start, no racing for several months, no warm-up. Here we go, back into the game! Our team was splitted right away, and after a fast offroad downhill where I already lost one of my bottles and dropped the chain, we hit the road towards Monte Rio. Not sure if I got lucky, but our group was super fast on that flat road section with some Masters World Champion leading the pack and we we're hitting up to 47km/h on the flats - yeah on cross tires!

Our group through Monte Rio - I lost them a few times busy taking photos...

River crossing. Cold, but luckily the weather was perfect and it didn't rain the week before.

Scenic roads on the way back - dropped my chain again and got dropped by the group. My rear derailler lost tension on the first downhill, so I had trouble shifting in higher gears.

Always keep it fun! :-)

Finish after 50 miles or 82km.

Check out all the Pro's who participated in this ride (aka race) ;-)

Results:

1. Ted King

2. Geoff Kabush

3. Levi Leipheimer

4. Laurens Tan Dam

...

27. Katerina Nash (1st Women)

...

176. Laurent

381. Casandra

(490 participants)