April 27, 2007 (Santa Barbara County, CA) — The Firestone Santa Ynez classic presented by Platinum Performance this weekend, Apr 27-29, in California, was a late addition to the 2007 NMBS schedule replacing the Sonoma Venue (now slotted for July) which was not well-received last year. Although this is their first year hosting an NMBS race the Santa Ynez venue has a long history of hosting regional MTB events. This is not a UCI event and the XC, ST and Super D count towards the overall series, although the scheduled DH race is not part of the national series.

Short Track

The short Track follows the first portion of the xc course. At approximately 1.6km (1 mile) it is quite long for a ST. It will be a true test of the legs, with not much but the ability to produce power, that will separate riders along the mostly flat out-and-back course which has a couple corners and one small descent.

The Women start at 10:45 am local time – predictions: Gould, Nash, and Haywood”¦the usual suspects.

The Men’s event begins at 11:30 am local time – predictions: Kabush, Trebon and Wells based on early season form, the course and previous xc results

XC

Men are scheduled to go at 2:30 pm local time followed shortly after by the women at 2:45 pm. Each full lap is 22.11 kms (13.82 miles) and climbs 515 m. Due to the heat and distance race laps were reduced for both the men and women. The men will do two laps and the women 1-3/4 laps with the aim of a 2hr and 1h45 winning times respectively.

Today was a smoking hot (35 degrees Celsius) 104 degrees F. The winds were much weaker than yesterday making riding the course less of a grunt but also much hotter.

Starting on an out-and-back course used for the Short track riders turn into the Firestone Vineyard looping around its perimeter before heading out to traverse back and forth, up and down across some very open grasslands.

We might get a total of 30 seconds of shade throughout the race. The course is not very technical but offers many dry loose corners that are easy to overshoot.

The climbs are open and smooth and the descents are a bit stuttery as they probably don’t see much use aside from race weekend. Although temperatures are supposed to get a bit cooler it is still expected to be in the high 20’s for Sunday’s XC races.