East Bay Dirt Classic

Here we are nearing the end of week one and there are two surprises at this point:

1) I don’t have an inbox full of emails about the difficulty of route-finding. I hope this means that most have found the route without too much difficulty. It could also be that I have mail-forward set up to send my emails to Hightowah during the riding period. Either way, I hope some of the details sent out this past week have helped.

2) That guy James Kinney is fast. I mean we may actually have a race on our hands this year. He bested the 2nd place time by 10 minutes. Now I know one sure thing about this event having watched it play out over the last couple of years: Fun Ghi will be throwing down some time in the next week. But he now has a high mark to shoot for. Well done James! There is rumored to be at least one other very fast cyclist jumping in next week to keep things interesting and I’m sure there are many others we have yet to meet who are getting ready to give it a go. Good thing I didn’t etch Fun Ghi’s name onto the belt buckle yet this year…

On the Women’s side, Piedmont High School coach Sally Aldridge holds the fastest time currently. Knowing Sally she’ll be out on course again in the next few days besting her current fast time.

Once again the weather looks prime for some great riding this weekend. The nighttime fog has decreased the dust so the dirt should be primo. Do your homework on the course and head out there and have fun!

– Your friends at C510

We’re closing out a gorgeous weekend and a number of cyclists took advantage of the weather to get out and give the 2022 EBDC course a go. For those interested in seeing the 2022 East Bay Dirt Classic Leaderboard, please click here.

In our last post I mentioned the tricky route finding parts. Despite being afraid of dirt, our tech wunderkind got out on a mountain bike this weekend and shot some videos of the sections I mentioned in my last post. I am including them below.

Segment 3: Badger’s Bump: This video shows the merge from the upper Sinawik Loop down onto the lower Sinawik trail and the end of the segment with the sharp left turn up to the observation area above Bishop’s Walk. The segment ends just before the quick left turn uo to the observation area.

Video of last 1/4 of segment 3, Badger’s Bump

Segment 4: Angry Ray’s Revenge: The first video shows the exit from Upper Palos Colorado, staying right after the final left turning switchback and exiting Upper Palos directly into the staging area where Big Trees and Sequoia Bayview meet.

Video of top of Upper Palos Colorado trail portion of Segment 4, Angry Ray’s Revenge

This next video shows the necessary left turn (instead of going up and right) midway through the Big Trees trail. Granted our fearless tech wunderkind stopped immediately after the left turn to chat with some other dirt fiend, but after 30 seconds or so of gabbing, he continues on towards the windy singletrack of the rest of Big Trees. Hopefully you get the point and can forgive the camerman.

Video of Big Trees trail left turn at intersection midway through the trail on Segment 4, Angry Ray’s Revenge

Route finding has been one of the difficulties every year and we hope these detailed explanations along with the videos and segments (which you can “favorite” and set as live segments in Strava) help reduce some of the challenges of route finding.

– Your friends from C510

Two things I heard today from C510 brethren who rode the course: 1)There is a lot of hard climbing. 2) Route finding on segments 3 and 4 are challenging, particularly on segment 4. So I’ll try to give as much detail for segments 3 and 4 as possible.

Segment 3 – Badger’s Bump is the upper Sinawik Loop in Joaquin Miller. It starts with a short steep loose climb and then settles into nice rolling singletrack. It merges with the lower Sinawik trail (BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS MERGE) heading toward the observation area at the top of Bishop’s Walk. Rather than pop out onto the road early and roll on tarmac to the observation area, follow Sinawik trail a little further to the abrupt uphill left turn which exits directly at the observation area.

Segment 4 – Angry Ray’s Revenge climbs Upper Palos Colorado Trail BUT (AND THIS IS IMPORTANT) near the top at the last left turning switchback, stay right (as opposed to continuing on the last bit of Upper Palos Colorado which exits a little further down Sequoia Bayview) and exit directly into the parking area/confluence of Sequoia Bayview and Big Trees and continue directly on to Big Trees. On Big Trees about midway through, there is an option to turn right uphill (shorter Big Trees version) or turn left downhill through some more windy singletrack (longer Big Trees version). AT THIS JUNCTION GO LEFT AND DOWN STAYING ON THE LONGER BIG TREES SEGMENT INCLUDING MORE WINDY SINGLETRACK.

I hope these descriptions help clear things up a bit. Please do look at the segments on Strava and ensure the above makes sense and download the course and “favorite” the segments to help with guidance along the way. Ultimately please be safe and have fun out there!