LOCations

Check out some Point One Racing athletes in this latest film by Jack Fogelquist, showcasing all the best places to ride in the Santa Cruz, CA area.

CCCX #1 - Fall 2009

Fall 2009 brings the return of the CCCX DH series out of Salinas, CA. With temperatures in the 80's, it was sure to be an interesting race. With the recent rains, but high temperatures, racers weren't sure as to how wet the course may be. Most of the dirt in the shade ended up being pretty loamy, while the exposed fire roads were rutted out and dry from the rain. Look forward to this 6-race series ultimately coming to a close at the end of January with a sure-to-be exciting finale.

Course profile was similar to series openers in the past, check out a map of the race course via GPS.


Patrick Tidd found himself all alone this week in the expert 45+ class, typically he would be battling Mike Amaral and Scott Seery, but both are out this week for unforeseen reasons. Pat, seen here, on form and on his way to a sub 3-minute time.


Jimmy and Alex Amaral (not pictured) would race each other for the first time in the pro class. There was no telling how close the times would be, or who would come out on top. Jimmy stuffed Alex by nearly 5 seconds and knocking him off the podium, however Alex still placed an impressive 4th overall.


Ian Massey took the win over Jimmy by 2 seconds on his new DH bike. Ian has been training hard for the upcoming series, we will see how this battle continues to rage between Jimmy and Ian in the coming weeks.


Tim Lukko had the eye of the tiger as he charged towards the finish line. The slight climb and flat out sprint towards the end can make or break your time. Racers had to slam into a sandy light-hander and up over a mound to cross the finish.


Photos by Nate Phillips
For full results, please click here.

See you back again in three weeks!

Precision Engineering

Point One Racing is featured in the latest issue of Dirt Magazine, for a sneak peek, check out the images below. Dirt #92 is on newsstands now!

Race for Tara 3

This past weekend, Northstar held the 3rd annual Tara Llanes "Race for Tara - Heart of a Champion" event. This year, however, was a little different. A portion of the proceeds went to the Christopher Reeve Spinal Cord Research Center at UC Irvine. Having the two teamed up along with Northstar, Giant Bicycles, Leatt Brace and a ton of other great sponsors (including Point One Racing!) really made for an incredible event and such a worthy cause. The race course was called the "Mega DH" and was hyped quite a bit due to the fact that racers would take the lift to the top and then be trucked to an even further starting point, high up the mountain. Fastest times would be in the 10min rage, certainly an Iron Man DH for Northstar.

Jimmy Amaral was all business, trying to save the most amount of time by choosing wise lines on the course. A fall at the end costed him a little bit of time, however a 15th place is still very impressive!


Co-founder Scott Orehek proved he had what it took to being fit and powering through the race course, however several mistakes made him slip back in the pack. Seen here charging towards the bottom.


Mikey Haderer still jet lagged from his trip to Canberra for the World Champs made a trip out to Northstar for the race. Support the proud red, white and blue; Mikey finished a respectable 23rd in the stacked field.


Forest Belluzzi barely nudged out Jimmy by a few seconds! Forest is one to look out for in the coming years, he is strong and fast. Way to go for the young junior rider!


Evan Turpen rode to an amazing 2nd place on his big bike! While most of the top finishers were on 6" travel bikes, Evan knows how to ride DH and will continue to be a podium threat next year on the national circuit.


Tara was all smiles!


Photos by Robert Lowe

Many thanks to all the sponsors and congratulations to all the racers! Stay tuned for a follow-up race back at Northstar next year...

Full results from the race can be found here.

Live Wire Classic

October 4th held the 3rd annual Live Wire Classic at the beautiful Northstar resort outside Truckee, CA. Live Wire is Northstar's answer to the famous A-Line trail in Whistler. Providing huge berms, table tops and a fully watered trail, it has quickly become the favorite to both locals and new riders. However this year was different, a little precipitation can go a long way and actually provided an early wintry sight for racers. Snow blanketed parts of the course making tire choice an obvious priority. Point One Racing's Max Houtzager scored a 2nd place in the Junior X category, please check out his own race report:

"I got my bike set up dialed during the week and dropped 4 pounds from ~43ish to 39 (the wonders of lighter tires and tubeless), and also did some dh riding and sprints for training. I drove up on Saturday morning, and did 15 runs on livewire only! I was feeling faster and faster on the course, but if I did any more runs I'd probably collapse. When I woke up there was an inch of snow outside and it was easily sub 30. Riding the gondola up in order to maintain any feeling in my hands (as apposed to the normal chairs), I felt like I was competing at a world cup because there was snow all around and they always have gondolas. I managed to get five practice runs in, which included some ice drifts. One of my goals was to not crash in practice by riding with Evan from downieville (like my last 2-3 dh races at N*), but on my fifth run my front wheel decided to leave me in a berm, throwing me on the ground. I instantly thought wow there goes my race just like the last times, but it wasn't that bad and after some advil I was feeling race ready. It was snowing on and off waiting around at the top, so I had to do everything I could to keep warm in my skin suit. I pedaled hard in my race run (and enjoyed it cause it warmed me up) and my upper body got a little cold and was feeling pretty fatigued. I hit all the corners smooth, rode all my lines, and pumped as hard as I could on all the jumps (but nothing crazy fast). Pedaling was my strong suit, and that went well also, except in some spots it was unnecessary as I came up short on the jumps unlike in practice when I wasn't pedaling my eyeballs out (faster to ride smooth). Overall I had a pretty good clean run and got my first podium in Junior Expert Downhill! After the race there was a chainless division which I entered and it was awesome! I put down a respectable time but could see that my pedaling helped me out in the actual race (chainless was one giant category so my time didn't stack up against any of the pros). What a great way to end the season!"



Full results from the race can be found here.