Santa Cruz’s Brendan Lehman captures win in Central Coast cross country mountain bike finale

Santa Cruz resident Brendan Lehman won the men’s Cat 1 division for ages 19-34 in the Central Coast’s cross country mountain bike series finale at Fort Ord near Monterey on Sunday.

Lehman sped through five laps in 1 hour, 51 minutes, 52 seconds to secure the victory for Team Bagel Dog. He was followed by San Jose’s Chris Sota [Quadzilla] in 2:02:58 for second place and Monterey’s Brett Butler [SB Racing] in 2:09:08 for third.

Other division winners from Santa Cruz County were as follows:

Davenport’s Dan Palmer [Thirsty Bear] won the men’s Cat 1 45-54 race, going five laps in 1:54:59; Scotts Valley’s Scott Martin [Bicycle Trip] won the men’s Cat 2 55-plus race, going four laps in 1:40:12; Soquel’s Chris Baker [Bicycle Trip/Semantec] won the Clydesdale race, going four laps in 1:45:41; and Ben Lomond’s John Ryan [unattached] won the men’s Cat 3 35-44 race, going three laps in 1:14:25.

In divisions were there were only one entrant, both Aptos’ Anya Thrash [unattached] and Santa Cruz’s Julie Bates [Team Roaring Mouse] took the win. Thrash rode in the women’s Cat 3 19-34 division and Bates rode in the women’s Cat 1 45-plus division.

A large contingent of Santa Cruz County riders also won 2012 Central Coast series titles:

Pro Women: Santa Cruz’s Loren Gregg [Loeka], 150 points

Women’s Cat 1 34-and-under: Aptos’ Rita Borelli [TSA],  150 points

Women’s Cat 1 35-44: Santa Cruz’s Nicole Goebel [Quadzilla], 100 points

Men’s Cat 2 35-44: Felton’s Kim Midstokke [Midstock Construction/Spokesman], 250 points

Men’s Cat 2 45-54: Ben Lomond’s Gerry Hatcher [Scotts Valley Cycle Sports], 250 points

Men’s Cat 2 55-plus: Scotts Valley’s Scott Martin [Bicycle Trip],  250 points

Cat 2 Single Speed: Santa Cruz’s Barnaby Lee [Fox/SCCCC], 361 points

Men’s Cat 3 35-44: Scotts Valley’s Jackson Currie [unattached], 239 points

Men’s Cat 3 55-plus: Aptos’ Dan Russ [unattached], 250 points

Women’s Cat 3 19-34: Aptos’ Anya Thrash [unattached], 247 points

Results and standings included in this write-up are from the Central Coast website, which also has many photos from last weekend’s event.

Santa Cruz’s Jeff Kendall-Weed makes it three Ws in a row in CCCX downhill races

Santa Cruz resident Jeff Kendall-Weed was made for speed. He’s proved as much by winning three consecutive Central Coast Series downhill mountain biking competitions, capped with his most recent pro men’s victory Saturday.

Novato’s Ben Cruz was nipping on his heels, so to speak, but Kendall-Weed pulled off the win in 4 minutes, 31.76 seconds to Cruz’s 4:33.36, according to results released early this week. Aromas’ Kiran MacKinnon, a Soquel High grad who represented the United States at the downhill worlds last year, placed third [4:38.18] on the Toro Park course in Salinas.

With Kendall-Weed’s and MacKinnon’s stellar performances this season, the last couple races of the season will carry a lot of weight for the overall title.

There were just three other Santa Cruz County winners. They were as follows: Santa Cruz’s Scott Chapin [Santa Cruz/Fox/Easton] crossed the finish line of the men’s Cat 1 race in 4:41.77, Scotts Valley’s Joel Van Pykeren [unattached] crossed the finish line of the junior boys 18-and-under Cat 3 race in 5:06.83, and Aptos’ Devin Kjaer [Family Cycling Center/FOX] crossed the finish line of the junior boys 13-and-under race in 5:27.90.

The next Central Coast Series X-Fusion Super-D event is scheduled for March 18 at Toro Park. As always, they have tons of photos up from Rick Rasmusen, so be sure to check those out, too.

– Christina Gullickson, CGullTweets on Twitter.