The DA’s sent two teams to the second the NorCal race at  Quicksilver park in South San Jose.   DA I was Brian, Dana and Aja.  DA II consisted of Will, Angel and me - Mike.  There were several good teams at the race and it promised to be a fast and close one.

                Both DA teams made a very strong showing and pretty much dominated the course.  The course consisted of a 10 mile trek, a 14 mile bike, a 10-12 mile trek and finished with a 12 mile bike ride. 

 Both teams took off on the first leg and pushed through the first run.  CP 2 was missed placed which is always bothersome.  But 4 teams were at the location and agreed that it was the right spot so we moved on. Both teams wound up moving through the run together for a significant segment.   Everyone was running hard through the climbs and on the fun single track.  After the last big climb there were two routes down to the TA.  DA II picked the faster route and came in the TA in 2^nd place – behind a solo racer - Andrew.  DA I came in a few minutes later followed by several other teams.

 

              A quick transitition and both teams were on the way.  DAII got out first and powered their way through the various check points.  Two hours of riding with a significant amount of climbing brought DA II to the next trek TA with DA I close on their heels.  At this point DA II were about 15 mins behind the Andrew and about 5 mins in front of DA I. 

      

         From TA2 one could go either clock wise or counter clock wise around a loop hitting the various check points.  DAII  decided to go up to the top of Bald Mountain first which was clock wise.  DAI went the other way.    We climbed all the way to the top of Bald Mountain.  As we were approaching the top and CP12 we ran into Andrew.  He told us he couldn’t find the CP.  We continued on going to the location where the CP was suppose to be.  We looked and looked but simply could not find the yellow tag that made the CP.  It turned out that this failure cost us first place.  It turns out that DA I also did not find it but three other teams were able to locate the tag.

                We continued on running as much as possible and arrived at the Bike TA in first.  We quickly put on our bike shoes and took off on the bike.  A short climb and then a long down hill doing the initial loop backwards.  We finally got to CP 17 and cut out to the road.  A fast road ride and we crossed the line in 7 hours and 47 mins.    We were followed by Andrew, then Bullmoose Extreme, then DAI.   Finally Bow Chica Wow Wow came in.  However, because they actually located then tag at CP12 they took the 1^st place, with DA II taking 2^nd, Bull Moose, 3^rd, Andrew 4^th and DAI 5^th.  Everyone finished within 21 minutes so it was a very fast and very close race.  Results  http://www.norcal-ar.com/Files/2009%20Quicksilver%20Final%20Results.pdf

                Both DA teams performed very well on both the run and bike and have gotten off to a good start on the season.