Cycling events still out there as season dwindles

As the summer rolls on through August, the cycling season is drawing to an end.

On the calendar, it is summer till around Sept. 21, but the days start to become shorter, at least shorter to the point where riding till 8:30 at night becomes cumbersome.

The kids start school soon and fall sports starts up.

That means that some of my athletes are turning to cross country practice, football practice and others.

I encourage the riders to still ride their bikes as it is an excellent way to build and maintain cardio vascular fitness with almost no impact on other sports, to include no possibility of injuries.

There is still plenty of riding out there to do, with the Thursday race series wrapping up and some other California races.

Mountain biking starts to ramp up as the weather cools.

Another fall sport is cyclocross.

This is an event where we ride bikes on a mix of trail, road, grass and dirt roads.

It is a short and intense event that is spectator friendly since racers go around a course that takes only about eight minutes to complete.

In the past the club has put on races in Genoa, but this year, we look to have a great possibility of having a race at Kirkwood. Kirkwood offers great terrain, beautiful scenery, great lodging, cool weather and a new venue.

The staff up there is looking forward to putting on a great event.

A couple of years ago, we did a race at Northstar that turned out be be a great course and a crowd pleaser. Look out for the details.

Mel Maalouf is The R-C's cycling columnist and the Alta Alpina Junior Cycling team coach. He can be reached at alpinajr@gmail.com.