Cyclists race to give back to Trione-Annadel State Park

Ask a local where to ride your mountain bike in Santa Rosa and the most common answer will be Trione-Annadel State Park. The miles of trails in the more than 5,000-acre park provide a wide variety of options for new and seasoned riders, and one local mountain bike race is on a mission to raise money to give back to the park they call their own.

On a Sunday morning earlier this month, nearly 300 mountain bikers of all levels gathered to race in the Annadel Classic, where all proceeds are funneled back into park and trail maintenance.

The race, in the seventh year of its evolution, remains a draw for both weekend warriors and pros alike. The race offers both a short 19-mile course and a long 25-mile course looping around the girth of the park.

“This is our backyard,” says race director Carlos Perez, who also owns the local timing company Bike Monkey which put on the race. “A lot of people fell in love with mountain biking here and we wanted to do something positive for the parks, as well as showcase the area.”

It’s also caused local bike shop owners to come up with their own ways to contribute back to the park.

“(Trione-Annadel) is being loved to death a little bit,” said Shane Bresnyan, one of the owners of Trail House, a recently opened hybrid local bar/coffee/bike shop near Howarth Park. “The parks aren’t going to be able to do anything about it, so we need to take the bull by the horns and just get it done.”

Bresnyan chatted with fellow local bike shops Breakaway Bikes, Bike Peddler, NorCal Bike Sport and Echelon and each agreed to donate money to sponsor a trail day with the Sonoma County Trails Council, which spearheads trail work days in Trione-Annadel. Some of the shops presented their donation as part of the race weekend’s festivities.

“It’s a positive thing,” said Bresnyan, “We need to be the true, local bike shops.”

The event drew riders from far and wide, including Fairfax resident Cathy Chevron, 48, who came up with her Marin-based mountain bike team ACME Bikes to race the long course for the first time.

“I’m hoping to get under three hours,” said Chevron at the start of the race, which began in the parking lot of the Environmental Discovery Center in Spring Lake Regional Park. Chevron succeeded, despite missing a turn and getting bitten by yellow jackets. “I had a rough start, but it was still a fun day and a great event.”

Perez is continually looking for new ways to build the Annadel Classic into a true destination race. Some of those new ways included a new calendar of events surrounding this year’s Annadel Classic, with multiple smaller events on Saturday that lead up to the Sunday morning race.

“We’ve been experimenting the last few years,” said Perez. “We really want to create a more inclusive event weekend, especially since Sonoma County is such an epicenter for outdoor activities.”

The event menu for Saturday seemed to hold the right combination, including a variety of group rides like a family fun bike ride in Howarth Park; beginner, intermediate and advanced rides starting from Trail House and Breakaway Bikes; a women’s only ride; and an all-day open session at the city’s new pump track in northwest Santa Rosa.

In an environment where outdoor event calendars are saturated with opportunities, homespun races like the Annadel Classic stand out. The fact the race donates all of their proceeds back to the park causes the local mountain bike community to rally around it.

Ronan Goulden, a 17-year-old mountain biker who competes for Sir Francis Drake High School’s mountain bike club in San Anselmo, uses the Annadel Classic as an off-season training race prior to his club’s spring season.

Goulden, who won a state mountain bike championship in his class in 2016, raced the long course in the Expert Men category.

“The start was rough and I crashed twice along the way,” said Goulden at the finish. “It was hard to make up ground so that was rough, but it was still fun.”

Neil Fogarty, the supervising ranger of Trione-Annadel State Park, enjoys the upbeat energy the race generates.

“It’s a really big, feel-good event,” said Fogarty. “Everyone comes through the finish line grinning ear to ear, even if they’ve fallen during the race.”

Fogarty noted the park primarily hosts the Annadel Classic in the fall and its running counterpart the Annadel Half Marathon in the spring, due to staffing and park impact concerns.

Recent Santa Rosa High graduate and 18-year-old Alexander Sugarman won the men’s pro race, crossing the finish line first ahead of even the short-course racers.

“The race was really fun and the course was dry and fast,” said Sugarman, who races for the Marin-based Bear Development team and will attend the University of Colorado in Boulder in the fall. “It’s my home course, so I enjoy it.”

The short-course winner was 16-year-old Seth Spitzer, who races for The Bike Peddler’s Santa Rosa-based team.

“It’s a lot harder than some other courses I’ve raced,” said Spitzer, a Hidden Valley Lake resident who drove down for the race. “I love the terrain though.”

Perez noted that while race entries were down roughly 15 percent from last year, this year’s race had the lowest no-show rate of participants.

Santa Rosa resident Echo Rowe was the short-course masters women’s category winner, crossing the line in under two hours. Rowe, 41, is in her fourth year of racing for Santa Rosa-based team Hello Mello.

“It’s amazing to race against awesome ladies like these,” said Rowe, referring to her teammates. “They push you to go so much further than you ever would on your own, and we all PR’d today so it’s a good day.” Perez estimates the race has been able to give back roughly $40,000 to the parks over the past seven years, although he notes new state environmental requirements reduced the amount of money the race was able to donate due to the costs associated with it.

“It’s getting better though, finally,” said Perez. “I think the race has a bright future.”

Melody Karpinski is the marketing manager for Fleet Feet Sports Santa Rosa and writes a monthly running column for The Press Democrat. Contact her at melody@fleetfeetsantarosa.com.