Well its officially here, the start of the California Mountain bike season! This one snuck up on me rather quick, and it seemed like only yesterday, we were putting the final unification race to bed in September.

I think the 2010 race season is going to be a great one. The US Cup trailer has been re wrapped, and all the new signage and banners are complete. I'm still holding my breathe on a few more items to arrive, but I've surrounded myself with a good team and hopefully everyone does there part to see this all come together.

A big thanks to all the 2010 US Cup sponsors. Without these key relationships, I don't know where we would be.

Speaking of great partners, the Kenda Cup West opener at Sage Brush is brought to you by Team Duke.Org (www.teamduke.org ). Yes, it’s the same "Duke" as in the legend John Wayne.

Greg Garber and Jill down at Team Duke the have really rallied behind the US Cup, and we are honored to support and be a platform for there efforts in the fight against cancer. Team Duke is an extension of the John Wayne Cancer foundation (http://jwcf.org/ ), and both these entities are really pushing hard to get the message out about this disease.

This became all too real for me late last year, when my father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. For better or worse, I always thought that somehow myself or my family was "immune" to this disease and that we would go unscathed…WRONG!!

So now more than ever, this relationship with the folks at Team Duke.Org has much more significance than just a banner or slogan, its affected me on a personal level, as it has millions of people across the globe.

With that said, come on out to Sage Brush this weekend and support Team Duke and the US Cup in the fight against cancer and lets keep raising cancer awareness.

Until next time, buck up little camper!

The Red Cowboy.