Yah I'm in NorCal also.. got into bike racing 5 years ago when I was 23 y/o, wanted to do epic road races like the kind I was watching on TV and day dreaming about... but all I found were crits mostly.. crits sucked, crashing sucked, and I quit for the most part, lol. It doesn't help constantly hearing about how "really good" cyclists have to start training and racing at the age of 16-18 y/o and everyone else is too late. Well maybe the truth hurts.. sniff sniff 