2011 Santa Rosa Cup © Tim Westmore  by Brian Staby  SANTA ROSA,
CALIFORNIA – Santa Rosa has long been a destination for road
cyclists. After all, Levi Leipheimer lives and trains here; the
Amgen Tour of California makes a regular visit; and the area is
arguably one of the most beautiful in the world. OK, you can
argue about that last point all you want. But, did you know
there is a blossoming cyclocross community springing up in Santa
Rosa?  For the past couple years, Carlos Perez and his Bike
Monkey crew have been bringing cyclocross to the masses in Santa
Rosa city parks. The city loved us at first, then like most
venues, they saw the aftermath. Seems every time Bike Monkey had
a race, it rained and rained and rained. Great for us but the
wear and tear was too much for the city. Enter CX Nation, who
has teamed up with Bike Monkey to bring a bigger and better race
series this year. Round 1 of the Santa Rosa Cup took place last
Saturday.  The city let us “have” a couple acres of undeveloped
land at a local ci