firstly, I’d like to say I’m extremely happy that this race was completed without any accidents or injury from any of the racers. that in itself made the race a huge success. the course was short, technical and fairly narrow compared to the fremont and sacramento crits. the start/finish line was in the middle of a short straight away, the course swept 90* to the right into another 90* right, a shorter straight with a sweeping left turn, a hairpin, then a sweeping off-camber s-turn, another 90* right, and then the straight away to the line. I arrived early to register, and to get ready for the race. the cat5 group was fairly reasonable in size, probably around 35-40 riders. lots of familiar faces including steve from chica sexy, tim from sjfixed, justin, zach, and gabe from mashsf. there was a bit of time before the race started to pre-ride the course, so I jumped on the road to feel it out. riding it alone, at a slow pace, was completely different than with a dozen rides around you though.
we lined up at the start for the beginning of our race. it started off with a neutral lap, and then we were off. the pace was kept fast throughout the entire race. the hairpin freaked a lot of people out, and I heard tons of tires skidding and yelling from riders trying to pick lines through the group. there were really only two or three safe spots to pass riders on. either the last 90*, or the straights. everything else was either two abreast or single-file. the off-camber s-turn sent riders for a trip, to say the least. several laps in, a rider came in hot from my right side, cut in front of me, pedal smacked, grabbed his brakes, which made me grab mine…mid-apex on the first part of the s-turn. my rear tire skidded out, and I thought I’d lose it for a second. I released the brake instantly, and my tire came back up. my heart must’ve skipped a beat or two, because it felt like it was about to pound out of my chest afterwards. I sprinted out to catch a wheel to the front of the group and tried to hang on a couple more laps.
riders were all over the place on this race. the technical, tight turns meant single file lines would be the most efficient way to navigate through the course, but of course, that wasn’t how it was through most of the race. riders would come from the back towards the middle or the front, and come hot into the turns. they’d jam on the brakes, and sprint to catch a wheel. I found myself sprinting out of the saddle out of every turn, the swelling mid-section of the group was like a giant accordion. near the end of the race, the front half of the peleton picked up the pace, and formed a pretty nice line through the turns. I saw steve moving up the group to get near the front. I was near the back of the break and just wanted to finish without a crash. steve ended up crossing the line in either 4th or 5th place (congrats!). I was probably around the top 15 or so…but damn, that was a nerve racking race.
gabe told us that he had been sticking bad wheels throughout the race and ended up finishing with a free lap under his belt. he was doing pretty well though, which was a bummer. I saw him moving from the middle of the group farther and farther back. I know how that goes, it happens to me at almost every race, haha! I’ve been determined to ride near the front of the group though, it’s the safest place to be. it’s consistently fast, and riders are usually keeping the line fairly straight. either way, definitely glad we all finished without any accidents.
I headed back home to drop off my road bike, and jumped on the track bike to run some errands. also stopped by the old house to see what was going on.
back on the silver wheels. the bike rides ridiculously smooth compared to the carbon (might just use them for marin riding, or track racing next season).
stopped by freewheel hayes on my way back home to pick up a box of hammerbars. they seem like the perfect, compact, post-race snack. I had a sample bar a couple weeks back and they’re delicious. 75% raw, and packed with good fats, carbs, and protein. mmm.
time to do some cycling laundry, and rest up for the short, furious race in napa tomorrow.
