Category: 4
Result: Top ten

I was ready for some racing since I missed out on McLane. I had pre-registered for this crit, since I had friends over on friday and sat night, so the sat crit was out of the question. Yesterday I went to Lake Tahoe for some snowboading with my friends. I was worried if I'd be overtired after making a trip up there and being on the slopes all day. I'm really glad that my race was at 11:35am.

On to today: I checked the weather report when I got up, forecast was still rain. But, looking outside, there wasn't any rain. I decided to head out to the race. When I got there, it started to rain. It was just pouring down and didn't look like it was going to let up. I sat in the car for about 20 minutes debating whether I should race or not. German's story of yesterday was in my mind. As I debated about the safety, the rain stopped.

I got out of the car, rode my bike to registration and got my number. I went back to the car and pinned my number while sitting inside the car. It was pretty cold outside.

I rode around the city streets for a warm up with about 20 mins to the start. After the masters 4/5 race finished I was able to get a quick preview of the course. It was advertised ( I think ) of 6 corners. I only counted 4. Fine by me, and the roads were excellent pavement. Some bots dots, but nothing hazardous. On the straightaway after turn 3, there was a fierce headwind and a slight uphill. Other than that, I wasn't concered about the course.

The race started a few minutes after the advertised start time and we were away. I stayed at the back for the first half of the race. I am not sure why but I felt a bit safer there. Some attacks came and went, nothing got away. Everyone was very careful in the turns, and a lot of braking was going on. Still being in the back was fine for me. A few bells for the primes, but I wasn't interested in chasing anything off the front.

The race was very uneventful until the lap cards showed 2 to go. The pace picked up, and I decided now it was time to move up. I moved up when it was safe and was sitting about 10th wheel going into the last lap. The last lap was a scorcher, I was able to stay in the front and when we hit the headwind after turn 3, I move up alongside the curb. Some fella was slowing there, so I yelled "moveee!" and got a bit of space, only to be boxed in a moment later just before the final turn, I groaned and lost a bit of momentum.

However, the leggies were feeling good, so I made an effort to sprint all the way, I was moving up pretty fast and just kept going.....to a 10th place finish. It was a good feeling to get a decent result.

Looking back, I would have chose to take the outside before the last turn, since I was really slowed down by going curbside on the final corner. Surprisignly, all 33 of us stayed upright!

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