What a great venue! Today was an amazing day weather wise and what a perfect setting. I really was unsure as I was putting my bike on my car and heading TOWARDS the city!?!?! That faded away as I pulled in and geared up for my preride. Some sweet flat fast sections, a heinous long DEEP beach run followed by stairs and then some more fast sections leading to a MTB like section. It was pretty cool. Especially the fact that we were actually on the beach by the ocean.
My race went off with me in dead last since I was one of the last to register. I found a fast wheel and pulled through a bit of the field but then I just had to keep steady and work my way up. 2 laps into the 10 lap race it started to thin out and I just kept the hammer down. In the one hairpin(lap 3 I think) with mud I went down early trying to ride an outside line which opened up a gap in front of me. I did what I could to try and get back on and just kept it steady. I did get back through a few before going down once more in a fast corner but I didn't lose any places.
Into the last 2 laps I picked up the pace and picked off a few more as they were fading. In the last lap there was a nice little group behind me planning to make a move when one of them went down blocking most of the group. As soon as I heard that I dropped the hammer to get as much of a gap as I could. It held for most of the remainder of the lap and I heard someone sneaking up on the last turn before the finishing straight. As soon as I picked up on it I threw down the biggest gear I had and turned the pedals hard holding him off. It was a pretty good race. Not too solid with two falls but a good one nonetheless.
The most interesting part was realizing the first fall which was probably lap 3 or so almost ripped my front tire off the rim(I had to pick dirt out from under the tube later). It was actually unseated in a 2 inch section but still somehow stayed on the rim(even with 50 psi!). I rode the majority of the race like this with it solidly rubbing my brake hard. Finished 25th of 60+ racers. My mid pack streak is back!
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