Racing in Golden Gate Park

Today's race went awfully well. I got to SF in plenty of time to wobble around the course on my bike in jeans and running shoes, enough to see that the layout was little changed from last year save the placement of one barrier. Lots of time to get changed, hydrate, eat lunch, and do some warmup laps on the track with Mr. Hole Shot from last week's race before the ~1pm start.

The Open B field seemed pretty big, especially compared to last week's field of 13. My sprint at the start was adequate, and left me pushed over to the right side on the first loose corner--a mixed blessing. It taught me that the right side was far firmer than the middle or left where I had ridden in practice. It also taught me that shortly thereafter, the right side turned into pillowy dust into which my front wheel seemed to sink endlessly. I had predicted before the race that someone would go tail over teakettle in that section at the start, of course hoping it wouldn't be me...Ah well, it was soft, and I was soon back up and on my way. Everyone else was flailing too, so I don't think I lost much time/distance.

The race then progressed into a steady series of catches. There were three long straightaways favoring, well, going fast, which many riders seemed to forget. A couple times I passed strings of riders drafting off some poor guy--drafting's great and all, but if you're drafting off someone who's going slow, you're not helping yourself. The barrier-rooty runup worked in my favor: other people dismounted way early while I found riding up to the barrier pretty manageable, I could power up the hill pushing the bike rather than shouldering, and then most of my remounts were clean. And the right-hand line in that one corner saved me all sorts of misery as I watched all sorts of riders sink their rims into the dust.

I remember looking up at the race timer after 4 laps and seeing 17 minutes and change. I totally expected to come around again and see a "2", indicating 2 laps to go. It said "3". Oof. Hey, more racing for my money.

Still, today, it was probably in my favor. The legs were turning over the big ring over the entire course, and I kept catching people as they slowly blew...I was following one Altezza rider for 2 laps at least, before pulling away on the start/finish straight. I was really surprised to see myself catching up to Kea, who's normally way ahead of me in the results (turned out he had fuzzed out on laps remaining and sprinted with 2 laps to go, emptying his tank). When I passed Josh in the last lap (he was leading a string of riders at the end of straightaway #2, at the rise where you passed the pit tent a second time) I knew I was having a good day. The goal after that pass was to ride clean to the finish, but I was getting tired and could've ridden a couple sections a lot smoother. So, when I turned onto the pavement and started trying to sprint, a couple guys from Josh's train had the chance to pull around and outdash me to the line.

Even getting nipped twice at the end, I had a great race. My legs felt good every lap, my accelerations were good, and mentally I felt I was a lot more interested in going fast than most of the guys I passed (why draft off a slower rider?). It'll be interesting to see how I actually did in the results--I expect it'll be a significant improvement from my, uh, 51st? at the last Pilarcitos race.

A nice twist at the end of the day was that Olaf announced that Lauren had won the raffle for all race entrants for a brand-new, custom cyclocross frame from Sycip. She and her man already purchased custom frames this year and I imagine they already have one of the most expansive collections of bicycles in the Bay Area, so we'll see what happens there...

(added 10 minutes later) It was all fun and games, but I was pretty sore afterwards. Just keep popping those ibuprofen...

And: I saw in the singlespeed race today that Tim C. was having an off day. Usually he's pushing the lead, and here he was sorta spinning along, not in last, but not near the front. I ran into him afterwards and it turns out he was riding with several separated ribs and general bruising. It seems that when descending the fire road after making a night deposit of some beverages for the Thanksgiving fest atop Kennedy, his front light cut out and he quite literally flew off the edge...forget about going slow, the man's probably lucky to be alive. I hope the beverages were worth it.