Fake Plastic Figs

I guess after an entry like the last one i'm obligated to reply promptly, and I haven't. Desole! But yeah...in short, no minds were blown, and no, there won't be an offseason full of regret either. The legs are okay, but they won't be ripping any crank arms off any time soon. I like to ride crits aggressively, and for that I need those two guys to hurt a bit more than they did.

It was a swell course, really. I got all nostalgic when we first drove up and I saw orange traffic cones for the first time since my last race in the states. The course was 2k in length. The shortest circuit I've raced on here -by far. It had 5 corners, and a roundabout, which we went all the way around. with the finish line about 150 meters from the final turn. Really rough section between turns 2 and 4, and that roundabout! We did it 40 times, and I clipped my pedal 15 times at least! Thing with roundabouts...it'll be easier if I put it this way: You know how velodromes are banked so that the centrifugal force works to keep you grounded exponentially as speed increases? Well, roundabouts are the opposite. Like a mini inverted velodrome -every one! This one was no exception, and 40 times around it. I never did figure it out, and really killed rhythm with people sprinting out of it each time.

So the race. The scene's slowly dying out. Again, we had 70-80 starters max...just like socal races this time of year. Bunch of new teams i'd never seen showed up. UCA fielded just two. So after getting to a cafe to use this friggin thing (please, click, educate yourselves...port a pots? no), we lined up...blasted off. I was beaming the first couple laps. It'd been so long. Attacks all over the place! Sprrrrrrrint to get out of the corners, lulls in the big wide flat section. Then fast again. Basic crit stuff, but yeah, I was taking it all in. The racing was agressive the entire time. There was no relapse, and I put in a number of digs to either close gaps or try to get something going off the front. Eventually, a break of 7 got established, and pegged it at exactly 30 seconds for a long while. Another chase group of 10 (?), and then another group with me, and then even more groups further back. Just totally blown to bits, and difficult to gauge where you were exactly. My group had about 10 dudes, one of which was doing a spot on C-Walk impression: Skinny guy, tan, calmly churning his 53x12, but doing it well and smooth and fast. He was a good wheel to be on come the roundabout. Anyhow, a short while after taking a 50km/h feed (got to be my fastest ever?), 5 to go sounded. Couple guys schneaked off of our group, and again, third race in a row, I attacked the chase group to take the minor placings. I attacked on the most shite dirty bumpy annoying section of the course, 350m before the finish. One guy caught me at 100 to go, I got in his draft, but couldn't come around. I finished 20th.