San Diego + Manhattan Beach + Wisconsin

Salut

Been a busy couple weeks of riding....and so i'm quite behind in the blog scheme of things. I'll start with what's painfully freshest in my mind. Manhattan Beach. I love this race. It's really short. There's lots of money. And the entire race just comes down to where you are come the final corner. This race has usually been the end of season soiree for me, but this year it was in late june...so still lots of form to come...hopefully.

I carpooled to the race with the Bearclaw cat 2 superstars. Those guys have come a long way since I first joined up. They raced it perfectly. But one guy put in an impossibly fast sprint to come around and narrowly take the win. The Claw in second.


Full write up for the race done with proper Oxford status diction can be found here. Adjective city. Ok, my race. First thing, it was a blast. The NRCs are always so much fun...and in truth, they're usually easier than the local stuff because the speeds are faster (more moving air, more vacuum), the fields are bigger (more vacuum to hide in), and you drop less speed in the corners. But above all, in the local races, the onus is on me to do something. Here you just watch and not crash, and get to that corner in good shape. It's such a fine time. That said, the race was the usual well-attended beach party style scene. After 1/10th of the field got callups, we got to the line. I got a good start spot -critical. Rolled off. Nothing fancy. But shortly after the rollout is when I find out if the legs are ready to fire. They were. Mixed it up half-ass twice, and with the exception of a brief recovery from those moves, kept it in fine position throughout. "Five To Go!" said that man who's race announcing i'm a big fan of. Awesome. I was top 20. 20th place got almost $400. 21st place gets a bit less. $400 less...and 22nd place says "hey, at least i wasn't 21st."


Do I even write the rest of this report? I finished 22nd. Embarassing. The legs were swelllllll and I let em down. It was the usual chaotic madness in the last couple laps. Wheels chopping, expletives flying, no team controlling the front. The most interesting of the chaoticness was some dude who's wheel I was on just had his bike slowly come undone with 1.5 to go. I hit 1000+ watts at 4 different points inside the last 3 laps. Not cause of attacks, but just from trying to sprint away and around the ensuing carnage. I love that scene though. The $400 would have been really swell to have. I need to get over it, but it's tough. Anyhow, into the bell, after sprinting away from the guy's bike explosion, I was in swell shape. Jittery Joe's shot up the left side on the hill and I was on them. Got to turn one in fansatic shape, aced the turn, and was a bit trapped on the outside once through. It's okay. Couple hundred meters later, I brushed against Rasaan's rear wheel. Perfect. I'm where I'm supposed to be. Hadn't jammed brakes or hit anything in a good 20 seconds. A new record. Then I'm not sure where things went awry. First wheel through the final turn crashed. No bueno. I escaped the bodies and bikes, but was off the wheel I'd been following...and in the center line...not the inside like I should have been. Two riders passed on the inside. Two riders, four-hundred monies. Poof. We all went to the beach afterward.


Hmm...a bit short on time....so no proper saturday race report. Small field, lots of Waste Green Vegetable guys. They won easily. I was in a decent move givining it lots of juice for the last 5-6 laps, but we were caught with 2 to go. I won a Rudy Project watch. Who wants it?

Lastly..................WISCONSIN. I'm heading out there. It was one of those things where if I really sat down and analyzed it financially I probably wouldn't end up going, but I saw that I had enough to buy the plane ticket and bought it. The rest will hopefully fall into place. If they don't.....i'll have stories to tell. Win-win situation, no?