Square Lake RR

I did the Square Lake Road Race today. It was a fun course. The race was real slow, probably everyone was conserving energy for the big hill. I stayed in the front of the pack for 2/3 of the race, which made the experience a lot more pleasant. There were a few bumpy curves that were no fun when you were squeezed in the back.

I ended up riding out there in the morning, tooling around for the race, and getting a ride back. It made for a good day. If I would have rode out, raced, and rode back I would have had 120 miles on the clock... no thanks.

There was a crash that I got tangled in a bit. I was riding on the centerline, and the guy to my right was taking a sip from his bottle, one hand on the bar. Next thing I know is he is shaking, trying to hold on as his wheel got caught in a crack in the road. He ended up going tipping left, hitting me, then going end over end. It looked real painful. I am not sure who it was, so I have no idea if he was okay. The only damage I have is an out-of-true front wheel and a sheared off valve stem. The Presta valve broke high enough up that my tire still held air. The wobble in the wheel isn't bad, just enough to barely touch the pad every revolution. The whole thing spooked me a bit.

Anyhow, I ended up in a pretty good position at the end. With 1 km to go, I had a hole open up in front of me. I worked my way up to the front of the pack, and went for the long sprint, a technique that worked for me in the past. I held on to 1st until 500 m to go, and my legs gave out. I was feeling pretty fresh with 1k to go, but that was shortlived. I ended up getting passed by most of the pack.

Overall it wasn't a bad race. I was able to stay up front, avoided doing too much work, mostly avoided the crash, and climbed well.

Tonight I am going to sit around and drink beer. I'll probably head to One on One and check out the FRAME x FRAME photography show.