Meadows Circuit Race

Today was the definition of an epic clusterfuck. I knew that when the course was described as "9 90 degree turns with a climb and a descent that will string out the field" that it wasn't the course for me. I don't do technical races very well partly because I have an irrational fear of pedal striking (which I did 8 or 9 times today) and partially because of a few friends that have gone down hard from them and had terrible injuries. Also, I just don't do well with sprinting every 20 seconds while trying to avoid crashes and make sense why the other cat 4s are doing some of the seemingly absurd things that they are usually doing. I'm fine in a road race where I can sit in the top 20, hang out, see the road in front of me, avoid nervous peloton spasms, and just relax.

I arrived about 30 minutes late thanks to pointless traffic on 95 and then informed that I wasn't even registered. I rushed to get money and arrived about 10 minutes before the race. A random person pinned my number on and then I stepped on my bike. BAM! Seatpost slipped down all the way to the setback kink. Looks like I didn't torque the bolt after putting on the friction paste. Eyeballed the adjustment, took my two free laps and lined up, where the officials read our names off like we were in Kindergarten. This took far too long and I was pretty much cold and stiff from the 2.5 hour drive.

Missed my pedal TWICE (again). Sick, just dropped from top 20 to the back 3/4. The course was technical and the turns were pretty narrow. The hill was easy, but had a massive stop for a 90 degree turn and then a sweeping left into an s-turn then down a stretch that everyone drilled until the cross winds hit. I got more cornering confidence as the race went on and then 6 laps in made a big move up the final straight and managed to get in the top 15. I floated around there and the top 20 for the next 8 laps as the pace undulated. A few people tried to get breaks going, but the weather and lack of expertise wasn't too conducive to their success. They'd usually stay away until the wind hit them on the downhill and then they'd get sucked back in. District Velocity and one Long and Foster (don't know your team name) guy did a good job at the front- the most organized I've seen a MABRA 4 race thus far.

I definitely didn't need a wool base layer nor did I need the 8 or so pedal strikes I got in the SAME left hand turn on the back side of the course. Shit happens, whatever.

I looked back with 3 to go and there was somehow no one behind me. I know that the field had been shelling riders since the third lap, but it was now down to less than half of its original size. I came into the s turn on the back side way too hot, had to brake a bit and got gapped. I spent the rest of the lap catching up, then pulled off by the start/finish only to be reprimanded by Josh Frick who told me that I was too young to be riding like a quitter. I spent the rest of the race trying to catch back up and gobbled up a few shelled riders on the way and finished somewhere between first and last. I don't care since it was out of the points and I know it was shitty.

I planned to ride after, but I was absolutely toast. The idea of getting in two weeks of crash training before Jeff Cup wasn't such a good idea. I tried to ride after the race, got about an hour into it and decided to pack it in. The somehow 3 hour drive back was fun and cramp-filled and the 95 traffic definitely makes it a race that I will never do again.