Finally a weekend with cooperative weather! The racing was sweet too. We left Saturday morning bright and early for Crockett where the road race was. Colin, Meg, and I got there a little before 9 which gave us plenty of time to get ready. Adam arrived with Ricardo and Rigo in tow sometime after. It was sunny and the winds were light. Good day to ride. CHP decided to show up late so everyone's start times got pushed back some 20 minutos.
Rigo, Colin, and Ricardo were off first, Ricardo with his B's debut, and then Meg and I were next about 10 mins later. The cool part was having our B's field separated from the C's for the first time ever. We had 16 girls in our field. We rolled out easy, the first part was a slight incline before the downhill section. Meg pulled up until the downhill part where the big hitters from Davis made their move to the front. I really liked the downhill section cause it's wide, smooth, and not very technical so you can take it without braking. So anyway, we got through that part through the town and the rollers before McEwen all together pretty much. It wasn't until we hit the climb for the first time that the pack got separated. It was owwwwy, but it didn't seem long as it was for me last year. Nevertheless, I lost contact with the girls in front of me while Meg went and chased them down. I sat up and road the second lap out with one of the girls from Santa Clara. We never caught anyone in front of us, nor were we caught by anyone in our field behind us. In the last lap, the girl who was leading the C's rode up next to us and Santa Clara and I were being cautious about not getting a draft from her. It was really hard cause we were in the twisty roller part and we kept alternatively passing her and she passing us. On top of that, men's B's riders were coming in sporadic packs behind us. This is when Rigo rolled up behind us haha. It became a huge clusterfuck once we hit McEwen for the final time- us WB's, the WC girl, some MB's, and their follow car right behind us on the narrowest stretch of road. I had the hardest time trying to hold my line so I don't swerve into the men's pack (Colin was in there), don't make it seem like I'm drafting the WC girl, don't get hit by the follow car, dodging huge eucalyptus branches, mashing the shit out of my smallest gear and trying not to fall over, all while trying to keep on Santa Clara's wheel. It made me so verklempt and I ended up losing contact with Santa Clara, making my way towards the finish han solo. It was really nice to be done. My legs were toast. Meg did awesome though. She finished 6th and I got 9th. I missed Colin and Rigo's finish, it was probably good.
After that we all ate at Applebee's in Pinole and they had shitty service. The boys went back to Santa Cruz and Meg and I went back to the road race site to see Julian in the MA finish. When we got there, there were 2 laps to go and Julian was with the lead group. He looked pretty calm. On the second to last lap, he was still in there with a good probably like 10-15 guys or so, but the final sprint to the line only brought a few of them in as they got strung out. Julian came in like 6th or 8th or something, definitely top 10. It was cool.
That night, Meg and I stayed at my parents house. We ate Italian of course, talked about boys and Taylor Tolleson, cleaned our bikes, and went to sleep.
The next morning, we left my place at 8 to get to Berkeley early for the crit. Our race was at 10:20a, so that would've given us hella time to warm up. The shitty part was that we ended up trolling around looking for parking for a good 25 mins or so. It was almost 9 and I started to get pretty stressed out, but we got a hand from my parents who parked it for me haha.
So anyway, we got ready and I was able to get a good warm up with Meg and Amanda from Davis for about half an hour. I had a tall can of Starbucks double shot with guarana and felt good to go. We had a field of about 30 girls so that was exciting. The course had never been one of my favorites, .4 mile, rectangular with an icky uphill to the finish, but my legs were feeling great. My plan was to stay on the strong Davis girls wheels. There was a break with like 3 Davis girls and an SB girl, but I stayed with the next group with some of the other Davis girls, Stanford, and other girls we picked up and dropped off along the way. Davis had excellent teamwork and kept us from chasing, though I didn't really try to at all. I just tried to keep an eye on Amanda since she was a threat on the omnium. I pretty much just sucked wheel the whole time. I usually forget to breathe during crits too, but I made sure to breath in deeply on the downhill which helped me a whole lot. I felt solid on the corners and my group took them good and fast. It was finally 1 to go and I was getting ready to find a good position within in the pack. We got up the hill, and took to the downhill. I started thinking about how shitty it would be to crash out on the turn at the bottom of the last lap. I didn't but that would've sucked. Anyway, we made our way round the last corner to the final stretch and I was sitting probably 4th or 5th wheel, which wasn't the best place to be. As I jumped to accelerate out of the turn and get around the girls in front of me before the line, I spun out my gear fast and quickly tried to downshift. But it was too late and I got edged out right at the line, balls. We put in some good efforts though and I was happy about that. I finished 7th and Meg got 9th or 10th.
After our race, MB were on. I was standing watching at the top of the hill and someone grabbed me from behind. I turn around and it's slug cycling alum Tyler! He came over to watch with his gf Courtney. Tyler was team prez when it was Meg, Adam, and my first year on the team. Ryland and some others know him too. He lives really close to where the crit was. He is doing well, still riding his bike and playing in his band. He is going to Italy next month to watch the Giro. It was very cool to see him and though he missed Meg and my race, he stuck around to cheer Julian on with us.
So after getting Indian food, sitting around and taking to random people, and eating popsicles, it was time to watch MA. The previous day Julian was talking to Meg and me about how much he loved this crit, I guess it was true because he pretty much tore it up that day. It was nuts. 40 second .4 mile laps in the first 10 minutes. So many guys got shelled it was ridiculous. They started pulling out riders off the back after just 5 mins. But no worries, cause Julian was still in there and looking really strong. Davis' Phil Mooney attempted to make a solo break which he rode out for a good bit, but the field pulled him back in. SD's Jarman also tried to make a break and was looking strong until Julian along with Adam Switters and some other guy decided to bridge up to him. So it was a 4 or 5 man break with baby Jesus in the mix. With only a few laps left, the field relentlessly tried to catch them, with Davis trying to hold them back to protect Switters. There were a few really close calls, but the break was able to stick. It came around the final corner and Switters took it while Juls came in 4th. Awesome job, it was exciting to watch.
Fun and exciting race weekend all around. Stanford's in a couple weeks and I'm feeling well. It will be good. Oh yeah, and those going to the Stanford race, my parents got a free room from getting hella points from staying in a hotel, so they'd like to get us a suite in Palo Alto for Saturday night. Hotel party. That is all
