The final USCF race of the year was in San Clemente this year. This was also my first race as a CAT 4 racer. I knew that I probably could have had a great finish in CAT 5 but I wanted to race with the faster people I could hang on to.
San Clemente is between 1:40 -2 hours from our house. Upgrading to CAT 4 means that you get to start a little later, like 7:30 instead of 7am. We decided that we would get a hotel close to the course instead of waking up and leaving at 4:30 in the morning.
The course was very hilly, and there was a dangerous right hand turn coming off a steep down hill section. I knew that this was going to be a challenging course because of the amount of climbing that I saw when we got there. A few people told me that they werent doing the San Clemente race this year because there were too many crashes last year. This year was supposed to be a new and improved course.
As soon as I walked past the dangerous right hand turn there was a crash in the CAT 5 race. One rider needed medical attention. I knew that corner would be an issue for the rest of the race. I registered and warmed up then headed down near the start line.
I thought that I had a good spot to get on the course and line up at the start line but the official at my opening did not move quickly enough and I ended up lining up three riders deep in the middle of the start finish line. Unlike CAT 5 there was no speech, just a quick you will be riding for 45 minutes and we will pull riders at our discretion.
When the whistle blew I took off but the guy in front of me didnt. He couldnt get into his pedals and was barely moving. I tried to go around him but there were too many people passing me to safely move over so I had to sprint from the back when I finally got around him.
The race was fast and as expected the hills were torture. Just past the start finish line was a steep up hill with deceivingly sharp left hand turn followed by a slight right and then a sharp right to the down hill. Everyone was a little tense the first few laps but then it seemed to smooth out.
I spent most of the time towards the back of the main field, watching people drop like flies. Apparently the people setting the pace in the front love to climb because it was a fast pace. After about 5 laps we crossed the start finish line and I could see that the field was starting to string out.
As we went down the hill to the right hand turn I heard a lot of yelling and more whistles than normal. As I made the right hand turn I noticed two bikes and 4 water bottles in the road. I am not sure how many people went down but I had come almost to a stop trying to maneuver around the wreck.
When I looked up the field was mostly gone. There were some of us who were trying to get through the debris still but most of the field was already up the hill. I took off and started chasing. I worked with one person after another jumping closer and closer to the larger group in front of me.
I finally thought that I had caught up with them, I was actually just passing the trailing motorcycle when I hit the down hill and turned right. I was carrying a lot of speed and came very close, if not rubbed, the center cement divider. Half way up the hill my back tire went flat.
I quickly jumped off the bike and realized that I was done. I was on the back side of the course facing an uphill followed by a long flat road. There was no way I could have made it to the wheel pit without damaging the rim or shredding the tire.
I had no choice but to walk the bike back to where Anne and the rest of the family was sitting. She had my spare tire, tube, pump and changing tool. I doesnt make sense for me to carry them because there is not way I can change a tire fast enough to get back into the race.
I had a long walk back to them, and I guess Anne was worried and had checked to make sure I wasnt in a crash somewhere. I found her and changed the tire and retired the bike for the day. There is only one thing that helps when you lose out on a day of riding and that is going to the happiest place on earth. No, its not a bike shop, we went to Disneyland for the rest of the day.
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