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This was the second race weekend of my trip to SoCal. The entire week leading up to it I was riding the course to familiarize myself with all of its short, steep climbs in hopes to have as many advantages over my rivals as possible on race day. The course started off with a paved section into a “parade lap” which was done at the start of the race to try to spread the field out more. Following this short lap we entered into the main course which was about 2.5 miles in length.
It started with a steep sub-one minute climb followed by a quick downhill that turned sharply onto a fire road. That climbed up a bit further to the only rocky section on course. It was filled multiple lines and some jagged rocks - it was the only real place to puncture on course. After descending down this feature the course rolled along for a short period into another steep climb, the longest on the course. The last bit of this climb was much steeper and super dusty making it tough to find any grip. This was followed by another short descent what sent you shooting up a fire road with a tech and feed zone on it. The climb lead into, in my opinion, the sketchiest section of the course which was a super loose and fast downhill section into a hard left turn onto a fire road. We then followed some more twists and turns toward the log roll section of the course. This dropped us onto a fire road with a very loose off camber corner leading you into yet another steep climb that turned onto some fairly flat switchbacks before pointing sharply uphill again. There was a short descent after this then one final steep climb. We then followed the single track to he grass field that was filled with tight corners that resembled a cyclocross course. The main tech and feed zone of the lap was at the end of this section right before we popped onto the pavement section through the start/finish line.
I had another 8:00am start for this race which meant I got to wake up before 5:00am to make myself some waffles and sausages in the microwave - fancy I know. I got into the team van at about 6:15am for the five minute drive to Bonelli Park. Upon my arrival to the venue I set my bottles up, five half bottles due to how short the laps were. I then put my bike on the trainer for warm up. My warm up was shorter than usual at only 30 minutes but it seemed pretty effective because my legs felt pretty good off of the start.
When I arrived at staging I was ready to have a better call up than the previous race, but sat there watching the first three rows get called up. I was put in the fourth row for this race which was one row further back than my call up the previous week. I was disappointed but tried to ignore it and focus on what I could actually control. After the call ups concluded they played the national anthem and gave us one minute until start.
“30 seconds… 15 seconds… 5 seconds… GO!!” We sprinted off across the grass and onto the pavement. We turned onto the start loop where it immediately bottle necked. I tried to get around the group but was not able to. We popped out onto the tight grassy turns where I made up more spots and then we were back on the road to start our first full lap. I sat in the group on the pavement, gradually moving up. We then shot into the first steep climb where I gave it everything I had, passing around 15 people. I passed a few more on the subsequent climb and then entered the rock garden. People were going slower than I wanted to on that section and I could see a lead group forming and making a gap. We sprinted up the next single track climb and shot down the next descent. Right after the log section I burned a match to get to the front of the group I was with and continued putting the power down to bridge to the group ahead of us. I got close by the top of he climb and merged with it on the quick descent that followed. There was another mad dash up the fire road to get to the single track in the best position. I went into that behind one other rider and followed tight on his wheel. We popped out on the grass, through the twists and turns, and I grabbed my first bottle feed.
The next lap I made more passes on the first climb on course and got into the rock garden at the front of my group. This got me a small gap that the riders behind had to claw back on the climb that followed it. I stayed at the front of this group for the remainder of the lap and made another move at the beginning of the next lap. Getting a gap and bridging up to Colton Sacket. We stuck together for the rest of the race. Making small attacks on all the climbs to get into the descents first. We were fairly equal on the climbs and descents.
Going into the last lap I through my bottle at the start of the feed zone in hopes to grab a bottle. I looked at the person who had been giving me my feeds for the entire race and just like all of the other laps he held a bottle out for me. This is where the similarities ended… right when I went to grab the bottle he yanked it away. This meant that I had no bottle for my final lap. I was immediately shocked and confused as to why he would do this but I knew I had to keep going. I stuck on Colton’s wheel for as long as I could but dropped off of it on the climb after the log rolls. I kept pushing on to make sure I didn’t lose any spots. I came through the finish in 13th place and the 7th American.
The next morning I got to wake up around 9:00am to eat breakfast for short track. I had a couple small hotel Belgian waffles with sausage and a bowl of cheerios. I then packed up all of my stuff and brought it to the team van. Upon arrival to the course I got kitted up and was going to start warming up but all of a sudden one of my teammates told me that our race had been postponed by an hour to 1:40pm. This meant I had to wait another hour to warm up and eat something or I would be too hungry by race time. I waited the extra hour and then got warmed up. I kept it pretty light with only a few sprints to just spin my legs out from the previous days effort in the Cross Country without getting any more fatigued.
When I rolled up to the start line for call ups I was preparing myself for the mad dash to the line for the people who didn’t get a front row start when all of a sudden I heard my name. I had been given a front row start due to my finish from the day before. This gave me some added confidence.
They gave us a one minute, thirty second, and fifteen second warning and then we were off. I was second right off the start and made sure I stayed in the top few people for the first lap. After this the pace slowed slightly and we were just waiting for someone to go when all of a sudden my teammate Paul Fabian sprinted around us - the race was on. I sprinted up right to his wheel and held on up the climb. I was able to recover a bit on the grassy corners right before the start finish. Then it was another mad dash for positioning on the pavement going into the only climb on course. We sprinted up the climb and went through the start finish. Looking back we noticed we had established our lead group. About a lap later one rider went off the front and got a small gap. Nobody was chasing on the road but we were able to claw ourselves back to him on the climb after two laps. Right after catching him I put in a turn on the front of the group and was passed right before the climb.
We all went through the start/finish as a group and heard “TWO LAPS TO GO!!!” called out by the announcer. This is when things really exploded. Attacks were coming from all over the place but the group still stayed intact. We went through the start/finish for our final lap and the pace went up even more. I was sitting fourth or fifth wheel going into the climb but someone shoved their way by my causing my foot to unclip. The group got away from me and I buried myself catching up to them on the grassy corners leaving nothing for the sprint. I ended up coming in 7th place (5th American), getting pipped at the line. This was not how I wanted to end the race but it was still my best overall performance in a race of this caliber.
This weekend of racing has taught me a lot about perseverance. You can’t give up no matter what happens during a race and also in life. Missing that feed doesn’t give me an excuse, it was just another challenge that I had to overcome. It is also something that I could have prevented. It has taken me too long to figure this out with all of my missed feeds in the past but now I am going to make a change with my feed routine. I will not throw my current bottle until I already have a fresh one in my possession. Hopefully this will prevent all future problems. With my performance in short track there is also some room for improvement. I need to focus more on riding wheels because I was wasting a lot of energy by not staying directly behind the rider in front of me. I also need to ride more aggressively and confidently. Overall I would call my two week trip to SoCal a success and I can’t wait for The Subaru Sea Otter Classic next weekend!