Race Report: Central Coast CX #1

CCCX #1, Manzanita Park, 9/23/07
5th place, Elite Men



I had a very good first race. Lined up second row, and was about tenth wheel about 60 seconds after start. As the gaps formed on the first two laps, I'd leapfrog up to the next rider(s). By lap 3, I'd moved up to Hooptie's wheel (Rob Evans) and was working pretty well with him. We were running 5th and 6th at that point. At about 30 minutes in, I put in a bit of a dig on the start/finish climb and rode him off my wheel. Maybe not the smartest move, as the next guy up the road (Aaron O'Dell) was 20-30 seconds ahead and I probably wasn't going to be able to bridge to him unless he cracked. But I felt like I could ride a bit faster than Rob, and didn't want to tow him around to the end, where I knew he could out-sprint me. So I spent the second half of the race solo. Extended to about 20-25 seconds ahead by the end of lap 7, but wasn't gaining much on the guy ahead. So I went into conservative mode for the last 3 laps, focused riding smoothly. Lance had come up to Hooptie behind me and they were closing some in the last two laps. But never got closer than maybe 10-15 seconds. I still had a nice buffer when I rolled out of the last chicane and accelerated up the hill to the finish.

-Aron

Glad to see other Sycip folks out there and in the results.
http://cccx.org/2007/race1/2007_CCCX_Race1Results.shtml

Photos