Personal Journal Entry June 17, 2010

This day finds me on the fourth day of 6 vacation days in Las Vegas. The family is staying at a beautiful resort off the strip, away from the hubbub of The Strip but close enough if we choose to partake. Tonight we are taking Carla Rose to see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. But the highlight of the trip, for her, has been the pool. Except for meals, she spends most of her day in the water. I think she’s growing the beginnings of a dorsal fin.


We left LA on Monday. The day before, Sunday, I competed in the La Habra CBR crit. I only raced the 4’s because I still had a little prep to do before vacation officially started. Anyway, the weather that morning was comfortably cool and a bit overcast, typical So Cal June Gloom, a contrast to the sunny and hot weather two weeks before.

The field was not quite full, about 70 riders but the fast ones were there. The race started out routinely enough but soon you could hear the distinct sound of break pads desperately grabbing rims as riders shouted. The entire rest of the race was peppered with squealing breaks and shouting riders. For a mid-season race it was squirrely, even for a 4’s race. At one point a rider from Mengioni told the rider next to him to grab a wheel and stick to it. I guess this guy all over the place. Mengioni then puts his hand on the guy but the guy gets spooked and swerves sharply to the right causing a chain reaction across the peloton. For those not right next to it, it appeared Mengioni pushed the other guy so of course Mengioni catches a ration of shit from the other riders and a warning from the race announcer.

So the for the rest of the race I worked hard to stay at the front, away from the inevitable carnage that would likely come before race end. Then, as happens, I wasn’t paying attention and soon found myself about 20 riders back with 5 laps to go. I knew I would be able to make a move up the inside so I stayed put until 2 laps to go at which time I was boxed in, unable to get to the outside. With one lap to go the speed picks up and riders are dropping off 2 and 3 at a time. Horribly out of position I decided to say content to finish where I was. Riders are spilling left to right as I evaluate my options for getting by safely. As I swing to the right I see bikes and riders sliding toward my intended line and stop just a few feet to my left as I pass. But by then opportunists were already diving into turn 3 and as I come out of turn 3 they are charging turn 4. My day is done. I sprint anyway just to move up a few meaningless positions to break into the top 20.

I hadn’t ridden a 4’s race like that in a long time. In retrospect, I was surprised there were not more crashes. After a cool down lap I rolled over my car, commented to a few other guys on how crazy it was, packed my stuff and drove home. I have no regrets on how the race went for me personally, if I had stayed at the front I surely would have been one of the guys hitting the pavement. Sometimes, survival is the prize.