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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Matt Hersey
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Saturday, 04 November 2006 |
SDBC Club Cross Race
Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
It was a good day. I met two of my short term goals at the same time.
I got to ride on the velodrome and I met a bunch of new people who race bikes. I found out about this small race while looking on the internet, trying to find out about track lessons, or how I could just ride a few laps on the track. The internet posting said, “cross race, 7-9am, club race”. No categories, no fees, no contact info, no nothing.
So I drive up to Balboa park at 7am and there it is - nothing. No racers, no bicycles, no promoters, nothing. I sat down on a bench for bit, in my full Bikeman kit, and enjoyed my coffee as I watched all the dogs and their owners run and play. There was baseball chalk on the ground and arrows coming out of the velodrome - some semblance of a bicycle racing course. I rode the dusty, rocky course for a bit. Not a lot of technical stuff or variety on the course - just a lot of climbing and straight stuff and tons of sand. Did that posting say 7am or 7pm?
And then, finally, a small RV pulled up to the velodrome. Written across the top of the front windshield was “race across america”. I knew that this was my guy. I knew I was in the right place. He told me that the race was free and it would start in an hour. He told me that I could ride around the track for a while to warm up. Sweet!
Slowly, riders and racers began to trickle in.
We all did a warm up lap before the race, to preview the course. Out of the 16 total racers, only 5 had cross bikes. There was a flat tire, and then two guys crashed into another - what a way to start!
When the gun finally went off, I figured that I would be safest at the front as we went over one small barrier and exited the velodrome. Then I just kept going. We only did two laps - probably only 15 minutes of racing, but I won. Yes! Yes! Yes! It was a small victory, but the ego sure needed that one. My first win of the season.
First prize was a set of Vittoria XG clinchers, but they wouldn’t give ‘em to me because I wasn’t a club member. Oh well, I raced for free anyways.
Unfortunately, the track racing scene winds down for the winter, so I probably won’t get to race on the track. There’s more cross racing in SoCal - I’ll let you know how it goes.
Matt
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