With clearing skies Keith Horowitz and I made a last minute decision to go down to race the Dominguez Hills criterium. As we approached LA it started to sprinkle and by the time we were registering it was full on raining. I sat in my car to pin my number on and was considering finding a covered business porch to set-up my trainer to warm up. Luckily though the rain lasted about 15 minutes and by the time our races started it was clearing up and getting sunny.
The four corner course was wide open with great pavement so even though it was wet it was fast and safe. I stayed at the front and went with the break attempts but nothing stuck because it never got organized and the stiff wind required the horsepower of more willing attackers. When the laps cards came up the front got re-shuffled and I noticed that two had just scooted off the front. I turned to Jon Baskin of Team (He won the Poor Kids RR and was in a lot of break attempts at Mothballs) and asked him to bridge with me but he said his teammate was off the front. So I led and he sat on my wheel. I yelled back and suggested that LaGrange bring ‘em back because I thought they had some guys planning to lead out their guy Stratton (who nipped me at the line at Mothballs last weekend). No response so I yelled for any team to bring ‘em back. Jon was still on my wheel and said “tough proposition”. I fought to stay at the front (not very hard because nobody wanted to push that wind) and jumped on two guys flying up the side at two corners to go. At the last corner we reeled in the two off the front and I was sitting third. I sensed stuff coming up the left so I jumped a little early and drag raced the two for the lead. I couldn’t come around and one guy came up the left so I ended up with another fourth. At the end of the race the roads were completely dry, the sun was out, and I was happy with another fun crit.
Ron Takeda 4th Cat 3
Southridge Mtn Bike Series #3, Fontana, Ca 2/7/09
Chase Schoen 1st Cat 1 (27-34yrs old)
