After serving a one year suspension because Todd got me home late from Keyesville last year, I was back on the dirt this weekend in my racing whites on Sunday. The venue was the CCCX series in Fort Ord. A great early season series with experts and pros doing 5 laps on the ~5 mile mostly single track course. If you like the Sea Otter course, but hate the distance, this is the race for you.
I lined up in the pro/expert single speed class for my first single speed race, starting shoulder to shoulder with the pro/semi field… Quickly, I learned my first lesson about this race course… make the lead group of geared riders, and draft them on the flats… Oops… Out of the gate I was stuck in the middle-back of the pack, and watched 4-5 of the 9 other single speeders… uhh… well… ‘speed’ off… Dang… So I pulled around slower geared riders when I could, stuck my nose into the wind way too much, and got a few passes on other single speed guys.
But in the end, I couldn’t close it down to the lead group of pro/semi riders, and settled into a spot with a couple expert guys. They would get in my way on the tough single track climbs, then pull away on the flats, then I’d close on the tight decents, only to get bottled up on the next climb… dang… I had a bit to learn about drafting and single speed racing.
In the end I finised 4th, 1:40 off the podium. My lap times were solid, only losing about 10-20 seconds per lap. But I was d-o-n-e by the end, with both legs cramping on the final kicker into the finish line.
Hopefully my form will come around, and I can run a more ‘strategic’ race next time out there.
If any SB folks are interested in this series, it is only 3 hours north, and the entry fee is $35. Good deal for fun single track racing with solid expert fields.
