The 6th round of the California State Series took us to the Santa Barbara Bike Festival and our home track at Elings Park this past weekend.
This course is filled with short, punchy climbs and baking bump filled downhill switch-backs that some consider gruesome and painful, but which suit the talent of this Platinum rider quite well.
From the gun, the 25-29 Cat 1 class took off like it was shot out of a cannon, racing up the first deceptively long fire-road climb jockeying for position before the single track. I settled in about a third of the way up in the train, holding back just a little to make a quick move before the downhill. When we got to the left turn to go downhill, I stood up and made a quick sprint to pick off two unsuspecting riders before heading down the first set of switchbacks.
With the whole group together, you couldn’t see more than five feet in front of you as dust was flying everywhere from riders jamming on the brakes to make the next corner. Knowing all the corners here is where home course advantage comes through, and trusting the guy in front of you doesn’t go down. Out of the cloud we hit the road climb back up to the top of the hill.
The lead group was still in tact and everyone closed together through the windy flat section, catching a little bit of breath before we’d have to go back up. At the end of the first lap, I found myself in a group of four fighting for the last step on the podium. Two attacks came up the first two climbs and we were able to drop one, then through the back section of the course we were able to drop another setting up for a two lap showdown.
I was pretty cooked at this point, but was determined to hold on. Heading back up the road climb we started running into some lappers, and he was able to put one between us going up the twisties. This five foot gap started to grow, and by the end of the third lap I couldn’t see him anymore. This made the fourth lap long and grueling with no one to chase, though I could see some other Platinum riders starting to catch up which I couldn’t allow. This gave me enough juice to get over the finish in 4th, by far my best ride of the season.
(Photos by Roxanne Moore)
