Day three came a bit early, the first morning of daylight savings time meant a mighty cold start as well - 35 degrees. After a pre-race espresso (unfortunately, from Starbucks) I made my way to the race. I gave the course a quick ride to warm up, debated about how much clothing to wear, and then lined up at the start. The race was a 3.5 mile rectangular circuit, a slightly rolling downhill straight followed by a hard right to a false flat; another right with a short, steep uphill that led to some climbing rollers; another right led back into town and to a series of streets that stair-stepped back to the start.
The first couple of the 10 laps were pretty fast, each becoming faster until the 3rd which was the fastest of the race @ 25 mph. I found myself sitting at the back of the group following wheels, I just wanted to finish the race without crashing, so wound up doing more work than I should have. It was a hard race for me, way out of shape for sure.
On the last lap, five riders tried to enter one of the final turns at the same time, one of their tires blew off the rim and took out 10 guys. The field split and I pulled in at 19Th place.
One more down.
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