Tour of Murrieta: Day Two

Day two of the Tour of Murrieta was an "L"-shaped criterium around the Murrieta Library and School. Turns five and six transitioned from asphalt to brick and then back to asphalt again and proved to be somewhat slick. The corners were relatively wide and with the exceptions of a few poorly placed manholes the course was pretty safe. And even through most of the race the guys were riding pretty smooth, no diving into the inside of corners, everyone holding their line, nobody doing anything too dangerous.

From the gun it was pretty fast, in fact for the first half the guys were all flying, absolutely flying. Four laps in I was gasping for air. Things settled down a bit until five laps to go, the pace picked up and the group strung out. I started to move up with three laps to go, taking corner 4 wide and fast and slinging up through the group. With one lap to go I ran through the turn full out and sped up the inside.

The sound of carbon meeting pavement happen just to the right and a few riders up from me as a couple of racers hit the deck. The guys next to me tried to avoid the crash and swung right into me. Somehow we both stayed up, the riders in front of the crash all sprinted away, while us behind tried to miss the carnage.

The group was strung out to the line with myself soft pedaling in 15th place.

Some Data for the race:

Max HR: 198 bpm

Avg HR: 183 bpm

Max Speed: 33 mph

Avg Speed: 25 mph

Avg Cad: 85 rpm