7:45 am race, so I packed my car the night before and hit the road @ 4:50. 10 minutes behind schedule, but that is OK.
Got there with enough time to sign up ($40) and warm-up a bit. Big wreck in the 4's field helped all races be shortened by a few minutes.
We pull up to the line... no wheel support. I know it was not their fault and the wheelpit people REALLY screwed MBGP riders, but who got the heat? Organizers and Eric has already apologized. People were pretty pissed at that, but what can you do. You ask the idiot to show up, he tells you he will and then doesn't....
Oh well, race is on and my plan was simple. I was alone, I had a mission to accomplish AFTER the race, so I made sure to stay out of trouble.
It was the easiest MBGP I have ever done. Almost lame. Actually it was VERY lame to just sit in, but I had no choice.
People tried to get away and with the wind nobody was successful at it. Speeds were pretty high up in the tailwind section and sometimes very low up on the hill before turn 3/4... I saw 16 mph at some point... but on the other side we hit 36 mph... on the same lap. So there is CAT 3 racing for ya.
5 to go and 37 minutes into the race i decided to maybe try something.. no go. Guy crashed in the middle of the 3/4 turn.... bearclaw dude. It is amazing that no one ran him over...
1 to go and another crash. then I decided to really sit up and just watch. Liquid Fitness took the win. Back to back for these guys. Van Dyke at San Pedro, Ted second at green Trolley and Ernie (?) at manhattan... I am jealous...
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I had forgotten that it is the unofficial LA Championships, something I remember from the last time I did it over 10 years ago. It just seemed like many riders, who are normally very solid were crazy; blindly diving for holes whenever they appeared, even very early in the race. There were many "almost crashes" on perfectly straight stretches of road.
My legs never really hurt the entire race but I realized that my hands were numb from squeezing my handlebars to death out of fear. I should have at least sprinted for the carbon handlebar prime as I’m sure I did some structural damage to mine. Oh well! Needless to say, I made it to the finish line in one piece in the field sprint.
On a more positive note, it remains one of the best organized races on the SOCAL calendar and I'm extremely grateful that we are able to race in such a beautiful city. Props go out to all of the organizers, sponsors, volunteers and city officials who make this great day of racing possible . Bummer about the wheel pit fiasco but like you said, shit happens.
And people can say what they want about Rock Racing, but Michael Ball and the boyz (and girlz) are pumping LOTS of cash into the sport we all love and put on one hell of a show in the process. I was very happy that I survived my race so that I was able to witness some of the Pro, 1 race. I even took the family to the beach after the races which was icing on the cake. A great day was had by all.