Fast!

Yeah, it's been a while. Between work and life, the old, fat, and slow blog has taken back stage. Such is life.

Anyhow, today was the Long Beach Circuit Race, which finished prior to the real pro's racing the last stage of the Tour of California. In my time on the bike, I've been in a lot of bike races - this was one of the fastest. We went fast from the gun and only slowed down when we were neutralized so we didn't catch the 3s on their finish.

A couple stupid crashes nonwithstanding, it was a pretty quiet race. Attacks here and there, weak attempts to block (us included) here and there, and a field sprint at the finish. The sprint was a bit out of control, but nobody crashed. I butted my way into the Successful Living train coming out of the last corner, only to see trains come up either side of us, and push us back. I incorrectly though being in the middle of 6 guys paid to ride would prevent such events. Oh well.

Then all heck broke loose. First, a flat along the left side pushed the group to the right. Then a broken spoke to the left pushed us even further right. I saw an opening right past broken spoke guy and jumped into it. So did a 5 star fish rider and a Successful Living rider, however. Being half a wheel ahead of me, they cut over to the left, forcing me to do the same. I grazed the bars of a guy who had sat up (who had words for me after - listen, dude, if it weren't for me punching it, we would have hit bar to bar at 35 and both would have gone down, so chill - don't sit up in a sprint) and found a teammate in full sprint. Sitting on his wheel pulled me up into the top 20. Unfortunatley, they paid only to 15th. So, after 90 minutes and 42 miles, I came away with nothing but a fast day in the saddle.

When it was all said and done, Emile Abraham from Priority Health won, after unsuccessfully trying to crash about half the field.

Such is local bike racing. On to next week!