See Kay Ride: Golden State Race Series

On May 5th and 6th, Rio Strada racing hosted the Golden State criterium and circuit race, respectively. The night before I made sure I had everything ready and taped up my achilles. While my achilles isn't hurting too much, it's been really tight. Better safe than sorry.

Criterium

I arrived at the race, got my number (911... really? That's going on the wall), and saw that some of my old teammates from Team Revolutions were there. I decided to repark my 2500 diesel pick-up truck near my buddies, where there were nothing but compact spots. It fit perfectly. I warmed up with the Revs. Once of them, Karen, was in my race as well. Some of my new teammates spotted me and started chatting while I complained about how my legs weren't feeling it, wah wah wah, "holy shit don't post that picture on Facebook!" and so on.

After a crappy warm up, I lined up with the rest of the ladies. This was a 3/4 category, so meh, we knew what was going to happen. The 3's would decide that the 4's were annoying so they were going to try and drop us at whatever cost. Let's keep this in mind... the whatever cost.

A bunch of my teammates were there, cheering, taking pictures, etc. The official was telling us whatever notes they tell us before a race and then we hear the announcement, "The first two laps are prime laps." Ugh. Okay, so it was going to start fast and most likely stay fast. Hey, it's racing, I guess. Whistle blows and off we go.

Just as I expected, we started to go fast. We had a group of 40 women. It was one of the bigger fields I've been in for a while. Attacks started right off the bat, and because I'm me, I answered those attacks. The whole race went like that, attack, answer by whomever decided it was their turn to answer the attack, bring person back, attack, answer, attack, answer. The more we got into the race, the more attacks that were being executed, and the dumber that some chicks were getting. Hey, I completely understand being an aggressive rider, but you don't have to get stupid about it.

Since we had a lot of 3's there, I'm pretty sure they thought that they could intimidate a lot of the 4's by pressuring them off some wheels. It worked a lot of the time. A 3 would want a wheel, would get really close to a 4, and the 4 would give her wheel away. I'm a pressure rider, though. I've ridden and trained with people who don't have a bubble whatsoever and I'm comfortable with people bumping into me. It didn't work when a 3 would try to pressure me off my wheel, so elbows started to get thrown and quite a bit of bumping occurred. Oh, rly? Fine, do that, but I'm still not moving.

The race was pretty much the same the whole time. Attacks, surges, a lot of shitty bike handling, shitty turn-taking, bumping, bitching, and a crash. It happened right behind me. I didn't know who crashed until after the race, but that's racing. If you race, you'll most likely go down... or something.

I got myself in a bad spot for the sprint and didn't do much. So, no points for this race. Oh well. At least I know my fitness is there to keep up with a pretty fast race. I stuck around for the E3s since four of my teammates were there. These guys pretty much executed everything perfectly and Matt got the win, which was their plan. Awesome. These guys are pretty much textbook perfect in their tactics and know how to execute them. Took pictures of the podium and I apparently got awarded most aggressive rider in my race. Cool.

I went home and then decided to go on an easy spin. It was windy as hell. And then I went extra Mexican and decided to go do some celebration for Cinco de Mayo, which is pretty much like every other day in Mexico.

Circuit

I decided I was going to make a day of this. I went to the race, a bunch of girls came up to me, said hi, invited me to warm up with them. These are girls who live in the bay area, know me by name, and say very nice things about me. All because "[I'm] a powerhouse and very respectful racer." Giving my team a good name and being liked by other racer, I'll take that.

So, I did my thang for warm up, which consists of mostly working my jaw muscles due to chatting too much with people and spacing out while on the trainer for 45 minutes. I then rolled around the parking lot and saw my teammates, so I talked to them, then decided that I should probably line up. 2.1 mile course, officials said whatever officials say, the promoter told us that there had been a miscommunication that the 3's and the 4's could be started at different times, which most of the women are happy about. However, it didn't go through, and most of the women were very unhappy about that. So, the promoter said some words, worked his politics, probably to make the women feel better about the decision, and went on about women's racing and money and promoting races... whatever. The point is, we didn't start at different times and people were pissed, so he tried to make them feel better. Did it work? For some. Others were still pissed and nearly sat out the race.

The race was the same as the crit. Attacks, answers, attacks, answers. Only this time it was a lot more aggressive. Elbows were being thrown for sure, and I was getting annoyed. I don't say anything during a race, mostly because I don't want to be marked at "that rider," (or in women's racing, "that bitch") and I like to keep a good name for my team. This was getting ridiculous, though. Not only did I get to make friends with a lot of elbows, the sketchiness and dive-bombing turns was just stupid. No reason to do something like that in a fairly easy course. This circuit was not technical, yet some chicks couldn't ride their bikes in a straight line. Actually, the squirrels that crossed our path during the race ran a straighter line than some of these chicks.

The last two laps were the worst. Way too many close calls. I got pinned in the last chicane. It was an easy one, too. Straight line. But for some reason it seemed like it was an impossible task to go in a damn straight line. Okay. So I figured out where I needed to be. On the last lap, in a different spot, someone decided to slam on her brakes and nearly caused a crash, I got elbowed and pinned on the turn. A lot of "fuck fuck fuck!" was being thought by me. I realized though that as soon as I touched my brakes, it was over. I rolled through the finish line.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! http://acaurora.smugmug.com

It was definitely one of the most aggressive races I've been in. I guess it's expected. But damn, I was in such a good spot in that chicane and then that happens. Oh well. I'm sure I'll remember that chick's elbow for a long time. Maybe I'll see it in my next race. At least now I know how she plays the game, right?

How awesome is this!?

So, I stayed the rest of the day. Took pictures, hung out with a bunch of friends, and saw a lot of amazing ~~and beautiful legs~~ bike racing. I watched the E3's race, where 4 of my teammates raced, and the guys swept the podium. Matt, once again, won as was planned. There was a break away for a while during the race with about a 16 second lead on the last lap. Asa said, "Well, I guess that's the only way you can beat the LeadOut guys." Yeah, right. Into the last chicane, the guys were 1,2,3 and took over the race. They were going about 5 - 8 mph faster than the rest of the field through that turn. Amazing racing by these guys!

Brad and my teammate Eric raced the E4's, which was also a fun race! Brad and I went on an adventurous ride after his race and then came back to see some more racing.