UCSD Cycling Team

This year I decided to join the cycling team. I knew it was going to be competitive and a large change of pace considering the only racing I had done before was a mountain bike relay race where we drank beer between turns. Training was going slow and steady until December when I had to get an abscess from my left thigh removed. Spending almost four weeks without riding was a real setback. So it was no surprise how my first race went. It was the Red Trolley Crit where almost 70 cyclists raced in a short circuit. I accomplished my goal of not crashing, but I played it too conservatively. After the second lap I was completely out of shape trying to catch up to the front pack and fell even further behind. I got behind another school's rider who also had fallen behind and drafted to regain some energy. I was starting to feel better and even more so when a couple of other teammates came up behind me. At this point we were heading towards the start/finish line and I started to make a move to get back with the main pack so I passed the rider in front with the other UCSD people behind me...unfortunately we were taken out by the officials. Without sounding like I'm making excuses I would like to mention that the race combined two categories C&D so the race was a lot bigger and faster than a normal D's race (fyi, I'm in the beginner category D).

USC's Crit was my second race this past Sunday. Because of what happened at Red Trolley I was determined to stay within sight of the main pack. The race had an inauspicious start, first the race was postponed about half an hour because the fences and hay bales were not setup in time. The plan was to have a clinic before the race for new riders, but the majority (>95%) of the riders had already raced a crit before so there were many a groan when instead of starting the race we took a couple of practice laps as a group. Then when we all thought the race was going to start we had to wait for the hay to be swept and the start/finish line put down. So finally the race began and I was holding position in the front half. The course was flat, but had two corners that had storm drain dips in the road. If the line around the corner was not wide enough the rear wheel hit hard on the bank of the dip. I think this was the reason a teammate's (Daniel?) tire blew out in the first couple of laps. About half way through the 25min race I was boxed in the middle of the pack when the guy to my left took a drink of his water bottle. He was slightly behind me so I didn't think much of it and held my line. That's when he bumped into me. If I hadn't had my hands in the drops I'm sure we would have hooked handle bars. Even so I felt his wobbling as he tried to regain control. When he uttered an "I'm sorry" I knew he hadn't gone down, but I knew not to get behind him just in case he made any more mistakes. On a few of the turns I had enough momentum and energy to make my way closer to the front. This helped when the preem laps were announced and the front took off. With a few laps to go I got behind Ian and knew I had to get ready for the final sprint. With one lap to go I had started falling behind because I had been so determined to stay near the front that I used up more energy than I should have. That's when I heard a loud pop and saw Ian's front wheel wobble. Apparently another rider had driven his rear axle into Ian's front wheel. I'm sure someone else closer to the action might have a more exciting recount of how that happened. I think I made it somewhere in the 15th-20th place, but it felt like I had won because I achieved what I set out to do, which was to stay with the front pack and finish the race.