Skinny Tire (warning) race report

First, as the new member, apologies for the skinny-tire, spandex
reports. I promise this is not a usually thing for me, and I enjoy
riding the dirt more than pavement. I wasn't planning to do this
report, but the race was more interesting than expected, and maybe I
need to think twice about this and stick to the dirt.

I entered the inexperienced Cat 5s (less than 5 starts) at the
Fremont Early Bird Criterium yesterday since it was only 2 miles from
my home. Lets just say it was nothing like the wednesday night track
fights. It was about 15 laps around a 1.35 mile course. There were
probably around 30 or so of us that started in our group. Most were
plenty strong, but there were 2 or 3 that stuck out like sore thumbs
with their bad turns and not holding their lines. Somewhere around
lap 5, I was mid-pack, and we were going about 25-27 mph on a long
straight away, and bam, a pileup happens right in front of me. I had
been cautiously staying on the outside thus far, and I gently drift
to my left, being the first person behind the wreck to safely ride
around them. The sound of the bikes hitting the pavement was
probably scarier than the crash itself. On the next lap, it was good
to see everyone off the road and in one piece with no major damage.


As a group, I think we all rode the next couple laps more cautiously,
but slowly picked up the pace again. With 5 laps to go, we were
going down the same stretch and bam, another wreck happens about 5
bikes up from me. This time there is a rider right on my left and I
gently bumped elbows with him as I drifted, but I held my line and
had an OH S#!T moment. Again, that same horrible sound, and this
time with a bike bouncing right toward me. The handlebar hits me
square on my right leg. Somehow, I made it through the crash and
keep rolling. If I had been 2 inches to the right, it would have
taken my bike out and I would have gone down too. The guy on my left
thanked me for holding my line, so I guess I did something right.

So, after a couple of cautions laps, I was just glad to hear the bell
ring for the last lap. I stayed in the front 10 after the second
crash, and with the last ½ lap to go, the racing started. About 7 or
8 of us pulled away from the rest of the field, and I stuck behind a
roaring mouse guy, but as the line approached, I had already been
going my max I had nothing left to sprint. I finished somewhere 6 or
7th. The finish was pretty uneventful after the crashes. I probably
need to re-think this road racing thing, but I may try to do the rest
of these races since I just paid for an annual license. If anyone
else is interested in this, they are happening each of the next 4 or
5 sundays.

-Rafael