Surf City CX #5 (Finals) report by Scott Schlachter

The last Surf City CX race was yesterday at Aptos High. They ran a version of what I think the typical course is "in reverse", which was kinda fun. Weather: perfect. Crowd: big. Times: good. Kids race: always a hoot. Coffee from the coffee stand, and burritos and tamales from the mexican food stand: AWESOME...

My race: I was in 4th place for the points series, and this got me into the
call-ups, which was cool. Keirin (in 3rd place) and I both sprint horribly
though, and I'd guess 3/4 of the field blew by us in the first hill. As typical
for me, I have a slow/painful first lap, do great in the middle laps, and
struggle in the last couple. I had a pretty non-eventful race, which was good,
and ended up in 10th. I think the long-@ss ride we did after the Hub meeting
only hurt me a little in the long-run - but I don't think it would have made any
difference for my placing. Keirin, the guy who was in 3rd in the points had a
good enough lead on me that I don't think I had much of a shot at all to beat
him in the final race, and I think a similar situation was between me and the
guys behind me. For the race, as typical, they only had podiums for 1st-3rd,
but for the larger classes for the series, they extended podiums and prizes down
to 5th. This boded well for me, as I got a few nice nick-nacks and a picture of
me on the podium in my TWW T-shirt (I had left my jersey back in the van, which
was too far away by the time I thought about it).

When the first posted the prelim results, they had missed me and the 9th place
guy in the 4th lap, so they had us down by a lap. So we were place wrong - but
they were quick to fix it and re-post the results which was very cool. Overall
these guys run a very organized race, very smooth with registration and results,
great coffee and food boothes, very cool free kids race, great music (there was
a DJ at this one). It was organized with a combo of the Vela Bellas and the
SCCC, who run the "Peak Season CX Races". Those races are still coming up, and
I plan to attend - highly recommended... First one is Jan 24 in Watsonville.
-Scott

Surf City series (photos, results, etc): http://www.cyclo-x.com/
Peak Season series: http://www.cyclocross.cx/