three times around a 24-mile loop with a small hill in the middle, a short, technical descent, then a long, fast slight downhill to the finish. i wasn't expecting much, but wanted to get another race in. i was waitlisted, and while i don't like pinning my bib at the last minute, the start was late as usual so there was plenty of time. as we rolled out, i took up my normal post at the very back of the pack.

the first two times up the climb the pace wasn't difficult, although some riders were dropping off the back. a quick burst of acceleration and i cruised right by them - maybe i had good legs today. i didn't recognize the normal climbing crowd (maybe after university they've all upgraded), and it occurred to me i may be the strongest climber in the bunch.

the descent wasn't as scary as the VP site made it out to be, but i took it mellow and got gapped the first two times down. worked in a group of six to chase back on the first lap, and on the second just did the pulling myself (i didn't see how many riders were on my wheel).

soon after catching back on on the second lap i felt something strike my right hand, followed by a flash of pain. i looked down, and there's a bee stinger sticking out of my finger, with a bit of bee guts hanging on it. i try to remove it with my teeth and suck out as much poison or whatever as i can. fortunately my finger wasn't swelling up too much, or becoming too numb to shift or brake, so i stayed in the pack for the third lap.

i'd decided that i wanted to push it on the climb the last lap, so that maybe i'd makde it into the lead group on the descent, and to reduce the field size as much as possible. we were on a straight section with a bit of a cross wind, so if you didn't mind being in the wind it was really easy to move up in the field. after the 35+ 1/2/3 field streaked past us, i looked ahead, saw a couple of rollers, and went to the front.

i pushed the pace on the uphills, and then soft pedaled on the way down, trying to get my legs ready for the climb and to maybe soften up the field. the road narrows and becomes quite twisty with ups and downs before the climb, and i pushed it here to make sure i stayed on the front. it was a good thing i'd gotten to the front as it would have been difficult to move up here.

we hit the climb (aka "feed zone") and i pushed it. i saw that i had a gap so i kept going as hard as i could maintain without blowing up. i seemed to have a pretty good gap over the top. one rider passed me on the first few turns, but that was it. as i neared the bottom, i said out loud to myself, "just two more turns," then finally a short straight descent and one last right turn on to the flat finishing section.

there was one guy on my wheel at the bottom of the descent, and we caught up to the other rider who'd passed me. we had a good gap and started working together well. of the three, i was definitely taking the biggest pulls, but i would have been upset if i'd had anything left when the pack caught us.

the moto ref told us we had a 40 second gap, and soon we hit 1km to go. my brain had totally shut down, and i was not ready for the sprint. there was a car in front of us, which i was concerned about, then the other two guys jumped. it was close but i just couldn't summon enough to come around and wound up third, a great result considering this wasn't a climbers' course (and my first upgrade points since may).

next up: fort ord circuit race.

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