The Redlands Bicycle Classic is one of the long-running races on the NRC calendar.  It is also a race I had never done so it was difficult to know what to expect.  Everyone I talked to repeated the same word; HARD.  The race was down to four days this year and provided a variety of challenges.  Thursday was a 5k uphill time trial.  Friday was a 100 mile WINDY road race.  Saturday was a 90 minute downtown crit and Sunday was the infamous Sunset road race.  The time trial was a nice wake up for the legs.  Uphill TT’s always suck and this was no exception.  I averaged a massive 400 watts, too bad that was good for only 83rd.  Friday’s Beaumont road race was in a valley that had terrible cross winds.  The 200 man field took off in a hurry and it was choas for the first of four laps.  Between the wind and the gravel being thrown at riders from the road, everyone was nervous.  The second lap had a strong crosswind section after the KOM where the field was put into the gutter at 30+ mph.  That was the hardest part of the race for me.  Position was key, and we were all way out of position.  In the end we were lucky because it all came back together.  On the third lap I made sure to be in the top twenty for the crosswind section after the climb but the pace was much easier as a break gained a small gap on the field.  On the final lap, it was a race from the KOM climb to the finish.  Here position was also key and I was out of position.  I was getting fatigued and tried to move up through the pack safe from the wind.  Too bad I was not nearly far up enough and I just barely missed out on the front group.  In the end I finished in the second group, just under a minute down on the winner.  Steven, Scott, and Boyd all finished in the next group back on the road.  We were all a little shell shocked from the speed and insanity of riding in an NRC pack.  As painful as it was, it felt good to be racing at this level again.  This is real racing with constant full-speed attacks, field-shattering hills and crosswinds.  Not to mention the constant fear of danger from parked cars or potholes.  It all adds up to an adrenaline rush I can get nowhere else!

Saturday’s crit seemed like a rest day compared to the RR the day before.  The 150 man field took a long time to negotiate the 9 turn course.  DLP Racing stayed quiet through this race, just trying to conserve for the Sunset RR.  During the race Steven crashed hard but managed to get back in and finish the stage.  Towards the end I began moving up but could not get far enough up to get a result.  But with all the crashes, I was glad to finish with the skin I started with.  Steven had some nice road rash but somehow managed to avoid tearing clothing or damaging his bike beyond bar tape and one pedal.  The pedal damage was pretty impressive though.  It looked as though he had taken a band saw and cut off about 1/4 of the pedal.  He must have slid for a long way on that pedal to make it look that bad.

Sunday’s Sunset road race is really an epic circuit race.  We were to complete 12 laps of a 6 mile loop basically up then down a hill through an affluent neighborhood.  The name of the game was to get to the front for the first two laps.  The plan was to use up Steven early on to get myself and Scott to the front.  That worked for the first couple of miles until we got separated.  The first lap I was in decent position up the climb but had to talk myself through every pedal stroke because we were going fast.  Down the hill I tried to move up but was too tired to make much progress.  The second lap I was too far back and got separated from the front group early on.  I was demoralized because I thought there was 60-80 riders up the road.  At the feed zone I was told that there was only about 25 riders ahead of us and I felt better about my effort.  Scott and I settled into our group, the second group on the road and rode out the rest of the race at a moderate tempo.  I ended up moving up quite a bit that day all the way to 41st overall.  Too bad they paid the top 40 overall!