MacLane Pacific Criterium - March, 2003 (Cat 4/5)
Finish: ~76th

The weather was very nice for a race, 68F at 8:40AM and that made warming up a lot easier. The race was a combined 4/5 race which made for a very full field. All 100 spots were filled with about 15 of them being Juniors. Having the 4/5 after the Juniors race caused a delay with some of the Juniors wanted to race in 4/5. My HR went from 130 down to 100 having to wait for them to get there numbers on. The race starts out straight but a 90F turn is about 50m ahead. Then it goes into a couple esses. That strung the field out in the beginning and the fast pace made it difficult to catch up to the main pack. I made two big mistakes earlier on in the race, I started in the back and followed a wheel of a guy that is unattached. I realized my mistake of following the wrong wheel after the first lap, but it was to late. I pushed hard to catch back up and found two other guys that were in what appeared to be the same spot as me. We had a good tempo and started moving up past people that were getting dropped. The main problem with that was, those guys getting dropped wanted to get on the wheel of one of us. We tried to keep them out, but it did not work to well. They would end up dropping the pace a few MPH and we would have to work to go around them or they would get inbetween us and drop the wheel of the guy in front of them and make one us go around them to grab the wheel. The three of us worked hard and kept picking off people that were getting dropped, but it was not enough. With 5 laps to go the main pack was coming up behind us and the three of us dropped out of the race (not by choice). It was a good experience since I learn things not to do. I did make some more friends and had a lot of fun chatting with others.

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