a race happened in Kalifornia...

Here's a race report;

There were 3 CB kits, including me, racing in other catagories. Thayne
and a guy named Brad (who had helped kip remodel the shop a while
back). I showed up early since there is no pre-reg out west ( unless
you placed top 20 the week before and earned a call up). I had plenty
of time to ride the course and then warm up while the combined
juniors/C women/ masters 55+/ junior girls raced. I got a partial lap
in before staging, which was helpful but cost me a couple rows on
staging. I pulled a Mashburn-esque move and showed into the top third
of the 140 riders in the cat C race and waited for the gun.

The course stared on a long soft climb. I mean long! We were over a
minute in when we hit the flat paved finishing section. So many
riders meant a lot of passing, but also that the leaders put a lot of
time into us pretty quickly. Most of the course was very technical,
bur weirdly so. Soft earth covered by strips of bark and leaves. It
made for some very tentative riding by the roadies in the pack,
including myself in parts.

I was able to do a lot of passing, especially on the 2 long loamy
run-ups. I am proud to say that I can shoulder my new Igleheart like a
pro, while a lot of the guys I passed were pushing or sorta suitcasing
their bikes. After the two runs we hit some flat power sections and
then the ironicly named "TRP brake zone" which was a long s shaped
sandpit that wasn't ridable for the early races. More running and
another soft bumpy grass section meant that when we finally hit the
pavement before a fast dirt descent, I heard a lot of free wheels
behind me. I heard a spectator counting places say 26 near the end of
lap one.

The rest of the race was pretty open till the last lap I was catching
people one or two at a time. Usually passing on the power sections or
by running early on the runups. One the last lap I started catching
lapped traffic pretty hard. Every one was pretty good at giving up
the line if you yelled at them. But it definately helped out some
guys I had just passed. Noons came around me and I finished pretty
strong (for me). Once results went up I realized I'd gotten 14th.

Tyler says that waspretty good. But I think I should have staged
better. Most of the race was againsn the course, it was really tricky
and the mountain bikes did well. There were definately people I could
beat who placed better than I did. I gotta say that as different as
it was,( no USAC rules lots running, dudes without helmets, a
feedzone...) it was a blast and I'm glad I had my Igleheart built as a
breakaway so I can race my "A bike" even when traveling. Bay area
super prestige is legit! There is even a lit night race in San Fran
in a couple weeks.

Unfortunately I couldn't hang out with Thayne. They do the B men last,
with the single speeds, I guess to build crowds for the elites. But
we couldn't hang around that late to see him. But it was cool to see
CB colors and a couple green iglehearts racing. Also I saw a fan in a
PVB (designed by Pedal Powered) shirt yelling and chasing a racer in the masters race.