Boulevard...

Ah yes, Boulevard, the race that never fails to deliver wonderful weather in one form or another. Woke up at 4:45am Saturday morning to get ready to leave for the race at 6am. I invited my father-in-law Marv along this time to help out with getting the car unloaded, setting the trainer up, taking some pics, being at the finish line when the race was over to pick me up. Why you ask? Because the weather report for the race was nothing short of heavy rain, winds, and the possibility of snow in the mountains! And after last years experience, it definitely is a HUGE help to have someone lending a hand in inclement weather, and being an avid cyclist himself, Marv is no stranger to being around bikes. Good guy to have in your corner!!!

We arrived at the course about 7:30am, and the first thing I noticed was that it was much warmer then last year. Forty seven degrees to be exact. That doesn't sound warm by Southern California standards, but anyone who raced Boulevard last year knows what I'm talking about. The race went off as planned at 9:30am. As we rolled out I was just trying to get comfortable riding within a pack under racing conditions. I hadn't raced with a pack since last May, nine months ago at San Luis Rey. Not a hundred feet down the road, two guys started bouncing back and forth off of each other for no apparent reason. Quite a few people in the pack began yelling at them to get it together. Eventually they did, but it served to rattle me a bit.

All was going well as we headed down the road towards turn one, which is followed very quickly by turn two. The one thing I took note of was that I was giving up a lot of spots and letting guys move ahead of me. I kept telling myself, I need to get my nerve back and be more aggressive, but also not to worry too much, because I could just hang near the back, and then move up when we reached turn three and the La Posta climb. But I was also aware that if I gave up too many spots, I'd be too far back at the beginning of the climb to be in the lead group when they began motoring up the climb. Well, as it turns out, that's exactly what happened!

The good news is, I had great legs this day. I was able to pick up a lot of spots going up both the La Posta, and Old Highway 80 climb. I was pulling a gear or two more then I have in the past, and was climbing within my limits, all the while passing people who were attempting to stay on my wheel, but eventually falling off. The bad news is, the lead group, a rather large lead group, was far enough out front that I didn't see them the rest of the day, finishing a few minutes behind them at the end according to my father-in-law.

The numbers...100 riders registered. Probably around 70 at the start. 58 riders finished. Me...29th!

Now, if I can just figure out how to keep the form, even improve on it before the Omnium RR, I should do just fine! Until next time...