The top 10 interesting things I witnessed during my journey10 - Moment of decision: With such long laps, it's inevitable for an internal argument to take a hold of your mind when finishing the first lap and emarking on the second 90+ minutes of slogfest. This year the "finisher" voices spoke louder than the "quitter" voices thanks to my little orange friends (Vitamin A-dvil) and some sage pre-race advice from OV and VB's blogs not to go too hard off the gun.
9 - Nice Guy: I cut this guy off hard just before a very difficult rutted downhill with only one good line. Rather than the expected tirade, he coached me on "staying to the left" where the good line was. I happened to already know that information due to a fall I took pre-riding the course, but what a gentleman!
8 - It's a Sit In: You sprint to the line full out, only to find 5 feet of runway landing space because the "sit in" gathering of other riders who finished moments before you. Come on guys, this isn't Berkeley and it isn't the 60's, clear out.
7 - Freight Train: The guy riding the organge Santa Cruz Superlight going as fast as he was is a mystery to me. He looked 210 lbs and passed me on the Laguna Seca race track between laps one and two going about 25 mph. Being the unhonorable roadie wheelsucker, I latched on for the ride as long as I could. I passed him somewhere on the hills on the back side only to see him reappear on the fireroad sections at the end of the 2nd lap and pass me again. A guy that big, going that fast = Ox!
6 - Blowin in the Lead: Guy in green/black gidup who passed me as we hit the finishing fire road section toward the end of the first lap. He was winning the 40+ category at the time and had made up 5 minutes on me. Gargatuan quads, slight upper body, and crouched low on his bike, just stomping on it for all he was worth. I grabbed his wheel for the ride (see wheelsucker). He looked back at me, noticed I wasn't in his category, and was content to tow me along for a while. Then he says "man, this course is longer than I thought... I should have prerode". "Well" I says, "The 3k to go mark is coming up so you only have 19 miles and 3k to go". I wonder how that sat in his noggin? He dropped me on the hill after the 3k marker but I saw him again thanks to Freight Train, and I'm pretty sure he lost that 5 minutes, and then some, back to me before the finish.
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