After completing the Tour de Murrieta race weekend, I headed back to San Diego to round out a couple more weeks of solid fair weather training. A ride or two to Julian, some loops around Ramona and Poway, out in the Alpine hills, and I was making my way back North to San Dimas to line up alongside 155 other racers.
The first stage was a punchy 3.8 mile uphill time trial with a short 0.75 mile flat approach to the climb. As is typical with this course, it’s a bit easy to go out too hard and not have enough in the tank to ramp up to the finish. Unfortunately, I didn’t heed my own advice and went just a touch to hard from the gun. I managed to maintain a decent effort for the remainder of the climb but couldn’t increase the wattage as much as I would have liked by the end. I ended up 93rd which was not great but I made my own personal improvement by 40 seconds from the previous two years.
The next day was the circuit race which circled Bonelli Park 12 times for a total distance of 84 miles. The course is quite fast with some technical sections entering and exiting the park. It also weeds out racers with the 1 mile climb following a twisty chicane section. I felt quite fresh for the day and focused on maintaining position as much as possible. The peloton stayed together for the majority of the race as no breaks were really sticking. Unfortunately, with two laps to go, I was stuck behind a crash in the chicane to the climb. I lost my position with the lead group and was never able to make contact again. A little bummed with only a 92nd place finish it was time to focus my attention for the last day.
The third stage was a 90 minute crit in the historic downtown San Dimas. It’s a pretty fun crit as there are just enough turns, a false flat climbing section where you can move around a bit, and a ripping downhill to the last corner leading to the finish stretch. I ended up trying the tail gun art again which conserved quite a bit of energy. I was able to pick my own lines and avoid any crashes. With about 30 minutes to go I made my approach to the front, on the false flat section, and maintained my spot in the front bulb ending up 46th.
After cooling down and washing up, I joined my Aunt, Uncle, and Dad for dinner as it was my Aunt’s and Dad’s birthdays. We enjoyed some pasta and followed up the dinner touring around the area where my Dad grew up. It was a nice way to cap off the weekend and my time in California. I was then on my way back to Bend the following morning.
