Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack

Another beautiful day outside at Mather field and I was especially happy to see Chih out there. We parked right next to each other so we were able to talk about a few things prior to the race. One thing we noticed right away was that the race was small. There were only about maybe 30 riders. In comparison, Land Park had about 50-60 riders. We both got a good warm up and I was ready to keep my eye on the lap cards this time.

My dad out there was going to hold up his hands with the number of laps left--so I was confident I wasn't going to miss this one. The race started off well, mostly single pace line. There were 6 turns both left and right so it was pretty interesting to see who would take the outside or inside. I found it easier to be on the outside on the turns. I was able to maneuver a bit better. Halfway through I was surprised to see that there were no crashes given the number of turns. It wasn't long after some idiot got a little screwy and bumped Chih. It was right to the left of me and I avoided it, but Chih couldn't do anything but go down, and looked pretty bad. I was relieved to see Chih up and about on the next lap when we came around and he looked okay but a little shaken up.

I played near the back of the pack and really found out what that accordion effect is. I was playing catch up with small sprints on almost all of the turns. With 5 laps to go I was going to try to move up, but it seemed I was getting boxed out on corners. I just hanged on and tried to do the best I could to move up, but it just didn't happen, and finished in the middle, but towards the back. I personally didn't care for the course, and I felt there were a lot of rocks that could have been hazards in the road. It was evident it seemed that a lot of the riders from Land Park didn't come out to Mather for this reason. I was very happy with my results and look forward to both Land Park and Mather next year!

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