Flat out in Domiguez Hills

Sunday 6th July: Dominguez Hills criteruim; finally I feel comfortable on the bike, like the pair of underpants that I have been wearing for two days in a row on this holiday (but thats a different story). I was taking no chances on this one and arrived well early to get my race number. On the warm up lap for the 35yrs plus group I felt good. A short cource, around the block, 4 righthand bends with 400metre straights in between and on roads that where so smooth, butter would glide across them. The roads and corners where as wide as the N1 between London and Marlboro and completely closed to traffic or the stray Soweto taxi!!

A large field of just under a 100 lined up for the 50minutes of racing. I initiated a conversation with the rider next to me, in an attempt to find out who where the hot shots to watch. He pointed out the IronFly team who had the Californian Champion on their side (a nice and easy jersey to spot) , the Amgen team and the Schroeder Iron guys. The racing was hot with a lot of breaks going off the front and being brought back. The teams where doing a classic one / two off the front and I was tempted to go with a few moves. My HR was up at 180bpm for most of the race with a lot of jocking for wheels. With about 8 laps to go I locked onto an Ironfly riders wheels I figured was looking pretty strong and it appeared he had a good lead out man. The last 5laps became frantic and I felt dizzy , diving into another righthand bend, focusing on nothing but the wheel infront. It must have been a popular wheel I was behind because I was continuely being jostled for it and loosing it with 2 laps to go. Turns out it was the winning wheel. But at least I had my race number on this time and recorded a 37th across the line, a result that does not truly reflect how much work I did do.

I had my arm twisted to enter a second race for the day. An additional $17 gave me a starting number in the pro line up alongside Jittery Joe / BMC and Rock Racing. I made it perfectly clear that I was only coming along for the ride and would exit stage left at the first sign of trouble. True enough the racing was more controlled than the 35+ group, but what my new arm twisting friends forgot to mention, it was twice as long. Surprisingly my HR remained lower than the first race, but I was sitting in the back, being sucked along. Occasionally I would have to dig deep to remain incontact with a wheel infront as the 123 strong field got stretched out by the chasing teams. I found myself at the back, going into corners as the front was exiting, the latin rouge on this train I was paranoid that I would be lapped by a 400metre long snake. The bell for the last lap was the most painful as I felt the whip lash at the back. But I gritted my teeth and crossed the line with all the other lead out men that had been shelled in the final two corners. Mission accomplished, I had survived. Rashan Bahati from Rock Racing had taken the win leaving me in a lowly 77th position.

It was a tough days racing and I paid dearly for turning myself inside out to stay with the group in the second race, but it was an experience well worth it. As I pack my bike back into it's box for the next leg of my journey I am left asking one question. Why don't we have a criteruim series in SA on the same scale? I can tell you now it would be an instant success.

Results on Socalcycling.com