Anger Management Crit

Catching up on races I've done over the past few weeks.

That there is the Anger Management Crit SRM screenshot. Probably the most sketched out I've been on a bike in quite some time. I didn't do this one last year... and will think real hard about doing it next year.

Windy, no corners, wide roads, botts dots, and amped up bike racers. That was a recipe for lots of "erratic" moves in the middle of the field. Just about crapped my pants with two to go when Mark Scott brake checked Joel Stangeland who is right next to me. Not sure if it was intentional, or what. He did raise his hand and duck his head a bit just after the brake check- ya'know kinda like when you are in traffic in your car and you know you screwed up or did something idiotic?

You kind of bow your head, do the ol' hand wave and mumble to yourself, "oops".

Our team plan never materialized in the waning moments of the race and I spent way too much time with my nose in the wind during the last two laps to contest things.

I seemed to be having some left leg stuff going on during this one. Just really tight for the entire race. More on this later.

I had signed up for the 3's race which started just after the m30+ deal. I did a lap after a maximal effort in the finale, and 300m short of the line, I see the promoter start the 3's race. I tried to catch the field and got within a few seconds but cratered and rolled back to the start line to provide a bit of feedback to the promoter/let him know what happened to me (and the other guy that I tried to trade pulls with to catch the field).

I had read some stuff from the promoter's blog:

http://californiabicycleracing.blogspot.com/2008/01/officially-i-am-done-with.html

so approached the situation in a laid back manner, knowing that I was going to potentially get cussed out and generally be treated like an eight year old.

I wasn't disappointed.

I communicated what happened in a non-threatening way, knowing in my heart that I wasn't going to get anywhere. I basically just wanted to have some dialogue with someone about the situation.

I appreciate Chris' efforts to promote races, and told this to him in person a few weeks back, and I still do appreciate his efforts to grow the local scene. I don't understand the anger, though. Reminds me of another saying/proverb: "One can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Here's a goofy, short, inspirational slideshow that I just googled (I thought of the book it is put together to sell, which I read a few years ago as a part of one of my company's customer service initiatives). A bit cheesy, but there is a good message in there.

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Maybe Chris will come around, maybe he won't - I hope he does. In the meantime, I'm happy to donate my $10 cat 3 race fee to the cause of growing the sport of bike racing here in socal. Next time, I hope Chris is more respectful to his customers, and I'll be sure to make a U-turn after finishing the 30+ race! ;-)