CXLA!

After packing the bikes Thursday night I slept in Friday morning while my dad went to work for a few hours. Once he got home we hit the road to Chicago for our direct flight to L.A. We shuttled two bike bags, our carry ons and our checked luggage through the airport and settled in for the four hour flight. Once we landed, we collected our bags, got our rental car and wandered around L.A. until we got to my dad's cousin's house. 

Saturday 

After a good nights sleep and breakfast we headed over to the course. It was pretty fun and had some good flow to it but some parts were painfully bumpy. As the temperatures climbed toward the mid 80s I warmed up and headed to the start line. When the gun went off I wasn't too quick off the line, but there were only about 15 people in the race. Cameron Beard went off the front from the start. I caught up to Michael Owens on the second lap, he was in 2nd place with Nick Jenkins in tow. I rode away from the two and built a sizable gap on them over the next three laps and finished about 25 seconds behind Cameron. I rode a good clean race, and it was great to score my first 17-18 UCI podium! I cooled down after podium with Nick and a little bit later I started to get a head ache. I drank lots of fluids and started to feel a little nauseous too. Probably a little dehydration from the extreme heat. When we got home I slept for an hour and a half, feeling fantastic when I woke up. My dad and I grabbed some burritos from a local place before driving to our relatives' house to see some family heirlooms and documents from the Civil War.

Sunday

We took our time in the morning, opting to minimize my time out in the hot sun, and headed over to the race around 12:30. The course was more or less the same but just slightly shorter. I did a quick warm up and headed to the start. This time I was much quicker off the line and quickly settled into third wheel. Cameron attacked hard right away and only Michael stuck with him. I kept chasing hard with Nick on my wheel. Michael bobbled in the sand pit losing Cameron's wheel and causing our gap to close a little more. Nick and I chased Michael down over the next two laps. When we caught up the three of us all sat up and rested. Since Cameron had a big gap on us we spun the next lap and half because no one wanted to work. Going into the final lap Nick attacked hard after the start straight but Michael shut him down quickly. After the two sets of stairs I attacked hard, splitting up the group. Michael chased hard from a few meters back and Nick was off the back. I hit every corner and straight away as hard as I could and built the gap up to about 20 seconds over the next 2/3rds of the lap. When I finished I felt like puking due the heat and was glad it was over! After a quick cool down and podium my dad and I quickly packed my bikes back up an headed to the airport, finally arriving home around four in the morning.

Overall it was a great weekend of racing and I was stoked to take second both days. as well as have great legs and to have raced well tactically. I also earned a lot of UCI points securing my front row call up for nationals! Now its time for a huge block of training until nationals with only Jingle Cross the first weekend of December to interrupt!