Two years ago I had attempted this race. Just from the sheer popularity of the race, and wanting to see the famed street first hand, I wanted to go. It killed me, I wanted to die when I was finished, but I also wanted to do it again. Due to unforeseen circumstances last year I was unable to attend, but that was quickly remedied and I was ready to go this year.
I arrived mid morning ready to get a good warm up and ready myself for the adventure. The sky was heavily overcast with a good chance of rain. Nothing was going to deter me from racing. Looking up the hill it seemed steeper than what I remembered. Even the 8 degree block climb into the entrance of the snake seemed steeper too. This wasn't going to rattle me.
Due to a slight accident earlier in the season, my training had gone temporarily off track and I wasn't sure I'd be ready for this race. I grabbed my rollers and headed over to the entrance to the alley and started warming up. After an hour and a half I put the rollers away and rode the hill several times in between the races before my race. Sixty-nine of us lined up for the race, and I was in the back half of this group and was hoping I could pick my way through this group and finish somewhere in the top half. We were off and it was a fast pace from the get go. We hit the alley and someone had gone down right in the middle of the path which caused a log jam of riders. People were running with their bikes, several chain sucks happened too. I was able to get back on the bike almost immediately after getting past the carnage. On the last switchback I had chain suckage. I jumped off the bike, fixed the chain, and cyclocrossed it to the top and got back on.
Not to be completely deterred, my plan was to catch up to riders on the down hill section, being fat has it's advantages of making you go downhill without having to do much work. It was working. I'd suck wheel through the start/finish and overtake riders on the alley. Slowly, I was moving my way up.
Six laps to go and I started picking up the pace and implementing phase two of my strategy, which started pulling more riders into my sights and behind. Then with 4 laps to go I start hearing the officials whistle at the start/finish. Everyone was getting pulled. Well, not everyone, just everyone except 25 rider, of which I wasn't a part of. It seems that the leader took a flyer off the front and was 3/4 a lap ahead of the main field which wasn't too far ahead of us. To make scoring easy, we were getting pulled.
At first I thought it was because we could hear thunder, but no. Then the skies let lose. As fast and technical as the backside is, I think I got real lucky. The gods must have figured I had crashed enough this year and they had me pulled instead of racing down that slippery stretch of road.
When all was said and done, I ended up 32 out of 69. My legs were feeling incredible and I could have easily gone up the alley 4 more times. Too bad I didn't have the chance.
Tomorrow is the Melon City Crit, which will be another fun race. There is a speed bump we get to race over at the bottom of the hill. I'm hoping for good things again tomorrow.
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