4TH PLACE

The race was crazy yesterday. 27 teams registered and raced from Tang's to Dockweiler. The first few blocks were chaos as everyone tried to find their team and get going on their route. Nic and I and a few others led a huge group of people down Fountain towards Vermont. We turned left on Vermont and mashed down through traffic. At Santa Monica we met another peloton of riders going the otherway and there was a huge crash in the middle of the intersection...Nic got lost in the mix and Al, Ziadie, MTB Steve and I made it through continuing down Vermont. We followed DeMarco (from MASH) down Vermont as he ran reds like a beast. Turned right on Venice and lost most of the pack.

We were alone down Venice all the way until Culver when two roadies caught up to us. The headwind on Culver was so strong that we had to stay in a tight pack the whole time. We caught up to a group of roadies and stayed with them for awhile. We ended up rolling through Playa Del Rey in a group of about 20 riders including the O20 team and some others. When we hit the beach everyone started sprinting.

I was discouraged to see a grip of people already at the finish. I thought we were way behind. When Al and I crossed the finish line the only team that was fully there was Wolfpack! I thought we were going to get 2nd overall but Ziadie and MTB Steve were about 20 seconds back. In that time two other teams came in and we got 4th. Luckily Nic had made it there on his own...riding a makeshift route most of the way by himself. He got caught up in a crash with the Bicykillers and they were definitely butt hurt about it (karma for talking shit???), but how can you really get mad about a crash in a race like this? If anyone from Bicykillers reads this no hard feelings but stop complaining. One of our guys got hurt and offered to help you guys and you told him to get the fuck out resulting in you guys rolling in later in the game. You could have easily sucked it up and kept going.

Also shout out to Hammer and the rest of the LAB team for taking 5th overall and 1st all fixed. Props! Photos will be posted when I find them...

VCR homies courtesy of Graeme: