Lake Parris 2019

Varsity is intimidating, to say the least. Watching my brother race varsity last year was fun but it is totally different when you are in the race and are racing some of these big names. I got a last row start since I missed the last call up by one point. My coaches and I had already talked about a strategy for the start just in case I ended up in the back, which I did. The start of Lake Parris is different than all the other starts of the season because you stage in one place, then role a little ways up the road to the actual start line where the race starts. Once the race started and the director of the SoCal league whispered go, I quickly placed my self into the top 10. While trying to get there I spent way too much time trying to clip into my peddle making me even more nervous. As soon as we hit the dirt the pace immediately picked up and then it really started to feel like a varsity race. By the time we got to the top of the climb, the group had gotten a little spaced out and there were a few people out in front and a few of us a little ways back. Once at the bottom of the descent we started the long, flat and very windy fire road making our way towards the lake. This is where the groups came back together and worked together in the wind. Everyone in the group wanted to be behind someone so that they didn't have to push the wind. We went through the feed zone where I successfully grabbed my bottle from the best feeder out there, Coach Heather Ranoa and went straight through to the finish line to complete my first lap.

Lap two was a little more difficult in the sense that people started to attack more and more. By the time we got to the top of the climb this time the group was totally split up with a group of 4 with a considerable gap to the rest of us going into the decent. I was all by my self when I got to the bottom of the decent with two guys just barely up the road from me and the leading group of 4 guys a little bit more ahead of them. Pushing my own wind now with 2 guys working together in front of me I knew I needed to give it what I had to catch up to them so I could stop working so hard. I caught up to them about midway through the long straight away and told them we needed to work together to catch the group in front of us. We came through to finish our second lap all 3 together and still yet to catch the lead guys.

Going into lap 3 I had no idea how many people were in the leading group so I had no idea what place I was fighting for until one of the people on the sideline told us we were in 5th, 6th, and 7th place. This got me really excited with the idea that I might be able to make it onto the podium in my first varsity race. By the middle of the climb, one of the riders that was with me started to fall off the back. By the top of the climb I was giving it everything I had to not let 5th place drop me as well but I just couldn't hold on. I was hoping since we would both be pushing our own wind that I may be able to catch him on the flats but that didn't happen. At this point, I'm in no man's land, with riders out in front of me and others behind me both too far for me to work with. I finished the third lap all by my self, pushing wind and burning matches just hoping that something good was going to happen or that I would stay there the rest of the race.
At the beginning of the last lap I got onto the road and looked back to see if anyone was there and saw no one so I settled into my pace. when I was about one-fourth of the way up the climb I looked back again and saw a group of 4 working together to catch me. I also saw the 5th place rider way up ahead of me and I decided that he was too far for me to catch alone and I couldn't hold off a group of 4 forever so I backed off a bit and got a little rest before the group of 4 caught me. I knew that they would catch me eventually so I let them catch me when I still had matches to burn rather than later when I was totally blown up. Once they caught me I finally got a break from the wind because I had been by my self in the wind for a full lap. The rest of that lap was extremely fast and coming into the finish I was outsprinted and ended up taking 10th.

I would like to give a big thanks to all my sponsors who make my racing possible. Dryve wheels, Kenda tires, Ellsworth bikes, ESI grips, Sicion bags, Rudy project, gup industries, and PhysioPhyx. These products all play a huge role in my race day and training. They are truly top of the line products that I would recommend to anyone.