The morning started with an early meet up at the Mike Bikes DC. There were loaded up the team sprinter van and drove up to Occidental. This was my first time traveling in a team vehicle, and it was amazing. We arrived with plenty of time to register, put on number plates, and each do our own little warm up before staging madness began. During my warm up I saw Peter Stetina on his mtb bike with cx tires, and Levi with his Specialized Crux. Kabush was riding is road bike, which later played into his finish... (He said it was karma that a mountain biker on a road bike couldnt hang onto the roadies on mountain bikes). We were all staged close together (maybe 7-10 rows back). When the whistle blew everyone was amped and trying to work their way up the tiny, windy, one lane road pointing up. I latched onto the back of Matt's wheel and followed him as he weaved in and out of the crowd effortlessly. By the time we reached the top of the first climb, we were sitting around top 20, but then someone pushed Matt off the road in a hair pin 180 turn and that was the last I saw of him. As we hit the first dirt decent, my descending skills were lacking at high speed and a good group of people passed me. Towards the bottom of the five mile decent Hobbs came by me and I jumped on his wheel for the ride onto the frozen and cold pavement section out to hwy 1 and River Rd. We had a group of 10 or so and we were quickly going into the red zone trying to work our way back up the the chase group, which we could see up ahead. Half way down River Rd I look back and Hobbs is gone... It wasn't until later that I heard about the bad crash. The scary part was that it could of easily been me in that pile up too. Our group finally caught the chase group about a mile before the turn off onto Duncan. This gave time to eat, drink, and relax before the turn up again. Once we made the turn up I was able to stay towards the front of that big group. I road with Mig for the next 5-10 miles and talked about how great it is to be apart of this series year after year. Then Mig dropped me big time!! Even thinking about Hobbs pre route run down, I still managed to miss the Cherry Rd turn, but quickly figured it out and was back on course. Our group was now about 7-10 guys and most were on mtb bikes. As we hit the bottom of the Old Caz climb I was able to get towards the front and tried my hardest chasing Chas (MashSF) up to the top. The Old Caz decent went well and I was able to hang with the mtb bike guys in our group. Climbing out of Old Caz I was getting nervous about water. I was down to less than half a bottle and I thought I missed the Osmo Station. As we descended into the town of Old Caz, the Osmo station was there and I was handed a bottle. I guess that meant I was sitting in the top 30?!? Rolling Austin Creek Rd was mellow. It was me and one other guy on a cx bike (Hippy Matt) and another five guys riding fat tires. As we hit River Rd again I let them all know we need to actually start getting into a pace line and work together. We worked great as a team and rolled to the bottom of Willow Creek dirt climb together. At that point we said its every man for himself... I still had a good amount of gas in the tank and passed 5-7 guys on the way up to the finish. I finished 23th and had an amazing time. So many ppl commented on our kits and gave me congrats about being on the team. It felt really good to be a part of Mike Bikes out there. Romin was at the finish and came by to introduce himself. He had an amazing ride and finished 10th. All of the Mikes Bike team finished well towards the top. Oli had an amazing finish and I hate to think about how Hobbs would of done if he wasn't involved in that crash. Matt, thanks for dragging me to the top of the first climb. In typical fashion, we all hung out for 15 mins or more giving high fives and hugs. When we started our ride back it was Kabush, Levi, Bartels, Yuri, and I. It was great listening to their race reports and stories. I already cant wait for the next event!! JB
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