You know you're in for a treat when the guy running the fundamentals clinic asks who thinks they're good at riding in a pace line and only 3 out of about 80 riders raise their hands.
The Early Birds are a series of races here in the bay area that run every Sunday through January. They are intended to give newbies race and skill experience without throwing them to the wolves. If you are a 5, you can attend a skills clinic and participate in the race and get upgrade credit for each.
Rumor had it they are crash laden and basically every race that day had at least one. My race didn't, however, that's due to one guy being filled with magical powers when an idiot three bikes up from me basically decided to just run into him. He didn't go down, which, was really nothing short of a miracle.
Outside of that the race was pretty uneventful, usual stuff you'd expect from a bunch of 5s racing for the first time this year. Nobody really taking the right line through the corners and even less people holding the line the started on. We raced for 40 minutes. Some dude got away and stayed about 200 yards off the front since nobody, included myself cared to exert the effort to chase him. I ended up about 5th as a group of 10 eventually split the field and then we sort of half sprinted at the end. My 5th was almost solely because at least 3 guys in front of me started sprinting way too early and faded and I was able to basically just ride by them. And, since I am still in my non-fit fat stage, I'll take it!
Nothing exciting, but at least the rubber side stayed down. Racing the first weekend of the year? Crazy if you ask me!
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