I actually raced my bike!

It's been a while since I've raced the mountain bike, but while other people were kicking ass on their mountain bikes, on the other side of the continent, I decided to go suffer on the road bike for a change. In a criterium even!

As anyone that knows my strengths and weaknesses (mostly weaknesses) on a bike will tell you, I'm not a crit guy. Even so, I thought it'd be fun to go try my hand at new course, in Aliso Viejo on Saturday. Fortunately, this particular crit course contained a feature rarely found in crit courses in SoCal, that being a hill. Being that there was actual climbing involved, this course suited me better than most.

While I didn't have a spectacular result, it was definitely the most fun I've had in a crit, and had I rode a smarter race, I would've had an honest-to-goodness shot at finishing in the money. Burning several matches for a prime about halfway in (Hey! Free tires!), and an ill-timed, poorly thought out attack, on the climb at the beginning of the final lap, certainly didn't help matters. In the end I ended up tenth. I think I out-sprinted a single guy in the the small group that formed at the front, after the field split following a crash.

Still, 10th is better than I've done in any crit to date, so I can't really complain. If nothing else, there's nothing quite like barreling into a turn at 40 mph, while rubbing shoulders with the guy next to you and coming out of it upright, to start off the weekend on a high note.

The remainder of the weekend was was pretty tame by comparison, but in a good, relaxing sorta way. The highlight had to have been a close encounter of the aquatic kind. I opted to sleep in 'til the late hour of 7:00, and go surfing with the lovely Diana, instead of racing in another crit in Long Beach on Sunday morning. Surf turned out to be pretty unremarkable. I got a couple short rides in, which is doing good. Any time I can actually get in a wave and stand up for more than 2 seconds, I feel I'm doing good. Is there any other sport, besides surfing, that can you go at for six months and still feel like a total beginner? Or do I just suck? Am I too old to be a "grom"? Anyway, the real highlight of the morning was watching a school of 6 - 8 dolphins, including a couple baby ones, frolic and play in the water as they swam past no more than 15 feet away from us.

Much better than being harassed by moto-cops. That's for sure...