Racers: Eric Brown, Luis Gomez and Salvatore Talarico
After a roughly 4 hour crawl on Friday to our accommodations in Auburn
we arrived at the race venue early on Saturday morning to pin numbers
and get warmed up to set off with the first wave of racers at roughly
8am. It had been blazing hot the previous couple of days and Saturday
started off no different. The heat had already set in by the time we
started up the neutral climb to the course. Luis, Salvatore and I got ourselves tucked into the bunch that comprised 22 4/5 and 19 35+ 4/5
racers. The course is 4 laps of a hilly loop on impeccable tarmac with a
50+mph descent and a nasty climb at the end of each lap with the finish
line being about three quarters of the way up that climb. The race
started off at a good clip with some riders immediately going off the
front and the team surfing the bunch up to the first pass through the
finish climb. Luis and I unfortunately lost the wheels by the top of
that climb with Salvatore keeping himself sheltered in the bunch. Luis
and I were able to work together to get back into the group without
dragging any other riders back with us. The race carried on and the heat
carried on as well. Third time through the finish climb both Luis and I
struggled with the pace on the climb with Salvatore again sticking with
the strong riders of the group. I was able to muscle my way back on
after the climb and hang on until the final pass through the finish
climb at which point I dropped back and my legs couldn’t carry me back
in again. Salvatore stuck with it and was able to bring home second
place in the 35+ group while I rolled in ninth and Luis 10th. Overall a
very nice race on a great course and roughly 2600′ of climbing in an hour.
Cheers,
Eric