Great course, cool vibe and good weather make the Burlingame Crit one of my favorite races. For those not familiar with this event you should definately check it out next year. Race is held in downtown Burlingame. The course is 7/10ths of a mile in length with 6 turns. Pavement is fair to poor with many dips,rises and cracks to keep you on your toes. The organisers do not run a mens’s 5, women’s 4 or junior specific races. I don’t know the reasoning behind this. The course does require you to pay attention and decent bike handling skills are a must.
Pulled into the parking lot at 6:30am for a 7:00am start. Not much time at all. Warmup ended up being one recon lap of the course. I was hoping to get a few more laps in but when I came around they were already lining us up. Around 45 of us rolled out right on time. I moved up front straight away. I wanted to stay out of trouble as much as possible. It took 20 minutes or so for my legs to wake up. The racing was pretty uneventful at first as guys were behaving themselves. You would get the usual prime surge then it would settle back down to a moderate pace. Around 10 to go I see Jorge moving toward the front so I hop on his wheel and follow him up. A few laps later we get seperated. He had a good spot in the top 10 I was a farther back but not in a bad position at all. As we cross the start finish line for 6 to go 2 dudes right in front of me were getting awful close to each other. Then right before turn 1 they both try to occupy the same piece of road. Crunch, down they go with bike parts bouncing all over the place. Luckily I had backed off a bit and had enough room and time to get around them. We were neutralized for one lap and they stopped us with 4 to go. We waited for about 10 minutes as an ambulance came to the aid of one of the riders. Hope he is doing OK. On the restart we would do one lap behind the moto then 4 to go. Crap here we go again. Just like the PG&E Crit and Timpani last year. I was a bit nervous and wanted to stay out of trouble . I sat in the middle of the group for 3 laps then with one to go I moved up a bit. On th final sprint I was able to finish 14th. Not great but at least I finished upright.
Mike