Coyote Point Pictures and report

The big news from the conclusion of the Bay Area Superprestige series was Sheila Moon rider Kathryn Aaker getting 4th overall in the Women's B class. Kathryn was forced to miss a race, but if she'd been able to make all of them, she'd have been in contention for the overall victory.



Arena Reed picked up 7th in Women's B as well, finishing just off the podium.



Props also to Moonie May Woo for her Series 10th in Women's C.



Also finishing strong in Women's C were Emily McLanahan (heading right) and new teammate Sam Bell (going left).

Others rocking the flowered skinsuits were:


Davin Pukulis, in Men's B


Ryan Henbest, Men's B


Ted Ketai, Men's C


And yours truly, in Master Men 35+

My race went like this:

My first race after a nasty crash two weeks ago. I had been feeling pretty sluggish as part of the aftereffects of the crash, so I didn't push the lineup. Which meant, of course, that I ended up 40thish out of 50 or so at the start. They called up 20 deep, which didn't help matters, since I'd missed 2 races this year already.

The course is my favorite, I think, with a big climb (and the corresponding bumpy descent), a fair amount of twistiness in the woods, a bunch of paved flat stretches, and the much-famed beach run.

I actually started pretty well, in fact, picking up a couple spots on the paved start and another 5 or so up the first climb.

For each of the next few laps, I clawed my way up a few places, til I was in the low 20s with a lap and a half to go. I was right behind Tim from Roaring Mouse, who's something of a benchmark for me, and I was excited to get around him. At the bottom of the big downhill, though, one of his teammates who was leading the 45+ field jumped in between me and him. On the following stretch another of his team mates from the 45+ got in between as well.

So I came off the beach run with 3 Roaring Mouse guys about 20 meters ahead of me. Over the long flat paved stretch, I pretty much buried myself to get up to their group, and just got there for the turn back onto the grass, at which point, of course, it was not that helpful any more. After we got through the barriers, I saw Tim untangling himself from the course tape on a flat, straight stretch (I found out later that he had given a team mate a push and ended up knocking himself off the course).

I was feeling pretty good at this point, as I was ahead of Tim, and I'd been riding a pretty smooth race up til then with only one lap to go.

It may not surprise you to know that this is when things started to go south.

I first crashed on a slow-speed off-camber left following a sharp down-hill. Didn't lose a place, but it didn't help. What really hurt was when I came off the beach onto the pavement and just, well, fell over. I recovered well and got right back up, but the damage was done. Tim had gone past. To put the final spike in the race, I managed to blow an easy off-camber uphill, and let another guy go by.

Considering my tentativeness at the beginning, and my terrible start position, I should be happy with a 23rd of 51. However, given how much I like the course, and how well I ended up doing, considering my crappy start, I am definitely feeling like this was a missed opportunity...

Still, at least I left this race under my own power!