Saturday, September 1, 2012

OC Parks Tour - O'Neill Regional Park

pre-race with single-speeder & Path Bike Shop rider, Matt Palmer
I really enjoyed racing the 3rd race in the 2012 OC Parks Tour series. I missed the last two races so I had been looking forward to this one for some time. The course for the race consisted of a 3.5-mile start loop on the south side of O'Neill park to attempt to help separate riders before completing three or four (depending on class) 3.75-mile main loops on the north side of the park. The pro/experts were to complete four main loops climbing approx. 650 feet per lap. The course was a lot of fun with some solid climbing, quick singletrack descents, and a bit of pavement riding back to the start/finish.

I entered the expert class and the pace started off brisk with four riders in the lead group including local pro Sean Donovan, the Path Bike Shop riders Luke Wronske and Josh Jacquot, and myself. The four of us stayed tight through the initial start lap. As we crossed through the start/finish line and headed out for the four main loops Sean began to pull away. Luke and Josh also turned up the pace a bit and I found myself riding solo for the rest of the race. Sean came in first, Luke in second, Josh in third, and myself in fourth.

The race was great and the course was a lot of fun, but we really need to work on riders coming out to support these local races or they won't end up happening at all. Fairly sad turnout in the pro/expert class in my opinion.