This past weekend was the Irvine Park/Santiago Oaks race put on by Enduro Stuff Events. This was the third race in the OC Parks Tour 2013. I was unable to make the first two races earlier in the year. Last year I registered for this particular race but ended up missing it due to a work conflict. I look forward to this race because it takes place on many of the local trails I ride every week. It tends to reward good all around riders who climb and descend well. This year I entered in the Expert category where riders do 3 laps of the course, each lap being just short of 10 miles and approx. 1,200 feet of elevation gain per lap. The race began and the pro/expert group headed out on the first lap. The pace was slow to start but it quickly changed when we hit the first climb and the group began to separate. I knew I couldn't hang with the front group and quickly dropped back and set into my own pace, knowing that 3 laps was going to be difficult at a race-type pace. I rode for a lot of the race by myself and was passed by 3 riders all of which were in the sport category and only doing two laps.
There were 15 riders that did 3 laps on the course (pros/experts). Overall I ended up 11th out of 15 and 4th out of the 6 riders in the expert 30-39 age group. Two of my friends who raced both won their age group and cat. Josh Jacquot took first in the same group as me (expert 30-39) and Matthew Palmer took first in the single-speed open cat. Total time for me was 2:22 with approx. 44 min lap times. I haven't been riding near as much as I have wanted to over the past few months so I was happy with my result given the amount of time I've had on the bike since Vision Quest in early April.
Scott from Called to Creation captured some nice images of the racers. Results
