Oredigger Classic Circuit Race

The race du jour for me was the Oredigger Classic Circuit Race in Golden. It was a 6 corner course with some nice descending, climbing, and high speed cornering on each lap. Horacio, Rob, and I all showed up with 60+ hard Saturday miles in our legs. I consider it good stage race training for the Gila.

We all showed up at the start line in plenty of time to secure a front row starting position. There are a lot of high speed corners, and race director had everyone take a lap to check out the course. So much for my front row starting position because I wasn’t really willing to jockey for position on this parade lap. I ended up in about the fourth row.

At the gun, I saw Horacio and Rob go out hard and take up the front while I did my best to gain some early positions. I hung on in the top 20 or so. We hit the climbing part of the lap and I had to get on the gas hard. Just before the climb there is a high speed corner and people were really braking through it. This meant I had to regain my speed to try and catch up with the front of the race. I was passing a ton of people on the climb, so I know I was working hard.

Eventually, I got dropped on that climb a few laps later. The braking and surging finally killed me. If I could have made it closer to the front, I really think I could have hung. Later in the race I was taking that corner at full speed, so I know all that earlier breaking was killing me.

Rob and I both came unhitched around the same time, and I spent most of the rest of the race taking the “Rob Love High Speed Cornering Clinic”. Holy crap. Rob can take a corner. As I was behind him, I tried to follow his lines through the corners and it really helped. I even managed to scrape my Speedplays a couple times as I tried to get on the gas early out of the corners.

In the end, I took 10th and Rob took 11th. Horacio’s legs finally screamed loud enough that he decided to listen and join the cheering section on the sidelines.

After a hard race, I'm recovering on the couch with a Belgian Blonde (Ale) and a Belgian Quadruple watching the Tour of Flanders. Those Belgians sure know their beer.

Here's Rob showing you how to take the inside line of a corner like a pro:


More pictures from today's race are on the BSV Photo Pool on Flickr.