Saturday’s Race:

Saturday was chilly but not terrible, and much nicer than forecast. I pre-rode a few laps during UCI course inspection and was a little nervous about finishing on the lead lap as the course was shortened by around a minute from previous years. I also got set up on a trainer and did a real warmup with my UCI race twin Shane, who upgraded at the same time as me, and whom I miss racing with all the time. This is something I don’t normally do but would very much recommend.

We lined up and I was feeling lucky with my high-ish number - I tend to over-start if I get a good starting position, which is not a great plan for me. I looked around and again had that feeling that I can’t believe I get to do this. Racing with pros, knowing I have an amazing cheering section, and knowing this is one of the most fun things to do on the weekend. The start was brutally hard as usual but going into the first (really wide) U-turn, I saw a pileup start to occur. Not sure what happened but about half the field seemed to be caught behind a crash. I was able to avoid it in what is nothing but good luck. All of a sudden I found myself in the top 15! It was so awesome. We were riding fast but so smooth. I felt like I was just railing around the corners. And everywhere I went, I heard ‘Barb! Barb! Barb! Barb! Barb!’ I felt like half the park was cheering for me.