As many of you know, I (& my bride) am planning a wedding. So any
chance to blow off some stress and race the bike comes as a great
pleasure. It just so worked out that we were in the bay area (wedding
related outing) this weekend and were able to attend the Burlingame crit.

I had redemption on the brain after an error filled race last weekend.
The course was.... technical. 3/4 mi, four 90 deg turns and a long
sweep around to the finish. Good pavement, well protected course with
a north breeze.

I stuck to my plan from Folsom, stay up front, for the first laps.
There were several half hearted attacks in the group which went
nowhere (can you say negative racing?). I got in the mix for the first
prime, which was taken by a very impressive 3-man Third Pillar
lead-out. The third prime, I took a long flier around the outside on a
whim. Dug really deep as I was closing quick on a Stanford rider
and... missed it by half a wheel.

The race started getting sketchy was at least one big pile up
occuring. I got a bit lacksadasical at was muddling around the top
fifteen to twenty and wondering "Gosh, why the hurry to got up front?"
At this point I looked up and realized for the first time all race
that they were counting the laps overhead, no on flip cards. Two laps
to go...

I dropped a gear and started my move up. Within a lap and a half I was
sitting about 10th and had half a lap to go. Coming around the last
bit of the sweeping turn, a lane the size of 101 opened up and I
siezed on it. The race for first was out of reach, but I gave what gas
I had left and managed to edge out a sitting up rider for fifth.

Lessons learned today:
-Know where the laps are counted before the race
-Don't stop until the finish