The gorgeous 60 degree weather from Saturday turned sub-freezing for Sunday's race at the Tuileries Shopping Center. 22 degrees at the 2pm race start, but the course was softening up from the direct sun. Ground was still rock hard but the top 1/4" was like grease. The course was pancake flat and wound all over the shopping center and in between buildings, including Epic Bike and Sport. Good start, led briefly early in lap 1 after Shadd Smith slid out in a turn. I quickly settled into 3rd with Shadd and Cameron Cambers dueling for the lead. I had Bill Marshall and Alex Edwards close for a while. Alex eventually put it in training mode while Bill stayed close enought for the rest of the race to keep me working. Had to stop a few times and dig frozen mud out from the rear brakes. It got really clogged up a few times to the point where it was rubbing on the tire and hard to peddle. The course was much better than last year. They utilized more of the parking area and made the laps longer. Plenty of tight 180 turns that were really greasy. The course was actually starting to freeze back up once the sun starting getting low, but by then the bikes, especially pedals, were packed up and getting hard to clip in.
