Micah Chitraroff: Socal Devo Racer

This race was most definitely not my best race, but I still think I did great considering the conditions and I know that I have a lot to be proud of. First of all, I would like to congratulate Jonah on one of the best races I can think of. You earned it! As soon as the race started, the wind kicked in, and the whole varsity field was overwhelmed with dust. Like always, this was gonna be one of the most challenging races of the season. Within the first few minutes of the race, my plans had gone out the window. I got stuck in an unfortunate placing going into the single track and I lost the lead group. A bummer if I ever did see one. But this was not going to stop me. I spent the first and second lap gaining ground on the chasing and I was in a comfortable 10th place with a decent gap between 11th. On the 3rd lap, disaster struck. One of the many sharp rocks on the second half of the course had punctured my tire! Quickly I got off my bike and pumped some GUP into the tire in an attempt

This race was definitely the most low-key race I have ever raced. I showed up and the pit zone for our team was just a table and a crate to sit on, I warmed up by myself, and there was only 7 people in my race. The fact that my race had 7 people was actually a huge surprise to me because in the past Gold Coast race, I was the only person in the CAT 1 17-18 category. However, it was a pleasant surprise because racing alone, even though there are other people on the course at the same time, is very disheartening. I started the race and I was feeling great, the pace was perfect for me and I immediately knew from off the start that it was gonna be a good race. although it was windy, I was able to work with a bunch of different people from many different categories for drafting. This allowed me to create a large gap between myself and the group behind me. After I finished the race, I felt like I could have gone for another lap. But still, I went as hard as I could and I'm proud of how