30k Crit
There was 30thousand dollars up for grabs in the desert of Indio this past Saturday and I headed out to win it all. The race started and I felt really good and felt confident I could pull it off. 15 minutes into the race I was involved in a crash, went to the pit and the referee started to check my tired...I said "no I don't have a flat, I was in a crash". He proceeds to tell me, "if you don't have blood on you, you don't get a free lap". I laughed because I thought he was joking. I started to get heated but I let my mechanic do the rest of the talking and I got back in the race.
with 5 to go, I had excellent position but lost the wheel. with 3 to go the same thing. I would get position then loose it, but I never gave up. 1 to go, Alex C. from the jelly-belly team pushed me and that made me loose 5-6 positions and I lost 4-5 more when I stopped to yell at him. With half a lap to go, Sterling came over to me and took me from 15th wheel to about 10th wheel and that was all we could do. I finished 7th but I was later disqualified for receiving an illegal "free lap" according to the officials.
This is the same officiating crew who tried to disqualify Justin (African American) for not making the junior gear roll out...which they were wrong and didn't allow him to do it again.
I'm just calling it like it is.
A letter will be sent to USA Cycling because they were wrong and nothing in the rule book states that you must have blood on yourself to prove you were in a crash.
...taking the children to school, ill tell you about Ojai when I get back...peace