Ronde von Brisbeen Circuit Race

I'm catching up on race reports as I lay in bed after a fun weekend of racing. The RvB circuit race was so close by that Vanessa and I couldn't resist. Plus, it was only 50 minutes, so how much suffering could it cause? It was a fun course - downhill on one side, uphill on the other, easy corners, 1.7 miles loop on good roads. It was the debut of my new orange NAC bike. I was nervous to ride it because I didn't want to crash it on day 3, but I must say I was impressed with the field and felt comfortable. There was a momentary wheel rub on the uphill that caused me to unclip for a second, but I recovered and no one freaked out, so it was all good. The race didn't seem that fast and it was nice to recover every few minutes on the descent. On the hill, I could hear people breathing and I was psyched because usually I only hear myself breathing. I felt fit, though not fresh. In the end, I just tried staying on the wheel of whoever was in the lead. It worked for a while until someone lost their chain. I pulled around and someone whizzed by me - she won and I spun my legs out to grab 2nd and Vanessa was right there in 5th place. We missed the podium photos conveniently, but still came home with some cash!