“The roads of Redlands are legendary in the minds of the men’s and women’s professional peloton. Roads like Sunset, Wabash, and Garden are infamous, the names are usually spoken in sentences that include the terms ‘leg breaker’ and ‘searing lungs’, but now a new road that only needs to called ‘the bench’ will be added to the climbing legendary of the Redlands Classic.” From the website of the Redlands Bicycle Classic http://www.redlandsclassic.com/
Last year I tried to make it our to the race and when I showed up, I could not find anyone or anyplace in Town that remotely looked like race was going to happen, so I left only to find out later that the race did happen but in a different part of Town.
This year I was determined to get it right and got out early to make sure I found a nice spot on the tract from which to shoot. I have to be honest and say that after arriving I thought I might not enjoy the race. It looked slow and not that action packed, but what I was seeing was just practice and not the real thing. The first to race were the women and let me tell you that they hauled ass! I could not believe how fast they were. Scary fast!
Then the men took the course and although they were a little faster then the women, they weren’t that much faster, but there was 3-times as many of them on the track which made it even more crazy. I didn’t see anyone fall, but heard over a police officers radio standing next to me that in the mens race, there was a rider down. Speed, shorts and asphalt can’t be a good combination.
All in all, a very cool race to watch and you can bet that I will be back next year.
