Cal State Final - What you didn't know happened!

Well, the final Cal State Series is officially over.

First, thanks to Tom for putting on another great series. I noticed a lot of new faces out there and the races were well attended. One of the nicest perks of the series was the new plastic number plates! Finally, a professional looking plate that doesn't tear off half-way through the race! Nice touch.

The final race didn't go down without a little excitement on the course however! See below...

Awards
Congrats to the whole Don's team for putting in a stellar effort all year. The awards ceremony was extra long this time because they had to present awards for the last race and the overall state finals. To break things up they did have a band playing so that was cool. Here's a few highlights from the ceremony.

AL - Pro Single Speed Cal State Series champ
Lisa - Womens Expert Cal State Series champ, SuperD champ
Jeff - 4th place finish (last race), SuperD champ
Kurt - 2nd place finish (last race)



Course Confusion
For most of the race I was trailing behind the second pack of pros. About half way through the first lap we all bridged back on to 2n10 and started the climb up the fireroad. Here is where there was mass confusion about which way the course went. To my surprise, when I got to "Wet Dream", the course marshal told me to go straight up 2n10. I actually stopped and told him I was Pro doing the "Long course", and he just told me to go up the road. "Ok", I said, you're the boss...

After talking with everyone afterwards, I found out that John Nobil (the Pro leader) reached the same turnoff before the course marshal did and actually went up Wet Dream, as the course description said online. But the rest of us went straight up the road as directed.

When John crested the trail and got back on 2n10, to his surprise, he ran into Jason Seigle and another rider in the Pro class. So even though he lost 3-4 minutes on the single track, he was still able to match our time on the fireroad! Pretty amazing. Fortunately, John was able to re-gain his position and lead the race to the finish.

As for me, I was pretty confused about the whole thing and thought about turning back quite a few times. There's nothing worse than thinking you are going in the wrong direction during a race; especially on a single speed where every pedal stroke counts!

What do you do when the course marshal says "GO STRAIGHT"?.

1) Follow the online directions or 2) listen to the man himself?

Anyone else have confusion out on the course?