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Mike Lee - End of Season Race Report

Published on 8/5/2019
Mike Lee - PAA Road Racing

Mike Lee - Santa Barbara Road Race

My 2019 road race season ended before I knew it. Looking at the rest of the year, I realized the reality of my working life and the sparse upcoming race calendar had conspired to commit me to an early off season. I had been waiting for the perfect, most exciting race moment to immortalize in a race report, but since that hope has been dashed, here are some of my thoughts on the year so far.

This year was my first full race season, which meant that it was the first time I could enter local racing staples like UCLA and Santa Barbara road races. I had both good results, like getting 2nd in the Category 5 race in Santa Barbara and 3rd at the Redlands Criterium, and forgettable ones, like the camera not registering my finish at the LaGrange Grand Prix. However, what was more satisfying than any placing was the chance to become fully initiated in the SoCal road racing scene, and to do it with my PAA teammates.

There’s no spiritual replacement for feeling like you’re a part of something greater than yourself, and in my case that has come by being a part of the race team as well as PAA as a whole, and more broadly the local road cycling community. I can't thank those club members who have greeted with me a kind word, showed me the idiosyncrasies of being a cyclist, and have ridden with me on one epic ride after another. See you all out on the road!