This is the time of the year when all the pros rehash the season and talk mostly about what went wrong. I already discussed one of the three outlaw races so I thought I'd summarize the other two from the perspective of a comfy chair on the last day in November. The Cote de Tolosa was the first competition of the year. It was in May and it was an open catagory mass start event of 50 miles with a mix of pavement dirt road and a mile or so of single track. I did it on the 'traut tourning rig fitted with cross tires. I had a real good day finishing in a group of three 11th-13th place out of about 30 riders. The winner was the collegiate road national champion and he finished almost an hour ahead of me. A real good day both fitness wise and bike handling wise. The second outlaw race was the Pozo la Pansa Pozo that I've already written about. The final out law race was the Black Mtn Hillclimb. Very few people turned out for this (I was both 3rd and last) An unusually hot day led to my usual miserable performance under hot conditions. I had to get off the bike for a few minutes near the top or I would have passed out. My time was several minutes slower than when I'd done it in training at a tempo pace a week or so beforehand. The last race of the season was the only official one. It was the Freemont Peak Hillclimb held outside of San Juan Bautista. I raced with the 55+ Cat 1-3 because the group was smaller (5 instead of the 10 or so in the Cat 4-5) and because I figured that the 1-3s wouldn't be going that much faster. I had a good day on the bike but still finished DFL - 5th out of 5 and by time slowest of all in my age catagory. I guess I could say that I'm one of the fasted 15 climbers in NorCal, but it's always discouraging to finish DFL. Most of my peripatetic racing life I've managed to be a mid pack finisher. Perhaps the only guys left racing at my age are the very serious atheletes. I thought that age based attrition would move me up and it had as the pack are smaller so my finishing places are better. Fifth is a good result after all, but the finishing order is getting worse. I hate being dead last. I guess my goal for next year which is what these reviews lead to is not to be DFL.