I arrived into LAX on Tuesday afternoon and settled into our accommodation in San Dimas. With just a few days to recover until the race on Saturday I knew I had to try and adjust to the local time and conditions ASAP. After some good days out practicing the course race day was upon us.

I felt reasonably fresh on race day although I had a poor nights before. I also knew that my form was good enough to put me somewhere up the front of the race even though I was having to contend with a bit of jet-lag. I took charge of the race early on and for the first 3 laps of 7 held the front of the race and set a strong tempo.

Lap by lap the field whittled down until it was just myself and Howard Grotts left. We traded blows over the remaining four laps and I nearly threw away the chance of victory with less than a kilometre remaining when I slid out on a tight hairpin approaching the second to last climb. I managed to regather and attacked up the final pinch climb to open up a small gap which I held to the line. Stoked to take the win and bag some vital points!

I will stay in the USA with my team for training/team camp until the Sea Otter in a fortnight. From there I will head to Germany where I will be based for the World Cup/ international season.