Racing Again

Race Report from May 1, Tuesday night series.

Finally! First race of the year for me. I knew I was out of racing shape, and knew this was gonna hurt - but the best way to get into racing shape is to race, so here we go...

Group is small - more on that later.

The course is relatively flat with some long rollers of 2-3%. I only got about 15 minutes of warm-up time in, so I'm hoping for a slow start to the day. Race is only 33.42 kms long tonight, so my guess is that we'll stay together until the turn-around and then the attacks will come, we'll end up with 3 or 4 guys up the road and everybody else schlacked off the back.

Off we go. Pace is slow - only 28km/hr. Phil (by far the strongest rider of our club) and I are chatting off the back. BowWow is up front, and before we hit the first hill kicks the pace up a little and gets a bit of a gap. Only one guy reacts, and he grabs his wheel. Phil and I continue chatting, and as the hill tilts up a little, we reel 'em back in. Pace slows again to the 28km/hr range.

Down the backside - and then we begin the second climb - I'm feeling pretty good and start thinking about making a break, just to see if they'll let me go. I start moving up to the front, and then Phil moves up ahead of me, and then Roy (another REALLY strong rider) - I take 3rd wheel, and Phil kicks the pace up - we're now doing 32km/hr, still a nice leisurely stroll. I don't know where my head is at this point, but I obviousely was NOT thinking - I'm still in the small ring.

Phil suddenly surges about half-way up the hill. Roy doesn't respond at all and there's suddenly a gap of 15 feet. I jump and try to grab Phil's wheel. Instantly I'm spun out - that's where I realize I'm still little ring. We crest and I shift big ring and really hammer down the back side. (At this point we're only 3km into the race!) I do a quick check behind me and see that I've got about 200 yrds of gap - I'm in no-man's land by myself. Only one choice, gotta catch Phil.

I settle in to a hard TT - my HR is pounding at 177 as I hit the 3rd climb - this is where I know I've got to bridge the last 50 feet or so, or it ain't gonna happen. I accelerate up the hill - I'm within 4 feet of Phil before we hit the top. I start to ease off a bit to recover (my HR is pounding away at 185) - Phil turns, sees me, smiles - I swear he gives me "the look", he says he didn't - and then sprints over the top and drops me like a rock. That's all I'll see of Phil for the rest of the race.

As I crest I check over my shoulder - there doesn't seem to be a chase taking place yet - there's at least 300 yrds back to the closest riders. I drop my pace slightly to recover on the down-side and settle in to fighting the wind on my own. Suddenly there's Roy pounding past me! Where did he come from? I'm not getting dropped again today! I sprint up to his wheel, recover, and we start working a pretty good 2man rotation to try and pull Phil back.

We hit the turn-around, and realize that we've had a wee bit of a tail/cross-wind on the way out, now it's a nice little headwind. Hey, that might give us a chance to reel Phil in! We up the effort.

Half-way back we run into the rest of the group. Apparantly the reason our start had such small numbers is some guys didn't understand where the start was at and were camped out at "the other start" waiting for us. They turned around and joined Roy and I - suddenly there's 4 of us together (we dropped the others pretty quickly.) Fresh legs to pull us in? Hmmmmm

One of the guys with us blasts off the front - what's that about? He can't win, he's already out of the race. We decide to chase him down. There's a young guy with us that is pretty strong, and Roy and I decide to let him do his share of pulling. We don't seem to be making any ground up on our little break-away guy. Then the jockeying begins for the sprint. We're still 4 km away!

We hit the the long down-hill and the pace is up to 55km/hr, straight into the wind. Problem is, I'm running a 12/27 cassette and with my legs being tired, spinning at 106 is getting a little tiring. I'm barely holding Roy's wheel. Finally at the bottom I realize that official 3rd is as good as I'm gonna get today - Roy is WAY too strong for me today. Roy and I start chatting and he says he wants to clip this young guy at the line, I told him I'll try and give him a good lead out. We're closing into the finish fast, despite it being a slight up-hill into the wind. (We're still clipping along at 40km/hr.) So, I grab the young guys wheel and wait for the right moment. I've never done a lead-out in a race before, so really don't know how far out to go from, I"m usually waiting for someone else to make the move first.

The young guy reaches over to grab his water bottle and I decide it's a great time to let her rip, I look back and nod to Roy and go. As I go by the young guy I glance back, Roy's on my wheel - I look up the road... OH NO! I've gone WAAAAAAAAY too early. I'm still a good 700m away from the line. Oh well, I'm committed now!

I hammer away as best I can, glance back and see that I've got about 30 foot gap... is it possible? I try and find some more oomp for the last 300m. Suddenly Roy and the young guy are there. With less than 75m to go the jump - I try to catch a wheel, but there's nothing left in the tank.

And that is how the first race of the season ends for me, limping across the line totally spent and having made just about every mistake in the book. What a great night!!