Racing Close to Home
It's been a long time since I posted anything, but here goes. The Saturday race this past weekend was a hill climb time trial up one of my favorite climbs. This means they time you from point A to point B, and start each person individually; winner is the person with the fastest time.
Here are some ways to make this type of race more interesting: make it rain at the bottom of the course, have the first section aimed into the wind, have a small blizzard in the middle of the race, have small rivers flowing across the road, and get some hail into the action by the end of the steep 3 mile course.
That's what the conditions were like, and it felt pretty badass hammering into the blizzard. At first. Then the lungs start to burn and every time you stand up you have to sit back down because your arms are too cold to support your body weight. And then you're breathing so hard and your legs are so stiff that the engine room says you're at full speed ahead even though you're eyes can see that you're not going very fast. I was disappointed at how slow I went, at how many excuses I came up with for going slower, etc. Pain is temporary, defeat lasts forever.
Sam did great. He rolled it. Didn't wear gloves, though, and was shivering for 10 minutes while we sat in a friend's car to try and warm up.
The next day went better for me. It was a parking lot crit - the Nascar of bicycle racing: two 180 degree corners and two straightaways. After 10 minutes, however, some rain began to fall and one corner began to accumulate the perfect mixture of dust, oil and water to become the equivalent of an ice skating rink. So every lap for four laps there was a crash on that corner, and each time I somehow was able to slow down enough or weasel my way through the falling racers. Often times the best method was to just follow Sam!
So people were somewhat tentative after those laps, and I decided the best strategy for me would be to get on the front and hammer the straightaways as hard as I wanted, and slow down as much as I wanted for the corners. That way nobody would crash in front of me. So things got pretty spread out, but eventually people caught back on and it was a race again.
With 15 laps to go, everybody was getting kinda tired. Sam and I had discussed hitting it hard with 2 laps to go, but as I came around the group Sam and I weren't able to get together in time before the corner. So I was off the front with one other guy going really fast and the rest of the group got caught in the confusion of the lapped riders. The group never caught back on and I was able to hold out for second.
I should have been more aware of where the peloton was because I might have been able to get Sam into better position and I might have been able to win it. Next time.
Here are some ways to make this type of race more interesting: make it rain at the bottom of the course, have the first section aimed into the wind, have a small blizzard in the middle of the race, have small rivers flowing across the road, and get some hail into the action by the end of the steep 3 mile course.
That's what the conditions were like, and it felt pretty badass hammering into the blizzard. At first. Then the lungs start to burn and every time you stand up you have to sit back down because your arms are too cold to support your body weight. And then you're breathing so hard and your legs are so stiff that the engine room says you're at full speed ahead even though you're eyes can see that you're not going very fast. I was disappointed at how slow I went, at how many excuses I came up with for going slower, etc. Pain is temporary, defeat lasts forever.
Sam did great. He rolled it. Didn't wear gloves, though, and was shivering for 10 minutes while we sat in a friend's car to try and warm up.
The next day went better for me. It was a parking lot crit - the Nascar of bicycle racing: two 180 degree corners and two straightaways. After 10 minutes, however, some rain began to fall and one corner began to accumulate the perfect mixture of dust, oil and water to become the equivalent of an ice skating rink. So every lap for four laps there was a crash on that corner, and each time I somehow was able to slow down enough or weasel my way through the falling racers. Often times the best method was to just follow Sam!
So people were somewhat tentative after those laps, and I decided the best strategy for me would be to get on the front and hammer the straightaways as hard as I wanted, and slow down as much as I wanted for the corners. That way nobody would crash in front of me. So things got pretty spread out, but eventually people caught back on and it was a race again.
With 15 laps to go, everybody was getting kinda tired. Sam and I had discussed hitting it hard with 2 laps to go, but as I came around the group Sam and I weren't able to get together in time before the corner. So I was off the front with one other guy going really fast and the rest of the group got caught in the confusion of the lapped riders. The group never caught back on and I was able to hold out for second.
I should have been more aware of where the peloton was because I might have been able to get Sam into better position and I might have been able to win it. Next time.
posted by Unknown at 6:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home