Cat 5 & Master Cat 5: First Criterium. Why not do two. Like Walkersville, the tempo seemed a bit lackadaisical. With a fellow team mate in a three man break, the pelaton seemed willing to let Andre, Chris, James and I dictate the pace. As the laps ticked by, the pace quickened but not by much. No one wanted to work until the last lap. I pulled through the penultimate lap and was in fairly good position for the final sprint. For 4th. Except that I don't have a sprint gear. Yet. Around the final turn I looked for something stout but only found lite beer in the tank. Still having fun.
Race 2: With a lot of solo and unattached riders, nobody wanted to do any work up front. James and I (& Paul-DC Velo) took turns early but I could feel the first race munching my resolve. Around one of the turns, I let myself get squeezed into the corner by a blur of a rider in green. I collided with the hay-bales stacked up in front of the stop sign. I caromed off, but stayed upright and out of any other riders' line, taking bits of hay with me sticking out of my kit. The last few laps I just hung on as we strung out the rest of the small field. I felt my quad-gerbils and hamstring-hamsters squeaking angrily when I tried to grind around the final turn. The sprint-gear fairy blessed everyone around me and I watched elbows and heels spin past me to the finish line. Even from 10th place this is serious fun.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tour of Walkersville road race
Masters cat 5: Jittery and the coffee didn't help. The rolling start also didn't help. Mainly because I didn't know what a rolling start was. Halfway through the first loop we were not going fast enough to get away from my gastro butterflies. Like the hiccups, I didn't even notice when the see-saw physio-mental equilibrium reset and a faux-confidence settled into the spinning rhythm. Maybe it was the crash that started when a sketchy Evo rider on a cannondale swerved past me & I heard metal on metal as dominoes fell behind me.
I went in fully expecting to get smoked & unceremoniously pushed off the back of the train. I found my self near the front most of the race and even popped off the front on the "hilly" section when I tried to pull the pelaton through the blocking ABRT team. Their rider in the 3-man break was safely away. I assumed everyone was behind me only to peek back and see a 200 yard gap. There was no way I was going solo in my first race & I let my legs revert to a soft-pedal. Twenty minutes later, I was in the front again with a mile to go. I had no idea where the finish line might be so I just pulled until the surge. At the sprint I never even got out of the saddle. I swerved around an upside down face-plant sprinter who had been jockeying for 15th and I coasted across the finish. This is definitively fun.
I went in fully expecting to get smoked & unceremoniously pushed off the back of the train. I found my self near the front most of the race and even popped off the front on the "hilly" section when I tried to pull the pelaton through the blocking ABRT team. Their rider in the 3-man break was safely away. I assumed everyone was behind me only to peek back and see a 200 yard gap. There was no way I was going solo in my first race & I let my legs revert to a soft-pedal. Twenty minutes later, I was in the front again with a mile to go. I had no idea where the finish line might be so I just pulled until the surge. At the sprint I never even got out of the saddle. I swerved around an upside down face-plant sprinter who had been jockeying for 15th and I coasted across the finish. This is definitively fun.
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