race report

first race of the season went off today with a road race of a 11km gravel loop at la barriere park.

it was decided at the nordic cross windup that it would be a good idea to ride to the race and that we would meet at dr. mr.'s house at 8:15, ride until we found a good coffee shop, park there for a bit and then continue on to the race.

sunday morning i woke up at 6:00 with a headache (too much red wine from the night before). my schedule for the morning is to clean up from the previous night, get my race gear together (to which i haven't even given any thought yet), put together my bike, eat breakfast, and then make it to the meeting place by 8:15. after about .5 seconds of deliberation i decided that i would still ride out to the race, but that i would skip the group ride and make it there on my own; this would give me time to finish all of my chores plus make blueberry pancakes for breakfast, which i could have with the lovely laura (contrary to the rumors floating around later at the race venue this way not a naked blueberry pancake fest). at 8:40 dr. mr. called and wanted to know if i was still coming out; i said yes, but that i would get there on my own. by 9:30 i was on the road. i quickly discovered that 30km winds from the south were going to make for a long ride to race - and indeed they did.

upon arriving at the race i was faced with my first decision of the day when i was asked about which team i was riding for. skipping back to friday i was tossing this around in my mind for the past few weeks and i could not decide which team to ride for: fgbc or tinker creek? because it was getting down to the wire for getting my form faxed in, and because i could not think of which team i was going to ride for i left the box blank on the form thinking that i'll figure this out later. when i get home there is a message on the answering machine from jonny asking what team i am riding for: mucr or fgbc, and if i don't get back to him before 5:30 it will be team jonny - i did not get back to him before 5:30. so on sunday morning when they ask which team i was riding for i said team jonny (i may need to change this since i don't have a team jonny jersey - but apparently that can be fixed with $10 and a felt pen).

the race was more of a time trail than a road race for me; with not enough gear to keep up with a roadies (into the wind was okay - with the wind i could not keep up, maxing out at 47kmh with the gear heads doing mid 50's) i soon found myself in no-man's land by myself battling 30-50kmh head winds (that sucks). jonny b took of like a scared rabbit and stretched out the field pretty quickly. this strategy proved costly and he blowed himself up real good on the final lap. as far as i know i finished mid pack somewhere and was happy with how i held out.

following the race it was back to the city, but thankfully going with the wind. by the time i rolled into my yard it was successful 100k ride - sweet.