So this past weekend was our first road race as a team and my first road race as an individual. The nerves were high as well as the excitement but more than anything I think we just wanted to get into the action and see what we were up against.
There was of course the strategic meetings and bike preparation which add to the fun of a race.
Here is my bike as it set the day I got it…
And here it is in full race trim. There has been quite a bit of work done to it over the past couple of months to get it down two pounds. New wheels, tires, seat, stem, cages, spacers, and bar tape have really made this a bike im proud to toe the start line with.
We loaded up the bikes a bit after 6AM Saturday morning for the 45 minute drive to the race. This weekend was as much of a home race for us as we will get this season. After a few stops we got to the race at 7Am with an hour and ten minutes till our race started. The parking lot was packed with collegiate racers anxious to get the season underway, as well as some other racers as this race was open to the general public. I knew there would be a mess at the registration table for the first race of the year but it was worse than I imagined. Don’t get me wrong NC State put on a great race but there was just a lot of people who didn’t follow the proper procedures for registration and therfore held up the line. We finally got our bib numbers at 8 AM and the rest was a blur till I was standing on the start line. Needless to say I didn’t have time to do anything but throw on my shoes and jacket get my bottles and get to the line.
Luke was racing with me in the D race and we staged at the very back of 39 man collegiate D field. We had about a 2 mile neutral start to the course which I hoped would serve as my warm up and also an opportunity to get a little further up in the pack. As we rolled out I began to move up. It was easy to see that most of us had never raced before or rode in this large of a peloton as there was a lot of slamming on the brakes and then rapidly speeding up. Less than a mile into the neutral roll out the first crash happened right in front of me. Wheels got crossed and people hit the ground. Luckily I had positioned myself on the white line for just such an instance as this and bailed into the grass to go around the wreckage. After the field got back together, the second one happened. A kid on a set of Zipps tried to swerve a pot hole right beside of me got sideways and bounced off the asphalt. Keep in mind this is all during the neutral start at about 15 mph. The field was getting split up and I had to sprint to get back with the leaders. By this time I had moved up into the top half of the field and then less than a half of a mile from the start a third group went down. It was ridiculous and chaotic. I was honestly scared to think that if everyone was hitting the ground at 15 what was going to happen at 22.
When the race started I had managed to get my teammate up in front of me and we set about 20th. The race sped up very fast to about 25 and stretched the field out. I yeld for my teammate to speed up and get up to the leaders as I saw they were dropping people fast. I hesitated as I waited for him to move but he just sat on another racers wheel. So I left him. I started jumping from wheel to wheel trying to move up until I made a pass and there was no one there. I realized I had messed up and let the lead group get away. I thought I could see them up in the distance on a long straight so I decided to chase. I got in the drops and sped down the flat at a little over 23mph. I looked back and noticed a rider from VCU had caught my wheel and was following. As we approached the riders in front of us I could see that it wasn’t the lead group from our race but instead it was the tail end of the womens race that had started 5 minutes in front of us. I was discouraged to say the least and pulled off to let the VCU rider pull through. We took turns for the next little while until I couldn’t see anyone behind us and I knew we had opened up a big gap on the rest of the field. That’s when I realized this wasn’t where I wanted to be. Hung out in the middle. The rider from VCU wasn’t as strong as I was but I knew I needed him to have any chance of catching the leaders. On the hills I would pull up next to him and say “pretty good hill aint it” and he would just mutter “yeah”. We chased for a while longer until I finally holler to a spectator “whats the gap to the lead group” and he just replied “a long ways.” I expected this to be honest as its hard for a two man chase to pull in a 15 man peloton. I kinda gave up to be honest and figured we would just ride it in and was caught off guard when the VCU rider who I had pulled clear of the field attacked me on on of the steepest climbs. I had just come off a pull on the front and couldn’t respond fast enough. He opened up a gap on me and I never caught back up. I was riding alone with less than 7 miles to go when a 3 man chase pulled up on me. I honestly though we had a big enough gap on the field to stay clear but they must have put together a huge effort. I jumped in with them and rode their wheel to the finsh line for a solid 21st place finish. I never saw luke again the entire race but he ended up finishing near the back due to some mechanical issues.
And some Pics from the finishes....
Dead mid pack in my first road race…Ill take it. I knew the race for a top ten was over when I let that lead group get away. Honestly though it happened so fast and things were so messy due to all the wrecks I just got caught sleeping. It was a great learning race though and I expect to do better the next time around.
The next morning we left out at about 6Am again for the crit in Raleigh about 30 minutes away. We were there plenty early this time and I had time to set on the trainer for a while then take some laps around the .35 mile course. I cut my warmup short though to make sure I had a place near the front of the starting line today. Marshall was back for this race and Luke and I were lined up as well. The field had shrunk significantly to 24 racers as we stood on the line. The whistle blew to start and I gave it a pedal and threw my bike forward to go and the guy in front of me didn’t move. I ran right into his back wheel causing my bike to fall over. Im not sure if he missed a clip or what but the guy made no forward progress. By the time I picked my bike up and got clipped in I was in dead last. I pinned it though and passed 2 racers off the pace but could feel that I didn’t have it in my legs after yesterday. I dint really want to suffer for a bottom three spot so I did a total of three laps and threw in the towel. Marshall was riding strong near mid pack with luke close behind for the first half of the race. I could see marshall start to really hurt and fall back fast with luke in tow at the 12 minute mark. As the leaders got to their back wheel though Marshall pinned it and help them off for a couple minutes until they finally lapped him. None the less it was a strong ride to a 16th place finish for marshall and 20th for luke.
Linley was up next in the Womans B/C race. She rode hard and was leading the race near the end taking the third prime of the race. However, at the the end she was passed and rode to a second place finish.
And some pics...
It was a really fun, interesting, motivational, and educational weekend. We are a small team of inexperienced cyclists just working hard and trying to have fun and in our races I think we had some hopeful performances for the rest of the year.
Iv got some really good ride reports from this week as well but I think Ill save those for next week…
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