Recap

Bike Racing 101 for all you non-bike racers that may read this post.

2 types of races:
Criterium - go around in circles really fast for a certain amount of time, usually about an hour.

Road Race - A certain distance on the open road, usually 30-100+ miles.

You start out in a pack, also known as the field, or the peloton. The pack is the safety net. In order to be successful in a bike race you have to at least be able to ride with the pack. If you come off the back of the pack you have no chance and may as well quit, unless you like riding with no chance of winning. If you are strong enough to ride off the front of the pack, that is a good thing, you give yourself a better chance to win if you eliminate some of the other racers, although you also lose the safety of the draft from the other riders in the pack, so it is much more difficult. If the pack is all together at the finish you get what is known as a field sprint. At this point it is usually the most explosive sprinter, or the person that just times the sprint correctly that gets the win. Timing is key cause you can only sprint at max effort for a short amt. of time, say like a couple hundred meters.

Ok then, so Sunday afternoon I drove down to Boulder to do the Category 3 race. This was my first crit since late June. And my first race with the 3's since upgrading. My goal was to be aggressive and ride near the front of the pack (it's safer here, less crashes). So the race started on a slight uphill, made a left turn to a slight downhill for one block, left turn into an alley that was about half as wide as the road, then a left turn out of the alley, sharp right, then sharp left for a block then another left to the finishing straight and the uphill. Following me????

I lasted for 10:00 minutes with the field, and was ready to drop out when a guy in a Carmichael kit came past me and I thought sweet, he will pull me back in, he looks like he is going strong. About 5 minutes later I just rode away from him, he couldn't hang, and I had no one else to help me get back to the field. 10 minutes after I got dropped like a bad habit, the front end of the field lapped me and I pulled out of the race.

Why did this happen? Well I have lots of excuses and theories, but basically I just wasn't in good enough shape. Our avg. speed was 25.6 when I got dropped and I have been successful in races with a higher avg. speed, so I know I can do it. Among the other reasons that I have for getting dropped so early are.

1.) I started off at the back of the field, so going into the 2nd turn when I was doing 18 mph, the front of the field was doing 32 mph, and with 57 riders I had to sprint max effort to get back onto the back of the pack. Multiply this effort over the next 7 turns and I was fried....

2.) The first 3 wheels I picked to draft off of got dropped within the first 2 laps, and I had to close those gaps burning tons of energy in the process.

3.) I am about 5-10 lbs over my ideal race weight and where I think I need to be to be competitive with these guys out here.

Basically I just need to be in better shape and have better legs, but I also need to stay near the front of the pack to avoid the accordion effect. There was 55 starters and only 25 finished. I will be there next year I am confident.