Tom
05-22-2006, 10:04 AM
It went as well as could be wanted, I guess. If I hadn't screwed up the bottom of the hill on the way in I bet I could have placed better. As it was, I got 9th of 40 riders.
It was weird. The Sunday rides feel harder than that. We never maintained the pace going up the hills, but I guess that's easy to say when you sit in the pack the whole way. If I were out riding by myself I think I would have worked a lot harder up the rises but I can't be sure. Certainly the guys I ride with on Sundays would have made me work more. Honest to God, I didn't know where the neutral zone ended and the race started, they said the traffic circle but we got out on the road and nothing happened. I really expected the front of the group to take off somewhere on the second lap and it never did. They even gapped me on the one steep rise second time around (the guy in front of me dropped his chain, I think) but I managed to chase back on. I think mostly people just whittled off the back by attrition more than anything else. I really don't know how big the group was at the end but I know there were at least a dozen or so.
I am pretty sure I didn't cause any big problems except maybe once, when the guy dropped his chain he pretty much stopped right in front of me. I swung around him and somebody started swearing behind me. It was that or run right into him so I am not sure what I should have done.
If I knew what I was doing, I would have pushed up on the front in the last five or ten minutes and took a run at it. I got messed up in the circle because I thought we were supposed to go to the right of the cones and around the circle as a car would. We all did, but some guys went to the left of the cones, some of us went to the right but some guys went right at the cones and I was afraid of a tangle so I backed off a little. We were also catching up to slower riders from the group in front of us right at that point. If I had run hard I could have hung with the front and maybe stolen one or two more places. If I had run hard early, I bet I could have made a few people uncomfortable. And maybe got beat by a lot but it would have been interesting. As it was I got timid and that maybe was prudent but not competitive.
The upshot is that the bug has bit. I suck, but at least I didn't get wailed on in my first try at it and figuring out how to steal more places from the front is going to be a fun puzzle.
It was weird. The Sunday rides feel harder than that. We never maintained the pace going up the hills, but I guess that's easy to say when you sit in the pack the whole way. If I were out riding by myself I think I would have worked a lot harder up the rises but I can't be sure. Certainly the guys I ride with on Sundays would have made me work more. Honest to God, I didn't know where the neutral zone ended and the race started, they said the traffic circle but we got out on the road and nothing happened. I really expected the front of the group to take off somewhere on the second lap and it never did. They even gapped me on the one steep rise second time around (the guy in front of me dropped his chain, I think) but I managed to chase back on. I think mostly people just whittled off the back by attrition more than anything else. I really don't know how big the group was at the end but I know there were at least a dozen or so.
I am pretty sure I didn't cause any big problems except maybe once, when the guy dropped his chain he pretty much stopped right in front of me. I swung around him and somebody started swearing behind me. It was that or run right into him so I am not sure what I should have done.
If I knew what I was doing, I would have pushed up on the front in the last five or ten minutes and took a run at it. I got messed up in the circle because I thought we were supposed to go to the right of the cones and around the circle as a car would. We all did, but some guys went to the left of the cones, some of us went to the right but some guys went right at the cones and I was afraid of a tangle so I backed off a little. We were also catching up to slower riders from the group in front of us right at that point. If I had run hard I could have hung with the front and maybe stolen one or two more places. If I had run hard early, I bet I could have made a few people uncomfortable. And maybe got beat by a lot but it would have been interesting. As it was I got timid and that maybe was prudent but not competitive.
The upshot is that the bug has bit. I suck, but at least I didn't get wailed on in my first try at it and figuring out how to steal more places from the front is going to be a fun puzzle.