Bike Race!

Last weekend I did my first road race.

My teammate, Jen, offered to drive me and Manda up to Marty MN, near St. Cloud, for a 30 mile race.

I felt good that day, ate the right stuff, warmed up enough, brought all the required equipment.

Our group of cat 4 women had 10 racers, and two 40+ women raced with us as well. I was surprised at the easy start pace. No vying for position or sprinting off the front. I was able to hang with the pack pretty easily and only almost got dropped once on a hill. I didn't take any turns at the front, since I wasn't sure what the pace should be, having never done a road race before, so I stayed in the middle or back of the pack.

After about 6 miles, I noticed that Jen was off the back. I had agreed ahead of time to work with her, so I was sad to see her struggling. I kept looking back, hoping she'd catch back up. I even told my other two teammates that she was dropped, hoping that they could either help pull her back up or at least try to moderate the pace of the pack by going up front. Neither of those things happened, and she kept dropping further back. I was doing okay holding on to the pack, not dying, but not exactly able to stay near the front either. I was having a moral dilemma. All I could think about was how bad Jen must feel riding into the 20 mile headwind all by herself. And there was still a lot of road to cover.

So I tried to motion her up when the pack slowed a little, but she wasn't able to make any ground. So it was then that I made the decision that makes Michael think I'm too nice. I dropped back to ride with my teammate. I could've probably held onto the pack for another few miles, maybe even the whole first lap of the two lap race, but then I'd be shelled off the back into no man's land and we'd both end up riding alone. This way we'd be able to work together right away and at least see what its' like to ride a road race, rather than a time trial.

So I waited and waited, soft pedaling until she caught up. Then I pulled her up the next couple hills and into the wind. By the time we got to the top of the one big hill, she was feeling strong enough to pull on the downhill. Wow, Jen is really strong on the gradual down/flat parts! We averaged about 27 mph while she was pulling. It took most of the rest of the course for us to figure out that she was stronger on that type of road and I was stronger on the hills and into the wind, but eventually we managed to work with our strengths. By then we caught up to Manda, who was riding alone. Turned out she had stayed with the pack for the whole first lap. We worked a mini paceline to the finish and then we had a fun sprint between the three of us. I have to learn to take a leadout and come around, as I'm always the one in front until the last second and then I get passed. But it was really fun and unlike my time trials and criterium experiences, I never felt like I was going to throw up. Michael would say that means I wasn't working hard enough, but hey, I finished and I had a good time and we worked as a team :) There was one person who had a DNF, so I came in 11th out of 12.

I'm excited for the next time.