...before every bike racer goes down in an accident. Well my time came at the Cat 4 Deodate Road race.
It couldn't have been much more gentle if I had been gently lowered onto a bed of cotton balls by a stork. I heard some crashing sounds and the riders in front of me are playing the fall down game right in the middle of the road. I'm trying to brake to a stop, steer to the grass, and not roll over the guy in front of me doing a rather elegant tuck and roll maneuver. It all happened in a split second, but I saw it in slow motion. I tumbled down and quickly assessed the situation, blades of grass were sticking out of various orifices (bicycle, mostly), but no one looked hurt. One guy was swearing up a storm, but he was just pissed off. So I grabbed my bike, jumped back on the road, clipped in, and tore off.
I realized my chances of chasing back on solo were slim, so I waited up for another guy. I asked him if he wanted to try and chase back on, and he did, so we went. It was tough, and we got the pack to within 20 seconds and I just couldn't seem to close the final gap. It took hard work, but finally, after about 5 miles, we hooked up. After a brief instant of relief, I had a moment of shock and disappointment when I looked around and the race numbers I saw were all wrong. It looked like the masters 35 45+ race... I was getting ready to charge off the front in search of the Cat 4s, when I realized that they were all up there, apparently we had swept up a bunch of riders from the master's race.
Then it came down to positioning again. It was bell lap and I had 6 miles to recover a bit, and try to move up again. I made it to the front 10 or so, and got pushed off onto the grass. Although I managed to stay up I was in the back of the field again. The final kilometer has two sweeping 90 degree turns, before the last 300 meters. I was trying to move up again and a guy in front of me goes off into the grass and skids to a stop before the corn field so I had to back off. Finally, we're going around the final turn and I'm surprised my legs still feel so good. The last 200 meters and I'm weaving around people, moving up quickly, and passing a bunch of people. I ended up 10th again, not bad for chasing back on after the accident.
The lesson learned is bike racing is like real estate, position, position, position. Although I made it to the front of the pack several times, I quickly slid back again when I'd get stuck behind a slow wheel. Strategically, if I'd been more willing to work on the front, I would have been able to maintain a good position as well as miss out on the wrecks at the back of the pack.
Kudos to Levi for taking the win, it was well deserved. He did a ton of work at the front. Levi is a classy, courteous, and selfless rider. The few times I've raced with him, he's stood out for his willingness to work hard, and help out any other rider who is also willing to put forth the effort. At the Smoketown airport crit Cat 5 race he offered me his wheel to help me take a preme.
No comments:
Post a Comment