This is the first year that I truly feel like I can invision what those riders are going through in the tour. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT calling myself a tour rider. Simply put, I've been a triathlete for a couple of years now and still know very little about road racing specifically. I have had my time trial (TRI) bike since May 08 and all of my racing has consisted of doing triathlons (mostly sprint & olympic distance w/ one half). Well, to jump into more of the USA Cycling competitions, I gave a try at my first time trial race in Grand Prairie. My goal was 25+mph for the 8 mile extremely flat course. It was a hot friday afternoon, but fortunately the wind was light. I hammered it with everything that I had and finished with a 25.3 mph average! Goal accomplished. Time trials are just one small part of the tour.
Last month I acquired my first real road bike (thanks to Rockwall Cycling!) This is where I have learned a TON about the world of road racing in the past 5 weeks. I have now competed in 3 criterium races on tuesdays in plano. The field averages between 25-40 riders in my category 5, which consists of the beginner riders to the crit races. After 10 races in CAT 5, you are allowed to "cat up" to 4. I'm really looking forward to moving into 4...it's a much safer race in many aspects and a fantastic interval workout for triathlon training.
Since acquiring my new road bike (Frankenstein is its name) I have done 2 rides that I would call above and beyond my level of riding. The Mesquite rodeo ride, in which I hung on to the lead pack until the half way point (mile 31) and had a suffering solo ride back to home base. I learned a lot from that ride about going out too strong. I had spent too much time at the front of the pack, wasting needlessly my energy that I should have been conserving. The second was the RMB South ride that starts at White Rock (July 4th). About 50 riders showed up for this weekly 54 mile ride....and BOY HOWDY did they show up. My goal was not to get dropped and to sit in the pack --- Hang on!
Well, as most beginners do, I mistakenly found myself at the front WAY too often and doing too much work at the apex of the pack. There were a couple of times when I stayed in my saddle to grind out a hill off the front... as one of favorite profs in college said, "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!"
The one thing that I have noticed about road racing differing from triathlons (bike portion) are the surges in a pack. With both rides that I have done now on Frankenstein, there are consistent surges from riders in the pack to pick up the pace. Naturally, a hand full of riders react to the surge (or attack) and it domino's down the pack until everyone catches back up.
Anyway, I got dropped 2 miles from the end of the ride at the RBM South on Saturday. I will return with a better feel for that route and know when I need to conserve in order to make it to the end. I'm hooked...
Recap: I love the tour... I love the ensuing Nike commercials about Lance... and I love this time of year!
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