Last night at the age of 21 years and some 6,700 days I can genuinely say I tried something new. I entered into a British Cycling Category 4 road race.
My performance was completely in line with expectations and I finished dead last in both races.
Preparation
In true internet age fashion, I had tried to prepare for the event by reading as much as I could about what to expect and what tactics to deploy. All of the articles carried the dark foreboding that you will get "dropped" faster than the proverbial hot potato.
So with my tactics of riding at the front, and keeping out of the wind ( these two things are slightly contradictory it now occurs to me), I pinned the numbers onto my shirt and rolled to the start line at Rhyl's Marsh Tracks. My simple goal being to not finish last.
Reality
The first event was an elimination race. All riders lap together and the last one /two over the line is/are out. When the Commissaire told the riders to go I positioned myself near the front behind one other row of riders.
My tactics worked perfectly until the first corner. Whilst, I was applying the brakes to make sure of safe passage around the bend, everyone else was accelerating; hard. Bikes were appearing from out of nowhere! I felt like Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi and fought the urge to scream "it's a TRAP!"
Now, at the back of the group, I experienced the effect of having to sprint out of subsequent corners to get back into the group who were accelerating earlier. Think of the effort you sometimes have to expend to get back up to speed after you have been on holiday from work and it is a similar feeling. :-)
In truth, I experienced this on three corners and then I was out. The reality was, despite the thousands of miles I have ridden, I had not ridden round corners at this pace in a group this big.
Still, there was the handicap race to come where I could redeem this performance. This race sought to even the playing field with Category 4 riders going first and then 3 and 2 riders after with the idea that on the 10th lap the entire group would be together.
There were four Category four riders and as we started I experienced the same thing even in the smaller group. I was not cornering at the same pace as the others and the rain we were riding in made the problem worse. I then had to sprint to get back on the wheel of the last rider and get precious shelter from the wind.
This shelter is supposed to provide up to 30% energy saving and the graph below illustrates that I managed this for three laps. My average speed once the group was lost decreased from 40kph to about 36kph. This is only actually 10% the inner auditor in me is forced to point out. Moving on...
Reassessing goals.
Now if you are going to ride around at the back of a race by yourself, having seen the category three riders pass, and felt a rush of air you assume was the category two riders, you may as well do it in a bright pink shirt. Designed to be visible on busy roads and decorated with the question "Man or Muppet?", it avoids confusion over your identity for sure.
The predictable shouts of "MUPPET!" soon accompanied my passing the finish line to start a new lap. These shouts were mostly my son and his friends who were there for the junior races but what are good friends for if they don't kick you whilst you are down?
However, the encouragement served to help me with my new objective; Do not get lapped. I soon realised trying to calculate the closing speed of the groups was impossible so I put my head down and pedalled as hard as I could through the rain.
I have not been so glad to hear a bell ring since I left school for the last time in 1994 and I started my last lap alone, the field somewhere behind me, closing fast, as they accelerated to finish.
I have to admit I fought the urge to cross the line arms aloft as if I had won just for the hell of it but the slim slither of success felt like a victory to me.
In summary
Objective achieved, I relaxed and started to think about what I had learned. Perhaps I relaxed a bit too much as I rode straight off the far end of the circuit narrowly missing a fence whist panicking about the location of the pond.
Heart out of mouth and wheels back on smooth Tarmac, time for Take 2 on what I had learned:
1. I was really pleased with my average speed in both races. I had not ridden that fast for that period of time before.
2. Despite knowing the theory of what to do there was no substitute for the real life experience.
3. I am terrible at corners. Only [insert name of least favourite goalkeeper here] is worse. I also need to be less cautious in the group to have any chance of keeping up.
4. My goal for next time is to not finish last!
No comments:
Post a Comment