Take to the streets

This past weekend marked my debut appearance as a "roadie." Well... a hairy legged Cat. 5 roadie...

Off to the races!

I had registered only a few days before, spurred on by the big red "Only 4 spots remaining!" text plastered on the organizer's homepage. The weather forecast looked optimistic for a spring day in Ohio. Party cloudy with a 50% chance of rain and a high of 65. Race day conditions, however, were a little different...

At one point I believe it made it up to 52, and every last drop of that 50% chance of rain was wrung out of the clouds. There was thunder, there was "Thank you God most of my bike isn't made of metal" amounts of lightning, and at one point the noise from the pounding of my heart and rush of the wind was drowned out by the clank of hail on my helmet. The rain and wind would change intensity as bands of the storm rolled across the course. Icy cold rain from high up in the stronger bands signaled bad news - things were going to get worse before they got better. Time to grit the teeth and light some fire in my legs!

"May flowers" better be good this year....

The race itself went better than the weather. After about a mile of racing (out of the 35 mile race distance) a small group took off the front and made a gap of a few hundred meters. (I'm hoping that saying "meters" makes me sound more European and, by association, faster). "Oh, we'll form up a little chase group and reel them back in" I thought to myself - citing my expansive 4 minutes of road racing knowledge. So I sat near the front and waited... But, 3 or 4 miles later, no one was getting organized - so I took off after them myself, in the rain and... wind...

Shelter is for sissies

I caught up to them at the end of the first lap - within a few 10's of meters anyways. But the lap ended going up a hill to the finish and then out into a field (of tears) where the winds whipped around and lightning flashed in the distance. I was feeling pretty spent playing solo catch-up, and when the lead pack made a turn directly into the wind, I could only watch them slowly pull away.

I spent the rest of the race in Limbo - close enough to catch glimpses of the lead pack, but far enough away that I wasn't able to bridge the gap; and well ahead of the non-chasing "chase" group. I had heard that people would stay away from you in the pack if you had some scruff on your legs - I just didn't know it would be so far!

In the end I finished 12th, good enough to earn some points with the UCI and gain a better understanding of the skinny tire street guys. I should also say a Thank You to my COMBO Race Team and our sponsors: Kenda, Roll:, and Whole Foods! And also to Nuun, Honey Stinger and Tifosi!