CR400
07-16-2007, 06:24 AM
Pre race mess up.
I had a race on Saturday and was riding in northwest PA, where it is brutal hilly but not yet mountains. Anyway I got off course in my practice ride. Oh, the misery I found when I turned the corner. Good thing I didn't know I was off course or I wouldn't have climbed it. It was about 100 feet of elevation gain or more, sligntly over a 1/4 mile long. All I know for sure is it was one of those you look up even from the half way point and all you see is sky.
It make matters worse I horribly underestimated it and tried it on my 52 ring. About 1/3 of the way up I had to get off and manually gear my bike down. If I had tried to gear down on the bike I would have fallen over, I was going so slow my gps stopped tracking my time. If it goes below 3mph it stops tracking. So I get to the top finally and figured it wasn't really that bad (it was). Look up and low and behold it is stepped I have to climb again but this one isn't as steep or long. Go another half mile and another one pops up. I call them the three sisters. But oh the joy of that mile and a half decent was worth the pain.
I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I did do better then I expected to do. It was only a 12 mile rolling out and back course. We started with a mile out on a slightly down grade but with a headwind. So that negated a little bit the speed I had. Still it was an easy 22mph here. It would have been faster had I had a full time trial bike like others did. A road bike with aero bars can only go so far. Plus my teammate that was out earlier suggested that I go out conservative and save it for the grade all the way back. To say I have an unfavorable power to weight ratio is an understatement. But it was a tail wind on the way back. We had to take a sharp left at stop sign then up a hill to the main part of the race. Turn right and it rolled fast and slightly down hill on the way out.
I was a little upset because I got put in with what was considered the fitness group so I had to go around a lot of kids and adults with questionable bike handling skills. I almost wrecked around the divided left turn because a little girl didn't see me and I was trying to go fast. So I had to go into the oncoming lane to get around. A few times I even had to yell out on your left to get the non-competitors out of the way so I didn't have to stop or run them over. I lost time at the turn around as well because on of the ladies had trouble turning her TT bike around. I wish I had gotten there first I'd have been on my way back already:mad:. She ended up beating me but only because I let her.
Another thing that was kind of scary was that the road was not closed to traffic so I saw three vehicles go down the middle of the road to avoid bikers on both sides. I thought for sure this one truck was going to take out a family of four. The next one comes by pulling a trailer which I just about wear. The last one came up behind that woman on the TT bike and I was worried for her because she didn't see it and he seem a little upset.
It was a good ride though all considering. It was good to have my teammates at the start and finish line cheering me on.
I had a race on Saturday and was riding in northwest PA, where it is brutal hilly but not yet mountains. Anyway I got off course in my practice ride. Oh, the misery I found when I turned the corner. Good thing I didn't know I was off course or I wouldn't have climbed it. It was about 100 feet of elevation gain or more, sligntly over a 1/4 mile long. All I know for sure is it was one of those you look up even from the half way point and all you see is sky.
It make matters worse I horribly underestimated it and tried it on my 52 ring. About 1/3 of the way up I had to get off and manually gear my bike down. If I had tried to gear down on the bike I would have fallen over, I was going so slow my gps stopped tracking my time. If it goes below 3mph it stops tracking. So I get to the top finally and figured it wasn't really that bad (it was). Look up and low and behold it is stepped I have to climb again but this one isn't as steep or long. Go another half mile and another one pops up. I call them the three sisters. But oh the joy of that mile and a half decent was worth the pain.
I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I did do better then I expected to do. It was only a 12 mile rolling out and back course. We started with a mile out on a slightly down grade but with a headwind. So that negated a little bit the speed I had. Still it was an easy 22mph here. It would have been faster had I had a full time trial bike like others did. A road bike with aero bars can only go so far. Plus my teammate that was out earlier suggested that I go out conservative and save it for the grade all the way back. To say I have an unfavorable power to weight ratio is an understatement. But it was a tail wind on the way back. We had to take a sharp left at stop sign then up a hill to the main part of the race. Turn right and it rolled fast and slightly down hill on the way out.
I was a little upset because I got put in with what was considered the fitness group so I had to go around a lot of kids and adults with questionable bike handling skills. I almost wrecked around the divided left turn because a little girl didn't see me and I was trying to go fast. So I had to go into the oncoming lane to get around. A few times I even had to yell out on your left to get the non-competitors out of the way so I didn't have to stop or run them over. I lost time at the turn around as well because on of the ladies had trouble turning her TT bike around. I wish I had gotten there first I'd have been on my way back already:mad:. She ended up beating me but only because I let her.
Another thing that was kind of scary was that the road was not closed to traffic so I saw three vehicles go down the middle of the road to avoid bikers on both sides. I thought for sure this one truck was going to take out a family of four. The next one comes by pulling a trailer which I just about wear. The last one came up behind that woman on the TT bike and I was worried for her because she didn't see it and he seem a little upset.
It was a good ride though all considering. It was good to have my teammates at the start and finish line cheering me on.