The Lantern Rider

I got up at 5AM and left the house around 6:30 to ride to my first race. It was a training crit of fifteen laps, each lap just under a mile. I went to my parent’s house which is about five minutes from the course to use the facilities (there are none at the race site) and to shed some of the warmer clothing I had needed so early in the morning.

As I entered the race course, I looked over to the woods and out came a coyote. He looked me straight in the eye and I passed him on my bicycle and he went along his way. Coyote is one of my animal totems and I felt like he was saying, “Don’t take the race or yourself too seriously, girl! See the humor and have some fun.”

I was one of the first people to show and rode around the course a couple of times. A few other women riders who I knew arrived and we rode the course together. This actually was a mistake for me. I had already warmed up by riding to the race and I just tired myself out a bit by doing more laps. Oh well, live and learn.

The race started a bit past 8:30 and we were off. I was with the pack but toward the back, which isn’t a great place to be. There was one woman who was squirrelly and unfortunately I was behind her. Around the second or third lap she almost crashed into another rider and to avoid getting involved in a crash, I had to go around them. As luck would have it, neither of them went down. But I was separated from the pack and never got back on. So, I rode most of the race time trial style, by myself.

At one point, I passed a fellow team mate who was struggling. I told her to get on my wheel and tried to pull her so she could rest. She couldn’t stay on and eventually abandoned the race.

At the very end, one of the team coaches came up and gave me a lead out to the sprint. I, being quite befuddled, wasn’t sure on which side to sprint past her and end up sort of muddled it up. (Turns out the side didn’t matter.) But I sprinted to the finish in the end.

I was determined to finish the race even if it meant I was going 5 mph (which I didn’t). I did finish and not everyone did. I was the last rider who finished. And lo and behold I got a prize. They call the last rider the lantern rider. That would be me.

I learned a lot in this race. I went into it knowing that this kind of race wouldn’t be my strength. I do better when there is terrain and some hills. But I learned that riding too much before the race isn’t a good idea; that starting as close to the front as you can IS a good idea; that you have to watch out for the squirrelly rider and stay way; and that I am a team player. In the end, it was a nice Mother’s Day gift to myself.

ah the famous red lantern. In my circles, that is a coveted prize.

Yes of course, it's the lanterne rouge hailing from old Europe ;). A place of renown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterne_rouge

good that you won something for it.

Congrats on going out there and doing it! Sounds like you had fun and have lots to look forward to in the future:-)

Only thing I want to say is this.. be careful about cutting your warm up to short. The shorter the race, the longer the warm up. And if you want to ride around the course with the others DO IT just do it in your small ring spinning. In your warm up, make sure to include a few hard efforts. The reason for this is that in crits, unlike road races, the pace starts off really high to see who is going to hang and who is going to fall off. Because of this, you need a good warm up with a few hard efforts so you are ready to go. Now in a road race, the warm up is a lot less important because people take longer to get going since the race is usually 2-3 times longer then a crit(say 30-90 miles vs. 45 minutes +3 laps).
My advice would be, if you ride to the race, which is great to do!! Spin the whole way there, once you get there put in a few hard efforts, then keep spinning if you can. Keep the legs moving :-)

Have fun!! It sounds like you enjoyed yourself

That was nice. Sounds like you've got the right attitude.

hirakukibou - congrats on your first race! You were totally ready for that after all of the effort you put in at the clinic.

A couple of things based on your story - it was good to go around the squirrely rider, but it is also ok to say something to them, and remember your incidental contact drills. If I am behind a squirrely rider in a race, I typically will say something to them, and try to help them out (not so much any more since I race with women who should know better, but definitely in the Cat 4 fields).

This is a training race. As such, once you drop off, you could have sat back up and waited for the group to come back around to get back on. While you CANNOT do this in a real race, you can at Wells. This will also save you from working on your own.

Wells has a really wide finish, so sprinting up either side would have been ok. Remember what we said in the clinic though - it's important to communicate with your leadout. Try to talk about this (without letting everyone around you hear you) so that you reduce the confusion when it comes time for the sprint.

I also agree with ehirsch - don't discount a good warmup, especially for an effort like a crit. I never used to believe this was true, but have changed my routines, and the results are showing it to be true.

Congrats again on a great race! Hope to see you at some of the hillier events around these parts.

SheFly

Thanks everyone for your support and advice. Very good points about warming up. I probably just pushed a bit too hard as I was kind of tired before it all started. :eek: I am learning so much in this process about riding and racing and about myself. You can teach an old dog new tricks -- at least this one. :D