WON THE BRONZE! first race age 54
Well, guys,
it was amazing. The weather was supposed to be crappy, rain all day... We agreed there would be no racing if it rained, just a "Social Ride"
We started with 12 teams but a lot of people dropped out, so there were only 9 teams. Each team was comprised of a woman and two men. Most of the people that rode have already done tough rides like Ramrod, so a measly little ten mile uphill race was just no big deal for most of them.
Well, the morning broke with a light high cloud cover, 50 degrees... no wind.
It couldn't be better!
There had been a lot of emails flying back and forth with people posturing and insulting each other. One gal sounded so tough her two guys both backed out and she ended up with a new team. We all had goofy team names and dressed the part. my team wore western shirts and spurs.
my husband's team was team arsenal, so they wore little ducks on their heads.. (dont' ask me!)
So we all went down to the start of the race. Lucky for me, my husband and i did this same ride on our own tandem at our own speed a few weeks ago.
Phew! and it's a good thing, i had enough OTHER things to be worried about (the weather, the bike, the saddle, whether my animal-son was going to go too fast and hurt himself) at least I already knew the course and there were no nasty surprises for me.
I followed my husband's advice, I Closed my eyes on the long scary downhills, and pedalled my butt off for the whole 10 miles. The only time I didn't give it my all is when Peter (the captain) told me to relax.
My son Tom who is 25 kept up with us the whole time, except after the 12 % grade he decided to stop for a potty break. (Bad move, son, tandems are fast going downhill!!) well; he actually caught up with us eventually, he was really booking down that hill.
We passed two different teams, that were 3 and 5 minutes ahead of us.
The first place team consisted of two professional racers and a very strong randonneuring guy.
The second team to come in the woman had done an Ironman in Hawaii and one of the guys had done some serious biking too . Their third was a very young strong guy kind of like my son.
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my husband's team, the best looking; came in 5th.
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my husband is holding the rock he put in my son's pannier! (i found it before
we started)
