I did my first three races last year. Scary! Not the actual races, but the idea of plunging in and doing my first one ... and even the next two. I remember sitting at the start of the second one with my heart pumping and thinking, "Do I really want to do this? Is this 'FUN'? I'm not quite sure!"

I am in So Cal, where road races are few and far between, and those are the only one's I have interest in. Crits are common, but they are more dangerous than I am up for. I'm 41 with a husband and two kids and just don't like the idea of falling on a tight corner with 10 other riders around me piling up all over each other! I have friends in my cycling club with road rashes and stories that keep me from the world of crits. Not that I'm trying to talk you out of them. It's just not my thing ... even though I might be better at them than road races, which is what I do. The reason I might be better at crits is because I'm good at riding on the flat and not afraid to take turns relatively fast. I am NOT a good climber and that's where I lose the pack on road races. It's all about the climbing. But I do them anyway, to keep myself training to climb better with the ultimate goal to NOT lose the pack on the climb. Or to stay with them longer than I did the time before. I really should try a time trial. I'd probably be good at those. But then I'd have to invest in a TT bike if I really wanted to get into it.

I had heard stories of gals bashing each other verbally at races, which made me unsure I wanted to be a part of that. However, I didn't have that experience at all at my three road races. Everyone was pretty supportive of each other. At my very first one, I remember being at the start, feeling extremely intimidated by all the women around me, which turned out to be a much larger group than what is normally in the Cat 4 at that race (per previous race results). One the gals yells out, "Hey, Don'ts Bike!" It took me a minute to realize they were talking to me, cause I was wearing a Don's Bike jersey, which I never do. They were letting me know I had something stuck in my derailer. A leaf or something. I had wondered if in road races, if people pointed out things in the road like rocks or glass. I found out they do. Just taking off with the pack was really bizarre for me. They don't typically take off super hard, and when riding moderate pace, I'm used to either chatting (at least a little) or listening to my ipod. In this case there were neither. No ipods allowed and no one was talking. I was sort of in the middle with riders on both sides of me. I learned early on I don't like to be blocked in like that. I like to be on the left side where I can move up more easily if I want to ... but have to be careful not to touch that center line or I could be disqualified.

At my second race, when I lost the pack on the first climb, I passed a gal, who I didn't see again for the next 15 miles or so. I was basically riding by myself, and just trying to stay ahead of her and one or two other ladies I knew I was ahead of. Every time I turned around, no one was there, until all of a sudden a mile or two from the end, there she was. Dang it! We rode to the end together, taking turns pulling until she finally said, "You want to sprint it out?". Um ... not really! I found it funny that she even asked and I'm not one to start sprinting before someone else makes me, but as soon as she was up, I was up and we sprinted to the end. She was a far better sprinter than me, so she beat me. She told me later that I was her carrot. She just kept trying to catch me after the climb. I just kept trying to stay ahead of her, but it's hard to really push yourself hard when you don't have your own carrot and you're basically all by yourself. It was beautiful country, so while I was depressed I was all by myself, I enjoyed the fact that I was riding in a beautiful area and just tried to push myself as hard as I could mentally make myself. Had I known she was going to catch me, I probably could have made myself ride harder. At one point some men started passing me. A group of guys that started after my group. So when I'd turn to see if she was there, sometimes I'd see a guy, so I wasn't sure. You're not allowed to draft other categories. Part of me wonders if she did, but I'll never know.

In my first race, after losing the pack on the climb, I rode a short distance with one gal, but she couldn't stay with me (THAT made me feel good!), so I was by myself for a while, but ended up riding with a gal for about the last 10 miles (I think it was about 30 total). We didn't verbally discuss sprinting at the end, but when she stood I stood and we were pretty much neck and neck. It was hard to tell whose wheel crossed the line first, but the results showed her ahead of me. I was just happy that there were about six other women behind me. My big declaration was that "I wasn't last!" That was my biggest fear at my first race (and all of them really). I knew I wasn't going to win, but I didn't want to be last.

My husband did all of those races as well, otherwise I probably wouldn't have done any of them. For one thing, they were so far away we stayed at a hotel for every one of them. But he was a great support and it made it more fun to do the races. It was a bonding thing for us to do together. He was on the podium at the first race. He came in 2nd and was SO close to winning. He's an excellent climber, which is how he got ahead of the lead group at the end. He knew the course and knew if he had any chance of winning, he had to out climb the lead group of about five guys when the last hill came and try to stay ahead of them for the remaining mile or so. His plan worked pretty well. He bolted up that last hill and lost them all, except the pack was able to work together to catch him after that, while he was alone fighting as hard as he could to stay ahead of them. They finally caught him and one guy went flying by right before the finish line. Ughhhh!!!!

So there's a lot of strategy involved if you're good enough to stay with the pack. For me, my only strategy is the stay with the pack as long as I can, which ends at the first climb. And then my strategy is to not be last if at all possible! I was able to accomplish that goal at the first two races, but not the third one, unless you count the one gal who didn't finish. She was a DNF for one reason or another. So my husband keeps telling me I wasn't last! Whatever. There were a lot less riders at that race, so less people for me to try to stay ahead of. For someone like me, the more riders, the better chance I have of not being last! Ha ha!

Also, at road races, not everyone is necessarily riding as hard as they can for the entire race. My first race was an out and back course. I saw the lead pack coming back toward me before I got to the turn around. They weren't necessarily riding super hard, but had lost more and more riders on the long climb. I found out later that the lead pack of quite a few riders (like 10 maybe?) all came in pretty much together. I asked the gal who won what her average pace was. She didn't know, but said it wasn't that high. She said they didn't ride that hard. It's one of those things where, someone has to take the plunge and try to pull away from the pack and see who chases them, and that breaks up the group. No one really did that in this race. However, in my husband's division, he was doing that constantly! It worked pretty well the first time. Broke down the lead group considerably, but every time he tried it after that, they always caught him and he was more exhausted from it than they were, because they worked together to catch him. One guy, who he ended up pairing up with sort of, cracked him up. When they caught him after one of the times he had broken away, the guy rides up next to him and says, "You keep creating a panic!" My husband ended up making a "secret plan" with this guy. On that last short climb before the finish, they were going to break away together and then work together for the last mile or so to stay ahead of the group. However, when they got to the climb and nodded to each other that it was time to take off, my husband took off and when he got over the hill, he looked back and his new buddy was no where to be found! He had way out climbed him and now had to fend for himself for the last mile!

Another thing that happens on road races, which my husband experienced and then told me about ... and then I experienced ... is that the lead riders will try to wear out the rest of the riders. In my second race, the pack was together for about 10 miles. But it was an accordion affect. The lead riders would speed up, so everyone would pick up the pace to stay with them. Every time this happened I wondered if I'd be able to hold on, but then they'd back off and ride slower. I finally realized the lead riders weren't trying to break away or ride faster. They were just trying to wear us out.

So, there are a few of my experiences as a new road racer. At the moment, I am planning on doing the first two of the races I did last year. I want to see how much better I can do them this year. See if I can hold on to the pack longer on the climb. But I think I might seriously look into time trials. Crits are kind of tempting, but .... I don't know. I don't think they're for me. You have to figure out what is for you.

Good luck and have fun!