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05-15-05, 06:18 PM
Lessons learned...
Today was the Ontario California midseason criterium, the 4 corner .7 mile fairly flat crit... fast and fun... well it would have been if I would have gotten to race the full race... things went wrong from the time I woke up this morning... ahhh! Well at least there are some valuable lessons to learn for all of us here coming out of it... read on.
I worked last night until 1 am... first wrong move, but that is fine because my race was at 2:40. Well I had to go into work in the morning... at 8 am... that means I got 4 hours of sleep... mistake. Then it was about 90 degrees in the morning and I had to direct cars for some parade... and my boss would not let me have more than one bottle of water :mad: :mad: ... so I dehydrated, bad news. I ended up back in the office under some fans drinking a ton of water to come back to normal (remember we wear dark colored uniforms, bullet resistant vests, etc). We had an incident at work and I did not leave until nearly 1:30 pm... bad again. I got to the race 30 minutes before time to go... bad again, and I only had 2 bottles of water.
I decided since I was late to throw the bike quickly on the trainer and go, mistake again being I was out in the blazing sun. After 20 minutes I still was feeling crappy but I put on the carbones and with about 10 minutes before race tried to pump them up... well that did not go well...
I did not have the proper adaptor and the pump would not work. Once I finally got my small pump on the stem the rear tube poped as everyone was lining up. Not having backup wheels and not relizing that the wheels on wheels people were there I quickly tried to fix the tube. I ended up fixing the tube but I missed 2 laps of the race... I was only able to get 90 and 80 pounds in the tires also... another bad move. Once on the course I was able to catch to pack (basically just a workout at this point) butthe bike would not corner because the tires were so low on air. I hung about 8 yards from the back of the pack and just held 26 - 27 MPH in the wind, by myself, I was flying... but
I nearly crashed twice in the same corner... the tires would not hold low on air. After the second 25 MPH corner I gave it up and went it... by that time I did not have a chance to even place so I just stopped... no need of crashing and causing many more problems... the whoole day just went crappy...
But it was not for nothing...
I learned...
1. I can hang with a cat 4/5 group (mostly 4's) now and even with 40 PSI low tires can hang in the wind at race pace. That means that I can be competative in a cat 5 and even run a cat 4 once I work on my sprinting power. It does not mean though that I will never get dropped but it means that I am nearly in race shape now. :D
2. Always arrive at least 1 hour and possibly 2 hours ahead of your race. That gives you plently of time to check equipment, get fluids and food ready, inflate tires, deal with computer magnets, etc. It also means that you can have a good solid warmup before going out.
3. Know how all your equipment works before race day... expecially with things like new tires, equipment, etc. My fault was not knowing I needed a schredaer adaptor for my wheels before going out.
4. When it is hot forget the trainer unless you can get shade to use it in... only about 10 people were using trainers today and I now know why (92 degrees at race time).
5. Make any final adjustments at least 15 minutes prior to going to the line and ride around a bit to make sure race wheels, etc are ready to go.
At least today did not go without something learned... I still get credit for the race because I was out there for about 6 laps... that makes it 8 races now towards the 10 needed for the upgrade. Maybe it was ok that I did not race... I do not think my body was ready for a 45 minute fight...
Oh well... there is always next week... that is racing!
Today was the Ontario California midseason criterium, the 4 corner .7 mile fairly flat crit... fast and fun... well it would have been if I would have gotten to race the full race... things went wrong from the time I woke up this morning... ahhh! Well at least there are some valuable lessons to learn for all of us here coming out of it... read on.
I worked last night until 1 am... first wrong move, but that is fine because my race was at 2:40. Well I had to go into work in the morning... at 8 am... that means I got 4 hours of sleep... mistake. Then it was about 90 degrees in the morning and I had to direct cars for some parade... and my boss would not let me have more than one bottle of water :mad: :mad: ... so I dehydrated, bad news. I ended up back in the office under some fans drinking a ton of water to come back to normal (remember we wear dark colored uniforms, bullet resistant vests, etc). We had an incident at work and I did not leave until nearly 1:30 pm... bad again. I got to the race 30 minutes before time to go... bad again, and I only had 2 bottles of water.
I decided since I was late to throw the bike quickly on the trainer and go, mistake again being I was out in the blazing sun. After 20 minutes I still was feeling crappy but I put on the carbones and with about 10 minutes before race tried to pump them up... well that did not go well...
I did not have the proper adaptor and the pump would not work. Once I finally got my small pump on the stem the rear tube poped as everyone was lining up. Not having backup wheels and not relizing that the wheels on wheels people were there I quickly tried to fix the tube. I ended up fixing the tube but I missed 2 laps of the race... I was only able to get 90 and 80 pounds in the tires also... another bad move. Once on the course I was able to catch to pack (basically just a workout at this point) butthe bike would not corner because the tires were so low on air. I hung about 8 yards from the back of the pack and just held 26 - 27 MPH in the wind, by myself, I was flying... but
I nearly crashed twice in the same corner... the tires would not hold low on air. After the second 25 MPH corner I gave it up and went it... by that time I did not have a chance to even place so I just stopped... no need of crashing and causing many more problems... the whoole day just went crappy...
But it was not for nothing...
I learned...
1. I can hang with a cat 4/5 group (mostly 4's) now and even with 40 PSI low tires can hang in the wind at race pace. That means that I can be competative in a cat 5 and even run a cat 4 once I work on my sprinting power. It does not mean though that I will never get dropped but it means that I am nearly in race shape now. :D
2. Always arrive at least 1 hour and possibly 2 hours ahead of your race. That gives you plently of time to check equipment, get fluids and food ready, inflate tires, deal with computer magnets, etc. It also means that you can have a good solid warmup before going out.
3. Know how all your equipment works before race day... expecially with things like new tires, equipment, etc. My fault was not knowing I needed a schredaer adaptor for my wheels before going out.
4. When it is hot forget the trainer unless you can get shade to use it in... only about 10 people were using trainers today and I now know why (92 degrees at race time).
5. Make any final adjustments at least 15 minutes prior to going to the line and ride around a bit to make sure race wheels, etc are ready to go.
At least today did not go without something learned... I still get credit for the race because I was out there for about 6 laps... that makes it 8 races now towards the 10 needed for the upgrade. Maybe it was ok that I did not race... I do not think my body was ready for a 45 minute fight...
Oh well... there is always next week... that is racing!