"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Union Grove Road Race - My First RR

Got to the race an hour and 15 minutes before the start of race 1 for CAT 5. Met a team mate at registration. He's riding race 2 for CAT 5. Got changed into my kit. Stood in the registration line and finally got through the line with 30 minutes left before the start of the race. Not much time to warm up.

My plan--pack fodder, since this was my first road race. I wanted to experience it, but not really contend.

First two laps, I felt good even though I had a very limited warm-up.
Third lap--bad patch. Found myself falling off of what I thought was the back of the pack.
Fourth lap--worked my way back up to the top 10, but not without some effort.
Last lap--still near the front, but on the last hill that leads to the finish, I didn't have anything left to kick with and was DFL for the front pack, but not the race. I finished 24th. That actually qualified me to be able to race in R3 (top 25 in R1 and R2), but I decided that I had enough for the day, since I struggled to stay with the front pack by the end of R1.

My team mate, Tim, finished 3rd in R2 and 4th in R3.

Here's my CyclingPeaks chart for the race:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/NoRacer/UnionGrove20070519.jpg

The 2 for cat 5 was real sketchy. The couse was pretty technical ended up getting second in the junior race. two crashes in my race

The 2 for cat 5 was real sketchy. The couse was pretty technical ended up getting second in the junior race. two crashes in my race

That's what Tim said--two crashes in R2. One guy ended up with a trashed frame--bent seat stay. Luckily, it sounded like no one got hurt.

Btw, good job on the second place.

Congrats on your first race! Now you can change your screen name. I thought it was a great course on decent roads. I did the cat4 race.

Congrats on your first race! Now you can change your screen name. I thought it was a great course on decent roads. I did the cat4 race.

Thanks.

Actually, I've done 2 training crits already, also, but this is my very first road race.

As far as the screen name goes, I can't change it--too much history. It's the same name that I've used on USENET rec.running starting back in 1999, and that I currently use as the Med Tent moderator on coolrunning.com. I'm sort of stuck with it.

my team mate was in the cat 4 race said it was nice. yeah the guy who wrecked his frame was right behind/ next to me when he crashed right at the end of my race. scared the crap out of me

I thought this was a challenging course. That crosswind was a killer on the flat portions.

I got into a breakway at the start of lap 2. There were five or six of us, but some of the riders were pushed beyond their limits, so we couldn't form a smoothly rotating paceline.

Then they gave us the bell after lap 3 (cut short a lap due to time, I guess) and the woman who initiated the breakaway took off. I chased and joined her, and we got some good time on the rest of the group. She rode me off her wheel on the hill, though, and I couldn't get back on. She had about a 10 second lead on me at the finish.

I took second.

I think i saw you there That break was pretty decent you got a good distance from the pack congrats on the second

Thanks!

Congrats on yours, too.

Then they gave us the bell after lap 3 (cut short a lap due to time, I guess) and the woman who initiated the breakaway took off. I chased and joined her, and we got some good time on the rest of the group. She rode me off her wheel on the hill, though, and I couldn't get back on. She had about a 10 second lead on me at the finish.

I took second.

Congrats on the second. Was that for the Junior Men/Women 14-16 ride category? The reason I ask, is because the schedule had them doing 4 laps only (about 18 miles). The only other group doing 4 laps was the Shirk's Final--the race that I "shirked" [boo, hiss].

it's all downhill from now, and fwiw trashed frames are not exclusive to cat 5s.

...and fwiw trashed frames are not exclusive to cat 5s.


From my limited experience, you are...


correct.

;)

Congrats on the second. Was that for the Junior Men/Women 14-16 ride category? The reason I ask, is because the schedule had them doing 4 laps only (about 18 miles). The only other group doing 4 laps was the Shirk's Final--the race that I "shirked" [boo, hiss].

Nope, Women's 3/4.

Nice job in your first road race, BTW. Our field passed alot of Cat 5 stragglers.

Well, not a whole field, but guys who were out in no-mans land by themselves.

Nope, Women's 3/4.

Nice job in your first road race, BTW. Our field passed alot of Cat 5 stragglers.

Must've been from the CAT 5 R2. ;)

NoRacer: what team do you race for?

My first race (R2) was a disaster. I was right behind the wreck on the climb for lap 4. I saw the juniors go, and kind of thought there were non juniors in the mix up there, so I went after them. Got past the finish line and was like...sh*t. Pretty much everyone passed me.

Eventually one of the guys from my squad who was off the back even earlier them me caught up to me and pulled my sorry @ss around to the final hill. Under normal circumstances, I would not have done this, but he told me no matter what place he took, he wasn't going to do the second round. So I sprinted thru him.

And its a good thing I did, because had I not, I would not have taken 25th and been able to race the second race.

The second race was alot better. Dude with a huge mustache attacked a turn before the bridge, and eventually won. I went after him, and that was big mistake of the day #2. I got 14th.

But I got 2 starts in one day. which is good. Because I want to upgrade soon.

I was one of the two juniors up in front of the wreck there was a couple of guys with us i got blocked in by them. it sucked cause i could have probaly won but that was a pretty bad wreck it happend right behind me scared the crap out of me.

Congrats! Nice job getting back to the front group. That was something I was unable to do today.

NoRacer: what team do you race for?




I race for Team BBC. I am the Team BBC guy with a yellow jersey. My team mate has a pink jersey. I should be getting my pink jersey (hopefully) before Bike Jam this weekend.

One last note from me about this race:

The results can be found here - https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2007-181

CAT 5 (R1) - Officially, I finshed 24 out of 37 finishers out of a field of 50--13 riders DNF.

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