First Cat 5 Race - Am I going to get Smoked?
I have entered my first Cat 5 race in Philly this Sunday. Its a crit. If anyone is familiar with USPro Race thats held every year in Philly, the crit is a 1km loop around Lemon Hill.
Anyway, I am just looking for some survival tips. With it being so early in the year, I dont have a great base of fitness in place as of yet. I have been mostly doing some interval training on the trainer and a few spin classes here and there. I have only been on the road ONCE this year (last night). Normally, I dont hit my peak until end of June because by that point, I have been MTBing fairly consistently.
My biggest fear is that:
a) I am going to get dropped like a stone and get pulled
b) I am going to cause a crash because I have never done any pack riding
My background: MTB Sport Class racer (retired since 2002), 31 years old, about 10 years experience XC mountain biking, just started road riding to do a few sprint tri's this summer.
All advice welcome!!!
I have spend the majority of the Winter (Dec - Jan - Feb) running and swimming. I think I am *good* shape just not riding shape, let alone racing a fast crit,