First race report!
 

I just came back from a day of racing for the first time. Woke up at 6:30, drove an hour, warmed up for an hour, and than started. The race was consited of a 3.5km TT, and a 36km L shaped crit, seperated by about 3.5-4 hours.

TT- Roll out went fine, I locked my last two gears out, did the TT in 6:12 finishing in 12th out of 16, 40sec back. Quick race not much to say except for I couldn't walk after.

Crit- As nervous as I was already, roll out was a fail. The person was unsure of how I made it past the TT roll out, I think it's because I started at the line with my wheel instead of my pedal. Shhhh, I didn't know what I was doing. Anyway, I held the start up about 5-10min to get my gears locked out. Started the race in the middle of the pack but fell behind in the first 2 seconds due to me being and idiot when it comes to clipping in. Anyway, I quickly realized that racing has 0% to do with speed, and 50% acceleration. The accelerations took their toll on me a few laps in. The race was 6 laps, and on the third lap there was an attack on a hill, I was to tired and got dropped along with two teamates. I wanted to give up (obviously) after 2 laps of being dropped, as I pulled my calf, but my teamate told me not to. So instead, I sucked it up, and on the bell lap, about 1/4 through the lap, I had some bolt of energy come out of nowhere, told my teamate who was suffering to stay on my wheel, and caught the group after about 50-100m of seated sprinting. Then with about 200m to go, at the last (out of two) 180 degree turn before the finishing stretch, One guy crashed (the second of the race at the same turn), and I fell behind and ended up finishing on the hill 9 seconds behind the 5 man group. Two were off the front and beat everyone by 2 minutes. I came in 8th out of 16 riders.

Anyway, I had everyone coming up to me after calling me a beast because of my heroic first impression ;) and I am now addicted to racing. I had tons of fun, and felt great for some reason after the race.

success.

Good job. Welcome to the Dark Side. :D

And, FWIW, This was technically a road race, specifically a circuit race. Not a criterium. Crits are shorter. Just FYI.

Ah, ok, I didn't know that, and what does FWIW mean?

For what it's worth.

What is this "locking out the gears" you speak of? Anyway, Glad you enjoyed your first race good job taking the plunge.

yippie for junior gears! Eventually you'll just buy a junior cassette and swap it out the day before the race and fine tune the shifting during your pre race ride the day before.

:thumb:

Thanks, and it's just adjusting the limit screw on the back derailleur so that when you try to shift to a higher gear it doesn't work, therfore the gears are legal.

Ya the people doing the roll outs and even some friends that came to watch me told me to just buy a new one, I was going to do it, but the day just never came. My coach locked them out a couple days before during a training ride. And for some reason yesterday, my gears wouldn't work well. I would click the shifter and nothing would happen, and then click again and it would jump a few. I managed so whatever. I'm used to having this problem, it's happened to me ever since I got my back a year ago.

Ah, yes, junior gearing. That's what I get for entering the sport at the age of 30. I envy you guy for getting into it at an early age, but not so much for having to deal with the wacky gearing.

Congrats on your first races!

Another option might be to stick with a regular cassette, but get a smaller chainring. Maybe that would simplify things ?

Thanks everyone, and well I just was hoping I wasn't going to get a DQ on my first TT. I didn't.

And that was my first and only race as a junior. Well, maybe not, I turn 17 next April 29th so I'm not sure if I'll be able to race a couple more junior or not. Either way, after that I forget if the rule takes place or if I get to use all of my gears. I am unsure of what category is next for me.

if its like the us, u still have to use junior gears when ur 17 and 18

CG on your first race man! You did awesome and welcome to the addiction:)
Dave