Well, just back in town from a wonderful cycling weekend. Despite wind to +30 Sunday, I did 21 miles of recovery from Saturday's race, then did 14 more nice and easy with my wife. Great weekend.

*** EDIT *** Click here for my race weekend photos

Official Results here

...and now the race report.

Backwards first.
My congrats to young BF member 'frunkin' who did a great job in his first race. Here we are afterward:



He came in 40th and 2nd in his age bracket. Sweet job there kid...and nice to meet you. You done "BF" proud.

Now to my race report.

Oh, the pose first of course!



Unofficial stats show I finished 73rd of about 120 racers, which is the highest I have ever finished in this race. The winner's time was :54 and I was in at 1:02. For some reason the race was shorter than advertised. My computer said 21 miles.

Hellish 20+ wind, but nice sun and warm.

Here's what I learned....and my highlight.

I stayed with the main peloton for almost the first ten miles and it was incredible. For the first time ever I was really moving while surrounded by racers. Your mind is going a hundred miles an hour being careful not to do anything stupid in there.

Here's the memory I'll never forget. I touched elbows with a guy next to me in a giant peloton of about 50-60 people while doing 29 mph! We had a tailwind early in the race, and while packed in there I was in the hardest gear the Klein had....and I ran out of gear!

The sound in there is beyond words. It was worth the price of admission alone.
I could still see the pace car into the 12th mile.

Hills and headwind then splintered the group and I fell off the back with a chase group.

What did I learn?
That the time you bust your balls is when you need to hang onto a wheel. You have to do whatever it takes to keep on the wheel/wheels of the group you are in, because once you fall off that, it becomes very lonely on your own.

Somehow I ended up behind a group of 6-7 for a while, then I pulled out into the wind myself and passed them all. Felt great about that. I bridged to another group, but for the life of me can't even remember how I lost their wheel. There I was, doing about five miles by myself into the wind. Speeds dropped to the 16's and that was the sufferfest portion of the ride for me.

Yet I could see one lone rider way up ahead. Somehow by just before the finish, I caught him, then passed him before turning up the final steep little hill to the finish line.

Safe.
Fast (for me).
FUN!

Man...what an experience.

I'll post a link to a complete book of photos on Monday once I finish with the pix.

Yup...I can call myself a bike racer again this season, and it's good to be in the club!