As an aside, it was really awesome getting to meet you today! P.S. You have a carbon fork, that's why your bike is so much lighter. Any idea where I can get one cheap?

Now to the report.

I had my first set of races ever this weekend and it was a lot of fun. My goal was to finish with the pack on both occasions, but I quickly realized that wouldn't be the case. I'd had midterms for the week before the race and I was running on very little sleep and no riding for two weeks, not the best combo for a first race.

I raced on my backup bike, a 1984 trek 760 frameset built up with a mix of campy, shimano, and suntour superbe.

Saturday:

Saturday was the Phoenixville Fury road race. I was racing collegiate D's so we only had to do one lap of the 15 mile course. It was short but it was a pretty tough course with a good amount of climbing and a lot of really sharp turns. In addition, it had rained the entire night and the course was very wet. It was just drizzling as my race (D2) started, and the rain never quite broke out in full blast (lucky for me), but the effects of the wet race were felt by the group. Right off the bat we had a guy fall in the middle of the pack before we even got to the main roads of the race, no one else went down, but it was a shaky start.

I didn't have my trainer with me so I was cold at the start which I've learnt is a terrible thing. I got dropped from the main field within the first few miles. I started picking off stragglers once I got warmed up. I finished 19th. Not bad for my first race. I got really really bad cramps in my calves during the race. They still hurt right now.

It was pretty scary to see people falling though. A guy right in front of me took a corner too hard and couldn't correct his line and flew into bushes. That left me paying a lot more attention to everything I was doing.

Sunday:

It was cold and it was windy. Did I mention that it was windy? I had an easier time staying with the pack this time around because I rode around a little bit before the start of the race. I made the noob mistake of attacking hard on the first hill. I won the hill, but got spit out of the pack soon after. I caught a few stragglers this time around too, but I don't think I placed anywhere near as 'well' as yesterday.

I had a scary moment today when a kid I was pacelining with took a corner way too hard and almost flew into the curb. I locked up my rear wheel and had to do a power slide to keep from hitting him. It worked well and I kept going and dropped him and his team mate. I was pretty shaken up from that though.


Synopsis:

All in all it was an awesome weekend. It was my first set of races so I just wanted to sit and watch and see how everything went. I attacked on the first hill to see what people would do, apparently not riding for two weeks totally killed all the strength I had. My calves didn't really bother me too much, but they still hurt. Funny what endorphins can do.

What really sucked was that our bikes were sitting out in the rain overnight for a total of about 2 days counting the drive to the race, the wet race, and the ride back home in the rain. A little bit of rust here and there but the lube got it off. Anyone know what I should do to prevent outside rust on a steel frame? Nailpolish on the outside? I already sprayed it with framesaver!

Man, I love bike racing.