Stories of local races

I'd like to recognize some recent accomplishments of local cyclists. Anna McCloon won the collegiate national road race! I really like the picture on this link of Julianne winning a local crit and teammate Caroline with the raised arm behind. I wish I had been there to see these finishes!

My friend Connie loves to run. She showed me a newspaper clipping once which was about her training for the Boston marathon when she was my age. She was training when she was a single mother in graduate school and working. Her daughter would ride a mountain bike on the trails with Connie while she ran her long runs. Connie ran a very fast time in the marathon. Now at the time in her life when her young training partners call her abuela, Connie tells me that she ran up El Yunque two weeks ago. I rode my bicycle up El Yunque once and I considered it a major accomplishment. I honestly did not think in a million years that Connie would run up it. Even I think maybe she is a little crazy now.

Now after those good feelings, on to tales of local races. They have not been going so well. I have gotten my butt kicked the last two weekends. Also, I really, really do not like getting neutralized (this means that the ladies stop racing so the men can pass). One race, there was a break of two ladies off the front. I was pulling the field around chasing them. It was a pretty hopeless situation but I was hell bent on giving it a shot anyway in the off chance that one of them managed to say break a chain and allow me to catch up. I had to stop chasing and sit around so guys could pass which was frustrating. The next race we were we neutralized within the final two miles of the race. A large portion of the field passed the pace car when it slowed and pulled over to let the guys pass. I chose to separate myself from the field to follow the rule of not passing the pace car. This did me no favors as I then had to chase to get on the back of the field just prior to the last turn. My mental focus wasn't there at the finish (not to mention legs) which made me very frustrated. That experience makes me think that I should find some other activities to pass my time. That is a shame because the rest of the race was fun. We went up and down hills, I made an attack, I chased some other people - it had been shaping up to be a nice day.

I went to a training race to work on my mental game and bike handling. It was a very good experience even though I ended up off the back. I know that I went as hard as I could for a few times in there and I identified some key skills to improve.

In the middle of the race, we were moving pretty fast and some gaps were opening in the field. I started to feel a bit desperate that I might get left behind if I didn't move up ahead of slow riders. I found myself behind a large rider who was getting gapped off. I got out of my saddle to pass the rider, but I didn't have a lot of control over my form and my bike was rocking side to side. My handlebar hit his and we both starting cursing about it. I felt pretty bad about hitting his bike and I was bracing to hear it hit the ground behind me. Fortunately it didn't. However, he was understandably upset about it and caught up to me in the pack and starting pulling on my jersey. I don't know where exactly this aggression was headed but some other guys started yelling at him to try to calm things down and he let go after I said I was sorry. It was inadvertent but I really hope that I never cause someone to crash in a race. Actually two cyclecross crashes come to mind, so I guess it has happen before. I really hope that it doesn't happen again.