I actually went and rode with a race team near my house on the 3rd of July to determine if I would like to join them. It was a nice ride and fun riding with other people outside of a race. I will definitely keep evaluating team through the offseason to determine which one fits me best.
It was finally time for Ethan to come home and my dad decided to bring him back. I wanted my dad to get to see me race since my mom saw my last race. There is a smaller racing series in California call the California Bicycle Racing series. I had looked at their races before but had been a little nervous about racing with them. The series was supposedly started by people who wanted more attention than the USA cycling was giving racers. To be fair USA cycling does not care about anyones feeling, they are a business with a huge responsibility. They dont care how you feel when you get pulled from a race with 2 laps to go, or how you feel when your race is shortened because someone had their number on upside down. The CBR is supposed to be about the racer and about getting experience in a more understanding environment.
The CBR Cool n' Fit criterium was the only race the weekend that my dad was coming. So I signed up and figured I would give it a shot. Instead of the field being limited to 50, the CBR allows 150 riders to race the CAT 5 at one time. I wasnt sure what to expect when I got there, but I knew it could be dangerous with as many as 150 first year racers on a small track.
My dad had been in town for a couple days before the race. This was another Saturday race so he planned to catch the red eye and be home by Sunday morning. We had to get up early since the race was over an hour away and started at 7am. When we got there I took out the trainer, registered, and got ready to warm up.
Once again I made sure that I got my heart rate over 150 because it seemed to help in the last race. I was a little more nervous when I was warming up because there were more people in team kits and the most expensive bikes that I had seen in a CAT 5 race. I took a lap around the course and it seemed pretty fast. It was a rectangular course with a short climb on one of the short sides and at the end of the long side in the direction of the finish line. The finish line also had a very small incline all the way until the turn, all of which were right hand turns.
Unlike the 1 minute speech at USA cycling event, the safety speech here was about 10 minutes. I actually had warmed up longer and was the last person to take a lap around the course know that I would have to start at the rear but I wanted to be warm and loose. Then I was stuck at the start line for the long speech about being safe and not being dangerous to other riders. When it was finally over I thought that we would get to start but instead they made of take another lap around the course and come back to the start finish line. I used that extra lap to move to the front of the pack at the start line.
We finally got to start and I took off and stayed near the front. The first turn was only 300 meters from the start finish line and as soon as we made the right someone attacked, I jumped out to follow them but so did everyone else. I slowly dropped back a few places to avoid working at the front. I was able to hang out there not using to much engery and keeping most of the pack behind me. I found that it was actually easier to climb because I could see when the people up front pushed the pace and I could get out of the saddle and prepare for the increase in speed. About 18 minutes into the race someone took off from the pack, I looked around to see if anyone was going to cover the attack. Nobody went so I jumped out and chased down the rider thinking that we could get a break and possibly finish even in second place. It took a lot to catch up and when I finally did I took a peek back and saw that I had pulled the whole field to the break. So I once again dropped back behind three or four riders and drafted until the 3 laps to go mark.
Things started to get a little scary around this point of the race. People were starting to get tired near the front and were going backwards through the field. People in the back were trying to squeeze their way to the front. One guy actually cut in front of me causing me to lock my back breaks up and almost crash. I was able to save it and not lose any places but I could tell everyone was getting a little too excited for the finish.
I was happy with my performance and I thought that I would probably lose the field off the back on the last lap. I wouldnt give up though and stayed with the field through the last lap. The big move happened 100 meters before the last turn and I jumped out of the saddle pushing with everything I had up the small hill. We made the right turn and I had thought about sitting down and riding in but it felt like that would be giving up. So I sprinted towards the line with everything I had left. I was in the biggest gear I had and pushed across the line. I didnt know that I finished that well and was happy to know that I finished with most of the field.
I wanted to wait for the results so that I could see where I actually finished in the race. When they posted the results it only contained the jersey number and the first 20 places. I couldnt remember my number exactly but I thought it was 527. That number showed as 12th place. I actually had to go back to my car and pull my jersey out of the trunk to make sure that it was really my number. It was and I was super excited to have my first pack finish be in the top 15. Everyone was excited for me and I was happy to see that my dad got to see me finish so well.
After he left I got right back to training. If I wanted to repeat that finish I knew I would have to work harder and get faster still. I had extra motivation because the Tour de France was in full swing and I had something extra to workout too. For the next month I would be climbing and sprinting with the best in the world.
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