My first Tour

I registered for two races as soon as I got my licenses number. The first was the Tour de Murietta and the second was the Redlands Classic. The Tour de Murietta was on March 14 and my race was scheduled to start at 7:30. Murietta is 3o minutes from my house and I figured it would be a good idea to be there an hour a head of time. So I woke the family up at 5am, packed up the bike and headed down to Murietta. My sister in law Joana, and her boyfriend meet us down there even though they were up til 1am. I remember getting out of the car to a cool crisp air, dew all over the grass and the sun just barely turning the sky a light purple. I walked over to registration and for the first of many times got a number and safety pins.

I remember getting out of the car feeling the cold crisp air, seeing the dewy grass and the sun barely peeking up turning the sky purple. I felt a little nervous and wasnt sure what to really expect. I took out my trainer and started warming up. The course was a 35 mile Circuit race with 10 3.5 mile laps. The description stated that there were a few "ring rollers" but I had no idea what that meant. I warmed up on the front straight away through the finish line and over a few small hills thinking that was what they meant by ring rollers and I was confident that I would have no problem climbing those hills.

The officials called us to the line at 730 and gave us a speech I now almost have memorized. The low down is dont crash, start 10 races to upgrade, and listen to the officials. I talked to a few people in the group as we were waiting to start. One was a pro when he was younger, another had raced last year as a CAT 5 and another was a pro mountain bike racer and was switching to road. According to the research I did on the internet, I needed to start in the front and stay in the front half as long as possible to be safe in a CAT 5 race. So I took my spot towards the front as we got ready to start with only one person in front of me. The whistle sounded and 51 people took off towards the rising sun. We went over the first few little hills and I felt ok still second wheel. I was actually surprised how cold I was, even though I was wearing long shorts, tall socks, and gloves. It felt awesome to be in the peloton chasing the lead motorcycle while drafting. That feeling went away almost as quickly as it started however. We made the first right turn on the lap and started up a slight 2% climb. To my surprise I was the only person that seemed to be slowed by the road. I started falling back to the back of the pack but I hung on. I could see the right turn at the end of the hill and was just hoping that I could hang on long enough to get back to the flat grounds. The peloton made the right hand turn and to my delight we started down hill, it wasnt until we made the slight turn to the left staying on the same road that I realized that a bigger climb was getting ready to start. I once again fell back and completely lost contact with the peloton. The second group of 51 CAT 5 riders started 10 minutes after my group. I finished the first lap, crossing the finish line hearing Ethan yelling go faster daddy!!!!! Go go go!!!! As I started to climb up the small hill I saw a motorcycle pass then the second race pass. I ended up being lapped 2 times in the race and spent most of the time by myself but I finished the race.

However I did not technically finish the whole race because they closed the course down while I had one to go and told me that we were all finished.

I was pretty discouraged when I finished the race. Even the rationalization that there were people in there who were pros at one point and that I was only 9 months post op and 6 walking didnt help. Luckily my family was very supportive and they were proud that I didnt give up. I am not the type that would give up anyways, they would have to pull me off the course for me to stop. They told me that I they were excited that I finished and to see me in the race. So I held my head up and walked to the car with Ethan sitting on my bike.

I knew that I had another race coming up in 2 weeks and that I had to keep a positive attitude. So it was back to the drawing board and the trainer. I thought for sure that the Redlands Criterium would be much better. After all the flyer said there was no hills.