The Redlands Classic

After my disappointing entrance into the world of cycling I had higher hopes for the Redlands Classic. I had continued to train and worked on increasing the strenght of my ankle. I thought that I was able to get good training in and that I would do relatively well. In almost every race the CAT 5 groups starts first. The race started at 745am which meant I got to sleep in a little bit because we didnt have to leave the house until 615. I was also excited because a lot of the domestic pro teams were racing and I would get to see pros race the same course as me. Except I found out they didnt race the same exact course but still cool nonetheless.



I pretty much followed the same routine as the first race, arrive, register, warmed up on the trainer. Anne has taken on the roll of getting my bike unloaded, the trainer out the trunk, putting my number on, and making sure I have sunscreen on before every race. I finished warming up and headed to the start line. Unlike the Murietta course this course was completely barricaded off. I felt like an official bike racer with people lined up all around the course. I lined up to hear the same speech as the last race with the addition that if you were off the back of the pack they may pull you out of the race for safety purposes.




The race started and I took off UP ANOTHER HILL despite the description saying flat and fast. I started in the front this time and stayed near the front through the first turn. The first turn was a hard right making a complete U. Then it was downhill through and S shaped turn followed by a sweeping right turn. I was able to stay in the pack for 3 laps. The climb up the finishing straight killed me each lap until I finally could stay attached. It only took a few more laps after that, one including a crash for the officials to pull a small group of riders off the course. I couldnt believe that once again I could not stay with the pack. I raced as hard as I could as long as I could but I wasnt fast enough. A wife of another racer in my race told Anne that it took her husband 6 races to finish and this was his 7th race. He was able to finish with the pack that race. I didnt want to wait 6 races though, I wanted to finish with the pack now.

We stayed and watched the pros take leave and then packed it up for the day. I started to notice however that most of the other bikes in the races were racing bikes. My bike was designed for touring and the casual rider not really racing. I did what I could to make it a racing bike but I starting thinking that I needed a better bike to finish the races. I started asking Anne about the possibility of getting a new bike. She did not like the idea of spending $2000 on a new bike. So I dropped it for a little bit realizing that it was expensive. After all my first bike did sit for months at a time.