He’s Back!

When I found out my thumb was broken and that it would be “three and a half to four weeks” before I could do serious riding/racing I was hoping that I would be able to keep my date with the Wente Road Race a bit less than 4 weeks later. As time progressed, and I assessed the amount of pain, I realized that was unrealistic so I looked at the local racing calendar for a ‘comeback race’, one far enough out that I was likely to be able to line up at the start. Panoche Road Race looked good, but that is during the Kern Women’s Stage Race weekend and I have commitments. Berkeley Hills Road Race was an option, but the relevant fields were full. So the fallback option was the EBC Criterium, in Pleasanton, on May 10th …. yesterday.

The week started out fine with racing at the Velodrome, the first real hard intensity on over a month. Then the club’s twilight crit on Tuesday, where I did a two lap (almost 4 mile) time trial at the end. But the rest of the week was tough, and the only riding was the daily commute to the office. I woke up yesterday with legs that were stiff and dead. A feeling that held through the warmup. My original goal for this race was very modest: finish. As I warmed up yesterday morning I wondered if that would be a stretch.

I lined up with the 35+ Cat 4’s yesterday, probably near the oldest guy in the field. Deep breath and we get the start whistle after a very brief set of instructions from Chief Ref Ryan. The course is a simple rectangle with 4 right turns; one sweeper, one a bit rounded, and two tight rights. It was a big field, with 100 registered but only 80 some odd guys taking the start. I held in good for the first couple of laps, but I had lined up on the right at the start, putting me on the inside of the turns, and the field was cutting the corners tight causing a pinch off of riders on that side. I was moving up on the first and third legs (the longer legs) but slipping back in all the turns. I was ready to launch an attack, just to mix it up, on lap 3 but then the president of my club took the front position and started to push the pace; not a good time for an attack. I finally did a small attack on lap 9, following a rider I was sure was heading out up the inside and getting clear off the front going into turn 4. But then I looked back and the other rider was not full committed, my heart rate was pegged (a few beats above my previous high HR), so I knew I was going nowhere fast. Time to sit up, fall back into the middle and get some recovery. I held in mid-pack, tried to move up a couple of times, but almost got taken out a couple of times on the last lap by sketchy riders. In the end I came in with the pack, officially 61st place. I did get one apology from one the riders who almost took me out, but the only thing I got from the other was a snot rocket sent my way. Sheesh! And the unofficial photographer captured me only once, after the race ducking under the caution tape along the sideline. Oh well.

Another two and a half weeks before the next official race, my club’s Memorial Day Crit, and then another crit on the 31st of the month, the Dash for Cash with an insane amount of primes and a $250 bonus for the first person in each race to lap the field. That one will be an wild ride. But mostly it is time to head for the hills and get ready for the rather hilly Pescadero RR in 5 weeks.

Kaboom!

After returning home from the crit I decided that I would ride some more but make it utilitarian. I hooked the Burley trailer to my commuter bike and headed off to do the weekly shopping. As I was crossing a freeway overpass I heard that sound that makes every cyclist cringe: Kaboom! I had a blowout on the rear tire in one of the worst places to deal with it in our area. Not sure what took out the sidewall of the almost new tire (maybe 200 miles max), but it was a nice large slash. I did a boot job, but even with lot of good boot material I could not take the tire about 30PSI without it bulging out and threatening another blowout. It was a nice trip home, mostly a walk.