Fun start to the season

Couple weeks ago I rode in my first road cycling race.  I’ve raced mountain bikes and cyclocross for a number of years and it turns out road riding is just as hard + you have to pay mental attention the entire time.  People tell me the Mead Roubaix wasn’t really a road race; I guess because it has 33% dirt roads to break up the pavement stretches.  Seemed like a road race to me… 

I raced in the first wave.  2 laps of about 20 miles each for about 2 hours total.  The start line had 70+ riders in my group and the whole first lap was nervous and sketchy.  The shots below are from 303cycling in the Cat-3 race later that day. It shows what carnage can happen at 30mph on dirt roads when you’re riding in a pack!  I heard a couple of bikes got destroyed and a few riders were pretty banged-up.

I made it through the first lap unscathed, although I did miss the break and learned a valuable lesson about being attentive to the mood of the group.  Next time I plan not to be caught off guard when the leading riders decide to hit the gas…

This is me coming through the start/finish.  You can tell I’m riding my old stand-by 7-cycles.  Nothing like titanium to smooth out the nasty dirt and washboard sections of the course.

 

 

Last week I checked out the Strava app for my iPhone.  It has to be one of the coolest apps I’ve used recently and its free.  Below are a couple of screen shots I pulled off my phone after I got back from a loop up and around Carter lake.

  

Very fun start to the season here in Colorado.  Next tune-up event I have coming is the Front Range 60.  Which used to be the Front Range 50, but I guess they wanted to make the 5-lap race a 6-lap race.  Longer and more boring than before!  Regardless, it’s a great kickoff to my mountain bike riding for the year.

Comments

[stevef]

thanks! i like it!