Being able to get back on the road recently and just ride for the sheer enjoyment of it got me to reminiscing about how I got into serious cycling/racing in the first place. . .
My wife (long before she was Mrs. Suitcase) and I were coming up on our 10th Anniversary and the subject of gifts came up. I already knew what I was going to get her as a symbol of my love and commitment, but "what can I get you?" she asked. Well, it just so happened that I`d been riding my mountain bike on railtrails a lot but - since seeing LeMond win the Tour while I was in High School - I had always wanted a REALLY LIGHT and REALLY FAST road bike. I`d even hoped back then to race a little, but never did. "Why not?" I thought - maybe a new bike would be a good gift!
So I had a LOT of fun doing all the research and shopping around, finally choosing a 2005 Cannondale R900 (CAAD8 frame, Campy Veloce gruppo, sexy Gipiemme low-spoke count wheels - sweet!). Boy what a difference from my old ride! Stiff, responsive and SOOOOO light.
That was early August 2005. By the end of the month - and knowing nothing about "training" - I decided to take advantage of a beautiful day and just take a nice long ride on my new bike. So I mapped out (what I thought was) a moderately long loop, packed up and mounted my handlebar bag(! including a book, flipflops, lunch, etc(??!)) and set off. About halfway through the route, I stopped at a bike shop and, after asking me where I was riding from, the owner said – “ah, you’re going for a century, eh?” A “CENTURY”?! I’d of course heard of these feats, but it frankly hadn’t even occurred to me. Until then. He suggested I check my odometer – “you’re sure to be close even if you just turned around now…” He was right. By the time I got back to my truck a few hours later, I had ridden just over 100 miles. The last 25 or so were brutal. I did it though – but decided to learn about “training.”
A few weeks later, I heard about a race in Jamestown, RI on Columbus Day. I’d also met a former racer at my church (amazing what talks of “centuries” will bring out of the woodwork!) and thought seriously about entering. But didn’t think I was *quite* ready for that yet. From my century experience, I knew I had pretty good stamina – but what about actual speed?
Fast forward to Winter 2006. I’d just turned 37 and had this great bike and figured I wasn’t getting any younger. I wanted to try racing a least ONCE in my life. So I bought or borrowed all the books I could find on racing and training and, with the help of my race friend (Mickey), Chris Carmichael and Troy Jacobsen (via video), started getting into some kind of shape. I entered my first race – the Hartford (CT) Criterium. A perfect venue, I thought. Not only around a nice park, but I could see the park itself from my office window. Talk about incentive – if I failed to race it, its mere presence would just taunt me. And I could at least try it out before work (and traffic). So I rode it once myself and once with Mick and figured I could at least *finish* if nothing else. I also heard about a training crit on Tuesdays which I thought I should try out just to remove a bit of the mystery from racing.
What a disaster – and what a blast!! The cornering was the toughest part. No, actually, the cornering ROCKED! Getting dropped after 5 laps – with about 20 left to go – was the toughest part. Of course, there was a stiff headwind. On *both* sides of the track (or so it seemed). But I kept slogging away – determined to finish even if it killed me. And was thankfully lapped with 3 laps to go. Being sheltered in the pack – even if they’re on a different lap – was sweet. But I had my work cut out for me. Need more speed. That was Tuesday May 23rd and my first race was the following Sunday.
Suffice it to say I was pretty nervous Sunday morning. As Mickey suggested, my goals were just to be safe and not crash (um, great advice still today...). Finishing would be a bonus – especially for a first race. After I got over the worse nerves at the starting line, fearing I’d warmed up TOO much (the race ended up running about 40 min late) and spent what little gas I may have had, I started off grabbing the first wheel I could. My strategy – if you could call it that – was to just grab the wheel of whoever was leading and hang on for as long as possible. I figured if I was toward the front I’d be less likely to be involved in a crash (fulfilling goals 1 & 2) and if I could just hang on to a wheel, I’d be more likely to finish (getting the “bonus”).
So that’s what I did – for 14 out of 15 laps. On the second to the last lap, there was a crash. Thankfully, it was behind me – but I’ll never forget the sound of it, all banging metal and cursing. Fortunately, nobody was hurt seriously, but it did shake all us Cat5s up a little. Then, literally going into the final corner of the last lap, as we were getting out of our saddles to sprint for the line, the guy next to me and I hit wheels. We both recovered (miraculously) and didn’t go down, but it was enough to break my concentration.
Despite that – MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Not only did I not crash, and not only did I FINISH, but I was in the TOP THIRD for my first race! I’d actually been in the first 5 going into the final corner, but got beat at the line by 12 others. I discovered later that my front wheel was bent and my left brake lever was pushed over, so it’d been an even harder bump than I thought. But I couldn’t blame that for my showing – I was out of gas at the line anyway. But WOW – 13th out of 37 in my first race. VERY cool!
Haven't done quite as well there since - 37th last year, and DNF this year. But just thinking about how it all started makes me want to get out there again as soon as possible . . .
