Today was the 2nd race in the "As the Raven Flies" series...though the weather was worse than last week having wet roads and colder temps.
I arrived at the race a little later than I wanted and was a bit rushed to get things set up and start my warm up, so I had 5 minutes less on my warm up time than usual. Though I still got in all of my harder efforts, so not to big of a deal.
This week, knowing the course better I went with an 11x25 rear cassette which having the 11 tooth was very beneficial on a lot of the course. I was able to hit higher speeds on the steep downhills and carry a lower cadence though other parts. I was actually able to establish a bit better rhythm than last week and felt good on the way out. Next week I'll be going with an 11x23 rear cassette since I feel jumping to the 25 tooth rear might have made me not work hard enough on the hill sections.
At the turn around point is where it went a bit downhill. The roads were still a little wet and I think there was a bit of dirt around the cones on the road and when I went to turn into the corner, my front wheel washed out and down I went. It wasn't too bad since I was only going around 8mph - 10mph....but it still hurt. I have some road rash and a bruise on my left hip and forearm and some road rash down around my knee on my upper and lower leg.
After rushing to get up I could feel the pain in my forearm and it made it hard to sit in the aero bars for a little while. The adrenaline from the crash also made it hard to get going again and very hard to get a rhythm going for the next 3-4 minutes.
After I came out of the rollers from the turnaround I started to feel better and was able to get things rolling again hitting the finish line at 29:16...which was 23 seconds slower than last week. If not for the crash I think I would have finished a good 10-15 seconds faster than last week....but such is life, I still won the 40+ masters division getting my first win on the year :) I also had the 4th fastest time on the day, so it wasn't all bad.
One more race to do out there next week to finish off the series.
I'm currently debating whether to race the 3rd Banana Belt tomorrow or just go out for a long ride. That will mostly depend on how my body feels after I wake up and how sore I am.
Sorry to hear about your get-off but glad to hear you won your category. Congratulations!! My start time was 10:28 and I got there plenty early but I was unable to bring a trainer this time so my warmup consisted of riding up and down the road. I got sweaty under my jacket and then took it off and I got cold in the wind. I'm still getting the hang of race preparation. My time was way off...I was almost 40 seconds slower! The other cat5 guys also appear to have struggled so I ended up situated pretty much the same.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll be there next weekend again bringing up the rear. Maybe I'll run into you. I'll be on a blue Orbea...one of the only bikes there without aero bars.
Cheers!
Keith a.k.a. Tweezak (from roadbikereview.com)
Good job out there, especially not riding a TT bike. The conditions last week were not great for racing, but this weekend looks AWESOME :)
ReplyDeleteI'll be out there again...and yes, a trainer helps a ton for warming up. You can do a much more structured warm up than on the road. Then load it in your car and head to the start line ready to go.
Good luck tomorrow :)