But anyway. I woke up with a ok feeling in my legs. When you are a bike racer you know what kind of race you are going to have right when you step out of bed on race day. So I got up and had myself a cup of coffee, sprayed a little mud "as per usual on race day" and hit the road.
looks like 55-60 out
I made a quick stop on the way for a bagel and OJ. Its funny going into a public place when you are a skinny little guy and have a multi thousand dollar bike on your roof. People just look at the bike and look at you, then repeat for about 7 seconds. I wonder what they are thinking? My assumption is something like "look at this little prick all skinny thinking he is the shit, with his nice bike and perfect body". Well its true, thats exactly what I think of myself........and add great looking onto there too. jk jk jk......maybe. So long story short, I got my crap and really got on the road.
(I did this while driving, which is way harder than texting)
I always like the drive up to coxsackie, its the first race I do every year. This year the race was bigger than ever. The promoters changed the course to twelve mile loops as opposed to the last years six mile loop, and I tell you what.....it was way more challenging for me, who had minimal training and was suffering from past injurys, but I will get into that later. The race is dedicated to a young state trooper who was killed in the line of duty and left behind a child and a wife. The state and local police always help marshal the race which is really cool, and they do a great job.
So onto race time!!!! I get out of my car to feel arctic like air and a gust of wind so hard it blew my USA Cycling license out of my hand. This race usually has bad wind every year, but this was by far the worst I have ever seen. So not too long after I arrive and get my bib number, my good friend Tom shows up. We struggle to pin our bibs onto our jerseys. Let me tell you a little secret. The reason I get to races so damn early is so I can have time to pin my number on. The shit takes so damn long and I end up pricking my fingers like 1000 times. By the end of the race season, I repeat this process so many times, my jersey ends up looking like a piece of swiss cheese. But I digress.
(about 30 before the start)
So after the bib fiasco, we roll out for a warmup. Just a little out and back to turn the legs on. We were flying the way out and im thinking to myself " oh man this aint bad", until we turn around to head back. STRAIGHT HEADWIND! I was so cold by the time we got back from a warmup. I went into my car and turned the heat on full blast to defrost my fingers............15 minutes till start. I roll to the starting line with all the other cat 3/4 racers. The race is four laps, which equals forty eight miles. As per usual, every bike race starts with a lecture from a USA Cycling official telling us the same rules we hear BEFORE EVERY RACE WE ENTER! Center line rule in effect blah blah blah. Meanwhile all of us are sitting on the start line shaking and freezing out asses off. Then the official says 30 seconds till start. At that time I really only think of a few things..........I hope I can stay with the group, I hope I don't crash, and I hope I can finish and get back to my wife safely. Then the horn blows and we are off. Before I know it, like 30 riders blow by me on the NEUTRAL START! and that puts me toward the back of the field, which on a course with so much headwind and so many turns, is a really bad place to be, because when the front of the pack hits the turn and rides casually on, the back of the pack has to sprint just to catch back up. NOT GOOD MIKE! At this point my legs were feeling like complete shitballs. Between that and the wind that cut down our speed from 27mph to 14, I was in trouble. Ive had a tough run up to this race, between moving into my house and a nagging hamstring pain, my training was really lacking. I held on for two laps and was dropped. Getting dropped from a group is a awful feeling, watching all the riders disappear up the road breaks my heart. So I did not give up and finished out the rest of the race with a few other weak riders, and actually got to see to pro women almost get into a bitch fight on bicycles! WINNING! I wound up finishing 62 out of like 105 which sucks but I finished.
Well its now April and that race was in March so im sorry for the late update, but I have been working my ass off for the biggest race of the spring, TOUR OF THE BATTENKILL. I managed to finish 10th last year, but that was with cat 5 racers. This year im cat 4 and it will be much harder but I think I am ready. Wish me luck and I will be back to tell you all about Battenkill and I promise to take more pictures because I bounce all over the place on this blog. Untill next time Rubber side down
Mike.
Song of the week = Casa Del Mirto - Killer Haze
Dude: Great report. Thanks for the laugh and info.
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