My first "proper" race

steve_muzzy

following a pretty good season on the bike, with a top 20 in the Kinros Sportive (96 miles) and a top 50 in the Fresh N Lo (113 miles) I was feeling pretty confident about my speed and fitness, so entered my first proper race at the weekend, a locla time trial

Nothing to big, a local hill climb up the "killer mile" which I have done at a leisurely pace countless times - however I realsed when I got to the car park that the jump from sportive to race is abig one.

The majority of the field were out on rollers, getting warmed up, it was alsmost another world to what I was used to. All entrants seemed to have full race licenses and 99% were in a lcoal team top of some description

Anyway still feeling reasonably confident I set off and gave it all up the hill, I was aiming for a time under 7 mins and got 6.44 so felt pretty happy, that was till I saw the results ...

Out of a field of 63 I came 9th last - the winner was over 2 minutes faster than me - he averaged 13mph up a hill which is 30% gradient at times and 20% for the majority of the climb. scary

Needless to say more training is needed!

Adotparker

Do a Lance Armstrong, and shoot a few.........

saprkzz

At least you didnt come last!

Gives you plenty to aim for in the months to come.. hill climbing is a skill in itself! I think you have done well.

markos1963

Well done, the important thing is you raced. I hear it loads on club rides and such 'yeah, I'm really quick this season' but do we see them at races or TTs, of course not, they don't have the balls to put up or shut up. You have,so well done.

teisetrotter

Yeah, feel good. These were all experienced club racers with I suppose a few exceptions and you came 9th from bottom out of 63! Put that into four divisions and you were in the top half of yours.

jgsi

Hope you have the racing bug now!
It is almost impossible to describe to other riders and beginners the leap in effort required from event riding to actual pinning a number on your back and bearing your soul sometimes to be destroyed.
But, as you have proved, take things just a little more seriously and it can be done.

Frank the tank

Well done fella.

I've never raced in a mass start road race but I have done TTs, MTB races and cyclo-x. When you pin that number on and you're on the start line with the adrenaline pumping, then start pistol goes and nothing else matters.

Your heart pounding in your ears and legs burning like fcuk, you think you can't give anymore,then, you fight to reel in the rider in front with only a few yards to go. You "do him on the line" lungs burning, legs of jelly feeling elated and physically sick at the same time.

Ten minutes later you can't wait to do it again.

steve_muzzy

I am keen to do more, but amybe once the winter has gone! thanks for all the positive comments !

NB I went back for "fun" and got my time to 6.20 which would have been about 5 places higher...

Wrath Rob

Its a different discipline, you've done long distance rides and are then going to a short, hard effort for sub 7 minutes. You wouldn't expect a marathon runner to excel in the 400m sprint would you? The best guys will be specifically training for this kind of effort, probably from adjusting their existing TT training as most of the TT's finish before the hill-climbing starts.