These are the 1/2/3 guys that know what they are doing. Note, I'm not anywhere near this group. Thanks to Jeremy D for this awesome photo. I raced the 2nd Opus last Tuesday - just the C5 baby race. It was my 1st road race ever and it showed. I started close to the front, never taking a real pull, but definitely more exposed than necessary. On the second lap, some guy made a move and I followed. I tried to take a pull and work with him, but I must have dropped him in the process. 400 yards after the break began, I looked back to see I was alone with the group bearing down. I sat up and sat in. I hung on through the second lap, but it was such big effort to try the break, that I couldn't stay with the pack when they started going fast for the 1st of 3 sprints. At the finish of the 3rd lap, I was, like 5 seconds off the back. From there, it was an individual time trial to avoid getting lapped. Toward the end of the race, say the 8th lap or so, I started to pass some lapped guys. Then on the 9th lap, I found a guy like me who must have just popped off the back. He found some legs to follow me, and we had a fun sprint for "not last place".
It was a fun experience, but there were some moments when I thought the whole pack was going down. I found that I really do not like sitting in. I don't know how roadie sprinters can do it. Until next time ..... Seacrest out!
2 comments:
I definitely give you props for giving it a try. All my friends that have tried a road crit have had the exact same story! You're not the first, nor the last but you're now that much wiser!
I may try other non-winning strategies. One thing I thought may be good mtb race starts is to gun it from the start, go off the front, then when the pack comes to get me, try not to get dropped. The roadies are going to think I'm insane.
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