This month I've had a go at my first road race.
Following the classic statement "How hard can it be?" I first applied for my racing license with British Cycling becoming a Gold member (schmoke and a pancake?) and obtaining my (fourth cat) racing license to boot.
Category Four (or Fourth Cat) is where wannabe road racers like me start. You then gain points by way of wins or top ten places and progress through 3rd, 2nd and 1st to Elite / Pro.
I had read a lot of gumph on the internet about Category 3 and 4 racers and not much of it helped to be honest.
Having done a series of Sportive rides, a couple of Sprint Triathlons and a Time Trial at Blenheim Palace last year, I knew I was in good shape and a strong rider, I just didn't know how strong.
All the Mountain Biking I have done has blessed me with some decent handling skills, the only thing that I was missing was some real bunch experience, most of the miles I'd put in up until now had been solo - I don't count the Sportives as they seemed to be a bit of a free for all with no real organisation to how the riders were positioning themselves.
So, after a bit of research I decided to join the Leighton Buzzard Road Cycling Club (LBRCC) as they seemed quite open and offered a range of group rides from G3 to G1 (G being Group) with the G1 crew being the quick group.
My first ride was with the G3 group and I found myself waiting for the group regularly and not really getting the workout I wanted, they were a nice bunch but were out for a Coffee and a chat (again nowt wrong with that) whereas I wanted to be chewing my stem and 'feeling the burn'.
The next week I went out with the G1 riders and found the pace much more to my liking. To my surprise I was able to ride with the quicker riders in the group and help to set the pace. Every rider in the group had good bunch manners and experience and it really bouyed my confidence that I could cope with the higher pace of a race in these 'handlebar to handlebar' situations.
Craig (the owner of a very nice Pinnarello) who was the race team captain and Jack (an amazing hillclimber) were quick to support my decision and said that I would be fine in a race.
Decision made. Club jersey purchased and race entered. I couldn't race in my replica Saxo Bank team strip due to British Cycling rules (I like to think I would have been mistook for Alberto Contador as to the reason for this)
The race I had entered was the TMG Horizon road race. This was to take place over seventy five miles using a loop that was local to me.
This was handy because I could ride the circuit as part of my ride home from work and get a feel for where the best places would be to attack and the road surfaces etc.
I was riding well and felt as prepared as I could be. I'd ridden up some stonking climbs in 39 degree heat in Gran Canaria and was riding strongly upping my average speed on most rides to the 20 mph mark.
A silly little off during a particularly wet club ride made me cross my fingers and toes that it wasn't wet during the race and my confidence in the corners took a bit of building back up on the next couple of rides.
Race Day!
The Sun was blessing me with its presence but this didn't stop me having a good dose of pre-race nerves. This wasn't helped when I turned up to the event HQ and there were easy ups with people warming up on rollers and getting rub downs and last minute tactic talks.
Oh well, too late now!
I met with our Club Chairman Carl, who was helping to marshall the event. "Any advice" I asked hoping for a last minute pearl of wisdom "Don't go off the front, don't go off the back" came the reply. Simple enough,"aint no way I'll be going off the back" I thought.
We rolled out behind the safety car and the race was 'neutralised' until we got to the circuit proper. The pace was high, but manageable.
Typically after months of trouble free use I was having difficulty getting my Garmin to do what I wanted and spent most of the neutral part faffing with this where as I should have been concentrating. Then all of a sudden, BAM! The flag dropped and the pace went right up.
I had been told "never overlap a wheel" and I was super aware of this whilst in the bunch. The scary part was that one minute you'd be giving it the beans to stay on the wheel in front / hold your position, the next thing you know there was a wall of bikes coming back at you and you'd have to ease up. You couldn't brake because you'd have someone in the back of you and I found this quite a challenge (stressful Jules - be honest)
I was aware that my nerves were getting me pushed to the back of the group by the more experienced riders so I managed to shuffle my way to the outside of the bunch and when I had clear line of sight up the road I launched (what I thought was) a Cav style attack around the outside of the bunch to sit up at the front.
Bad move. Not only did this put unwanted lactic into the legs, it also put me on the outside for the next tricky (very fast and loose) left hand corner. I leant in as far and as fast as I dared, but the bunch then strung out one behind another and the pace went up again. Of course no one would let me in so I sprinted on my own to keep up, eventually being caught by the rag-tag bunch at the back who weren't line astern and getting in with them.
I then spent the next few miles yo-yo'ing off the back of the bunch because of the lactic in the legs before dropping off the back altogether on lap two.
I then had a lonely ride on my own trying to catch others who had blown in the hope that we'd be able to work together to bridge the gap - but to be honest I'd all but fully fluffed it up.
I completed the full Seventy Five miles with a Personal Best of 21.1 mph average speed and I managed to avoid the pile up on lap three, but I can't say I didn't feel a little disappointment.
What did I learn?
Well quite a bit! There are some savagely quick riders out there, but if I had worked the bunch a bit more confidently I could have lasted much longer.
On my solo rides now I try and spin a lot more to keep my average up (I am a bit of a big gear grinder and this is proving a hard habit to shift) this I think will help keep the lactic at bay for a bit longer and lastly, that the strong riders are ONLY PLAYING on the club rides!!!
I'm planning to do a lot more races and Time Trials this year and I'll keep you all posted as to how I get on!
Please visit LBRCC's webpage:
Better still, turn up for a ride!
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