My first road race - A baptism of rain!

Seeing as I own a bike shop, thought it would be worth me having at least some experience of road racing, y'know expand my experience, allow me to speak with some authority etc etc.

So, Jif run a series of races at Maindy track, road races, but round the outdoor velodrome in Cardiff. For the end of season races last year (lungclosers) and the opening races for this season they are also running GoRaces on the same night, the idea being that these would be suitable for people new to racing, perfect for a novice like me!

(Apparently the GoRaces at the end of the season are run by Ajax, not Jif, sorry Mark!) 

Even though the weather was minging (heavy rain, windy and only about 8C) I decided to enter anyway, kind of stubborn as I'd decided I'd enter and if I didn't go this week, then I'd probably never go. Rode over from Machen to warm up, as now I'm past 30 it seems to take me a long time to get going. As a tactic this didn't go too well. Firstly due to the weather, I didn't really warm up, I just got wet and slightly cold.

Secondly, due to said minging weather only 5 people signed up for the GoRace. 5 people isn't much of a race so the organisers decided that we would join the proper race instead, with a free entry into the GoRace next week. Hmmm, so instead of entering the GoRace at 7, I was now going to be riding the open race at 7.45. Another 45 mins of hanging around, meaning my warm up was rather pointless.

I also had 45 mins to worry that I probably wasn't fit enough of fast enough to keep with a Race that has Cat 2 riders in it. (It goes Cat 4, 3, 2, 1 and elite, with Elite being semi pros who race in events like the UK Tour series which was on telly last year. Cat 2's are therefore pretty damn fast!). Lots of people on nice bikes, warming up on rollers and looking far better than I felt.

Oh well, I was here, I'd paid my tenner, and if I couldn't keep up I could come back and race next week in the GoRace anyway.

7.45 lined up with everyone

7.46 It hurts, I'm having to peddle at almost my max power just to hang on.

7.47 It still hurts, but I'm just about hanging onto the back of the pack. It's really hard to hold a wheel as the pace is a bit erratic.

7.48 It's carnage. Someone in front crashed, bringing down 2 or 3 other riders. I'm at the back and I have knowhere to go. Hit a rider, or a bike, which to choose. Chose bike, swerved left towards the middle of the track, over the bars, but luckliy I had a fairly soft landing. It was a proper TdF pileup, at least one bike was at least 3 or 4 ft up in the air. Luckliy no-one was hurt, although there are some expensive repair bills! And some pretty irate fallers. Although my bike was covered in Mud, I was unhurt and the bike was pretty much fine other than the bars not pointing straight ahead. Rode back round to the re-start. Straightened the bars.

7.55 Re Start. Now my legs had warmed up on the ride over, cooled down for 40 mins, warmed up a bit, gone mental for 5 mins, cooled down again. let's face it they were confused! They really didn't want to get going again, plus my head was not in it anymore, more than a little nervous about coming off again. Staying with the group lasted for about a lap and a half before I gradually slipped off the back of the bunch. I didn't matter how hard I was pushing, i couldn't go fast enough to hold on, and once a gap has appeared, getting back on is really really hard. The organisers suggested that this was probably inevitable and if it happened just to keep going round and then try to tag onto the group again when they caught up.

8.00 About 3 solo laps later and the group are nearly with me, pull up onto the banking and start accelerating again. This time I managed about half a lap before the inevitable gap appeared and once again I was out the back. Bugger!

8.05 Enough was enough, time to go home.

Hopefully next week will be more successful!

Bit more info about the GoRaces if anyone is thinking of having a go. You do NOT need to be a British Cycling member, and you don't need a race licence. Sign on about 20mins before the start time (sign on was in the Cafeteria at the Maindy Sports centre, it costs £10), you can then get on the track and warm up. You'll need a proper drop handlebar road bike. If you've got tri bars on it, they'll need to be taken off before racing, as will lights and mudguards. As for the pace, i don't know yet, but hopefully slower than the Cat 2 race!