There are two things that scare the hell outta me: beautiful women and road racing. One of them breaks your heart, while the other breaks you physically. Having either of those things happen to you is not fun, for sure. I'd probably rather have my heart broken then have road rash from a crash. Anyways, up until today, I've been a weenie and not given group road racing a shot. I wasn't too sure what compelled to me choose the Silverton Road Race, but I'm sure a lot of people could say the same thing about their boyfriends/girlfriends/wives/husbands.
Pre-race: I had to pee twice. I chalk that up to nerves. I was torn between just sitting in my car until race time or warming up by riding a few of the hills close to the start. I did a combo of the two, but totally regretted not warming up some more. I felt ever more nerves when I was lined up at the start and saw all the blingy $5,000 carbon bikes.
Race: The start was a downhill and then basically uphill for a handful of miles. I felt comfortable going down the first hill on the first lap and started to gain some confidence. I was in the front 1/3 of the pack and had a good feeling. Towards the end of the first downhill, a hear "Pssshhhh". Someone around me got a flat, but I had trouble gauging whether the culprit was behind or ahead of me. I got my answer in about 3 seconds, as the pack started to flow around a Team Oregon guy with a mushed-to-the-ground front tire. I braked and made the split second decision to weave to the right of the Team Oregon guy and the right edge of the road. The pack wasn't far ahead; so, I just sprinted to the last few guys in the pack.
This threw me off my game a little bit, but I tried to regain some composure. The uphill now began, and the pace was pretty friggin' fast. The pack seemed to slow then speed up on the uphills. This annoyed the heck outta me and eventually the gap between me and the guys in the front pack became too insurmountable. There were about 10 or 15 guys behind me; so, I figured I could join a handful of guys behind me and work to get back to the pack. Not a good fall back plan, as it turns about.
After about 1 mile of riding alone, a charming chap dressed in the green and white of Guinness comes up along side of me with a West End rider in-tow. Yippee! Here is our chance! Actually, not really cause the West End rider dropped off .5 miles later; so, it was just me and the Guinness guy, Brian.
The follow-car for our category got within eye-sight after about 6 miles of pacelining, but our chances were more realistic than having my brother-in-law set me up on a blind date.
On the second lap, we passed about 4 riders who were on those blingy $5,000 carbon bikes. Evidently, these guys were the leaders on lap 1, but took a wrong turn and couldn't get back on. I got the feeling that these guys and their $5,000 bikes were going to wimp-out and just going to roll back to their cars; so, it was just Brian and me again. I wanted to HTFU and finish the race; so off we went!! Brian and I ended up riding together to the end.
Post race: I ate a banana. I parked next to two cows and I was amazed at how loud and human-like they can moo. I saw Kevin and suggested at he warm up to avoid the early race disaster that I had. I didn't stick around for the end of Kevin's race, but I'm sure he did good!!!
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