Racing has Started 2010

I've had an interesting start to the new season. Normally, I'd hit a bunch of climbing races. This time, I've done five flat races, three on my TT bike. I opened with Beat the Clock (a training series) and beat my old best time by ~30 s. Not as much as I would've expected given the supposed slipperiness of my TT bike. Keep that thought in mind. The following weekend, I did the Berkeley TTT. It was a bit longer, but it didn't feel as hard as Beat the Clock. We had a mechanical on course, but still finished 3rd out of 6. I'll take that for now.

The Madera Stage Race was this past weekend. We got luxurious start times, and I rolled to the TT course with hours to spare. It was very windy and very cold for us soft northern Californians. I decided to go with a disc in the rear despite the risk of being blown off course. I had a very good race pacing and power-wise, setting new power records from 20 min on to the end of the race. Unfortunately, as the BtC result showed, I'm not aero. I killed it into the headwind and still lost time. A good point to work on for the future, and relatively simple compared to fitness, I hope. It's something you can throw money at, after all. Next up was the crit. Mind you, I haven't done a crit in four years, and have maybe done four ever. The wind was howling. I was surfing around near the back just trying to remember how to sit in a pack when the prime bell rang. OK, go faster. Then the field split when I rotated toward the back and someone smartly countered after the prime lap. I surged past the pack from the rear and bridged solo to the break. Unfortunately, the break had already split so I was now in the chase. Drilled it for another 40 minutes and lost 53 sec on the break, but at least made a decent move for my first crit back. The next day was the RR. Not too hard, but had to go to the bathroom incredibly badly. Need to learn to pee while riding; I've been told it's an art form. DNF. Next up are some hillier road races where my weight might actually be an advantage for a change!