The past few days I've been a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, how many people would be there, would my extreme lack of preparation result in me being dropped right away? Or would everyone else be equally unprepared? (Highly unlikely). The race started at 11:00 am, registration was from 9:00 to 10:30, after driving around the entire park looking for the sign in (Birds Hill Park), I found the sign-in place. There were lots of signs that there was a bike race on today, but nothing directing where to go to sign in. Jess and Abby got out and walked around as I searched for someone I recognized.... no dice.
At the sign in, there were a number of people there, and they kept coming after me too, I went to the table, signed in and picked my number. #245 (I picked the highest number available). Everyone seemed very pleasant and it was a nice atmosphere (despite the snow earlier in the morning and the chilly air). I pinned on my number, got my bike ready, and took off for a warm up ride to check out the finish line, and get the blood flowing (and get a good luck kiss from my two favorite girls). Being sure to arrive back at the parking lot. There were a few details missing as to where the race was starting, so Jess and Abby were at the "Start/finish" line, which wasn't actually the start line, so she missed us taking off.
The riders were divided into 3 groups, the Cat 3s, Cat 4s, and Cat 5s/civilians. I was in the latter of the groups which is where beginners go. The 3s were the first to go, then the 4s, then we were let go shortly after that.
We started pretty gently and worked the speed up a bit (I don't know how fast we were going because I had removed my computer, but it didn't feel fast or slow so it would guess we were going around 30-35 km/h. My legs were feeling good so I got up to the front of our group (about 12-15 people I think), and was testing myself a bit. I decided to go a bit harder on the hill, and as I came around a corner, the wind hit me like a brick wall... still trying to get up the hill.
Well, the small gap I had developed over the others, quickly disappeared. As we got up over the hill, I dropped back into the pack a bit, and as I was drafting the biggest guy I could find, he decided to hit the brakes for no apparent reason, so I had to hit the brakes as there was someone beside me. The kid behind me wasn't able to slow down in time and hit my rear wheel pretty hard. Neither of us went down, and I fell back to apologise and explain what happened to him (brakes are not good in groups, you only use them in an emergency), he said he was fine and got right back in there.
My rear wheel however, was not fine. I tried to continue, but the broken spoke meant the wheel was way out of true and rubbing the brakes alot, and wobbling so much that I could fell the back end was a bit loose. That was the end of my day, I turned around shortly after the start/finish line after the first of 3 laps, to let them know I was done. Found my family, hopped in the car and went to costco for a hot dog. (here's a picture of me pouting after my day was done.)
Fun? definately. Will I be back? Yes. Will I be more prepared? I plan to be.
Replacement spoke should be here this week so I'll be able to rebuild the rear wheel quick.
Next scheduled race is a wednesday night MTB race. Should be fun, the MTB crowd doesn't take themselves as serious as the road crowd does.
