Jeff’s Latest Citizen Race: Ugh! Hills!
It’s not everyday that the citizen racers get a chance to ride a very hilly 33 mile road race, with
the Cat 5’s.
I did such a race yesterday—the Kensington Road Race—and actually survived. What a nice race.
They had a jillion classes and all went smooth as silk, it looked like.
I’ve only ridden 100 miles this year, maybe 5 in the bigring, so my entering was a little silly, but!
I had 4 good reasons to do it: 1–it’s the best citizen race of the year, 2–it’s nearby,
3–I *remember* being in shape last summer, 4–even if something kills ya it makes ya stronger!
In the morning when I got up, I had no interest in going hard. What is that anyway?
My memory of speed was nonexistant. Oh well!
At the race it really stood out how bike racing has changed since I last did it a lot. Yeah, I’m an old fart. Man,
everyone sure is skinny. Also, everyone looks like a Darth Vader XRay fighter pilot. The bikes sure are
fancy! Man, in the citizen race there wasn’t hardly a bike under $2K. I even saw Spinacci. There appeared
to be one other duffer and a couple oldtimers. Most of the field of 40 were youngsters in team jerseys, many
of whom had driven hundreds of miles.
I think we did a total of 12 hard climbs in this race and 20 easier ones. Whew! I had no idea how I would do
or feel. You know, it’s not smart to enter a race under such total MYSTERY conditions. Well, I found out that
riding uphill felt like trying to stir cement fast. Ouch it hurt. Also, I got a funny feeling when I saw that I
was the first to get out of the saddle and the last to sit back down. Gulp. We rode the 52/13-14 the rest of
the time.
The race was basically a parade. Except the hills did shred the field. But the tougher guys just couldn’t do
anything. There wasn’t even a prizelist. They shoulda done more kamakazi fliers. Why not? I
would’ve…LAST YEAR. : ) Also, it was such a quiet hour and a half. The tourists are more fun. When you’re
not used to a race field, it seems eerily quiet. —Mind you, this is just the report of someone who hasn’t
visited the scene in years.
So there would be these little flier guys going off the front for awhile every now and then. But I had to get
over those hills. I seemed to be the only guy using that old trick of going off the front at the run-in so that I
could catch the tail as we went over the top. The funny thing is that I’d keep catching the flier guys halfway
up the hill. That’s not too great to have the Lead Balloon get you. Then I’d just try to get over the top. Ugh. I
thought I could maybe survive the last 8 mile lap when halfway thru it on a big hill my thighs started
jumping around on their own. Oh-oh. Not a good sign. Well, I still thought maybe I could get in one more
run-up to do OK in the finish—the gang was riding so defensively maybe the Lead Balloon could make it up
the hilltop finish of the biggest hill OK. But no, they bunched across the road at the bottom so I just rode up
behind them. Out of 40 starters it looked like only 15 finished together, but I hung on! I looked to be one of
the very few or only non-team citizens in that group. Well, it’s a start to the year.
Afterward the Cat5 winner asked me how I liked my downtube shifters. I told him they were the least of my
worries! Then another pal said ‘Man, your bike is trashed! Is that chain rusty?’ Yes, there are some fix-ups
to be done. A new chain would be smart even for a duffer like me. The 5 items that were duct-taped were a
nice touch, though, I thought. The funny thing is, gimme another 500 miles and the race would’ve had a
different finishing story…just lemme at em! Trash bike or not!
What’s neat about citizen racing, is that when you’re a duffer it’s just as hard as if you’re doing a pro race
in pro condition! Like Greg said, it’s all relative. You just go faster. Man, those kids made me hurt.
