My First Race!

First Test Race in Germany

So 2 Saturdays ago (May 13th) I had planned on going to a race near Liege in Belgium – in the Ardennes made famous by both the German invasion back in 1939 to kick-start WW2 and also by the spring classics such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Amstel Gold Race, and many other more minor races.

Unfortunately there was an error on the website of the cycling organization, and the race was only for the region around Liege, it was a local championship. So on Friday night I was on the phone with other racers trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately most of my teammates bailed on the racing – the only other race nearby was a criterium on a really hard course. But from talking with some others I found out about a race in Germany (Remscheid, just outside Dusseldorf) that was only 2 hours away for me, so I decided to go.

All I knew about the course was that it had a climb somewhere in the 8km loop and it was 100km long. Ok. “Here I go” I though :o) So off I set on my own, with no teammates, no support for my first race, and directions that turned out to be incorrect – my German is so bad that I actually showed up at the race organizers HOUSE rather than the start of the race…..yup, I’m so S M R T. But eventually I was able to find the course and make my way back to the start area – just as the skies opened up. Great.

So after signing in, getting my number, eating some last-minute food, and being pretty nervous, I have to pee. 4 times. Nope – nothing wrong with my bladder, it’s just what happens to me when I’m nervous at races, along with yawning like I haven’t slept in 3 days. It’s a strange site to see I’m sure – me sitting gape-mouthed on the start line like it’s siesta time, wondering where the nearest tree is….

So off we start in the rain, and 100m into the downhill is the first 90-degree right turn. I touch my rear brake in the turn to avoid running over the rider in front of me, which promptly locked my rear wheel and I ended up skidding around the corner – luckily without falling. But that would set the tone for the day. The downhill, with speeds well over 65kph, had several high speed turns that left the peloton jittery – just in time for the 5 hairpins and then the last 90-degree right turn before the uphill began. Crashes galore to say the least! Some SCARY sounds come when someone crashes onto pavement while riding a carbon bike and someone else on a carbon bike runs them over.

But I made it down the first descent and into the uphill, where I left it in the 53x23. We were CRANKING up that climb – so fast that people were crashing in the corners on the UPhill!

So I was able to more than hold my own on the climbs though, which made me feel good. Unfortunately the descents were a different story, as my confidence was shaken by the first descent and I was never able to recover. 10 laps in the story was the same every lap – after the descent I’d be dead last going into the climb, and by ½ way up I’d be in the front 10 of the peloton, which started with 160 riders. That took some serious effort to make it to the front on every climb, which really took it out of my legs. And sad for me on the 10th lap I took a pull at the front and couldn’t quite recover – so I got dropped on the descent and couldn’t catch back on. My day was over.

But I made it to about 40 riders left in the peloton in my first race, so I was pretty happy with the results. I also finally had some racing under my belt, and most importantly I knew where I had some glaring weaknesses and that I’d have to work on them!

Here’s the HR plot from the race – wow! Did I mention there was not one single flat section to the course??! It was either up or down - no flats. It’s hard to tell what each plot is – they’re all doing identical patters. The most encouraging is the HR plot - that I could repeatedly get to that HR for 10 laps before I started to die - that makes me happy!