My First Race
It’s April 2004, and I’m 47 years old. I’ve always stayed in pretty good shape; the weight room every other day, running 3 miles each day with my 14 year old daughter. I’m 6’ tall and weigh 210 lbs but still can bench press 275. My road bike is hanging on my garage wall and I’m starting to look at it again. I take it down and go on my first training ride. This ride is tough, it’s only 17 miles but it might as well be 107 miles – but it’s a start!
Days go by and weeks and I’m still riding. I’m starting to ride 25 plus miles on weekends and have picked up riding partners. My weight is magically beginning to drop and I now like to eat hot oatmeal for breakfast and sometimes lunch. The month of May shows up and my wife is starting to feel like a “bike widow.” Solution, buy a tandem bike. It’s a heavy Cannondale tandem but both of us can ride at our abilities. The trials of tandem riding will be a later post. But the tandem does a neat thing; it makes me a much stronger rider. My wife and I are up to 70-mile weekend rides by June. I also find out that the California Time Trial Championships are held in the city of Lancaster, a town in the Antelope Valley of Northern Los Angeles County. Since we basically live in Lancaster my wife and I decide to ride the tandem to the race and watch it for ourselves. The riders race a 40 k time trial and they push to beat a time of 1 hour. The men and women in the race are giving their all to ride their bikes at an average speed of 24 mph and greater. I now think I can get back into racing, and time trials will be my admission ticket.
18 years ago I raced in time trials, criteriums, and 100-mile road races (more on these different types of races in a later post.) I was always a large racer; I weighed back then about 178 lbs. Time trials were not my best event – I was a “sprinter.” Time trials require you to go all out against time and any extra weight, on you or the bike, is not helpful. But even though I’m now weighing in at around 200 lbs, I needed something to slake my competitive instincts and time trails seemed the safest way to start racing again – on to San Diego’s Fiesta Island.
San Diego, the Mecca for triathletes and other time trial racers, and I’ve arrived on Oct 8 for the Oct 9th race. I’m kicking butt riding in the Antelope Valley and I’m putting in training rides at over an 18 mph average – I’m ready! Yea sure, I’m ready. It’s another beautiful morning in San Diego, temperature is around 70 degrees and I’m ready to race. I arrive in the parking area to see over a hundred bikes and riders all looking better than me. Time trial bikes, triathlon bikes, bikes with 3 spokes, bikes with rear disk wheels – I’m in big trouble. I’m barely getting used to using the clip-on aero bars I put on my road bike. The time trial race is run on Fiesta Island, a little sand spit in Mission Bay. The course is 20 k or about 12.5 miles. They are running the race on the “short course” which is 5 laps around one end of the island. I’m number 42, which means I’ll be the 42nd rider to start the race – a rider starts every 30 seconds as opposed to “mass start” races where everyone leaves the starting line at the same time.
I’m off. I quickly accelerate up to about 25 mph – now I just need to stay there for the next 12 miles. I pass up two riders that started ahead of me and I’m feeling good. You don’t need to pass anybody in a time trial as you’re only racing against yourself but I can’t imagine any time trial racer that will admit he or she likes being passed in the race. I’m sailing along when I hear the dreaded words, “I’m on your left.” The 1st rider has just blasted past me – but he’s young, probably a Cat 1, 2, or 3 racer. My heart is pounding and I now realize I need a heart rate monitor – all good riders need technology. Another young rider passes me but now I’m focused, he’s not going to get away from me. You can’t draft in a time trial so I stay back about 10 meters but concentrate on staying with the young rider in front of me. My speed has dropped to 22 mph and I’m having trouble going any faster. The course is pancake flat and not a breath of wind. I start to congratulate myself as I come to within 2 miles of the end – only two riders have passed me up but I've passed up two racers myself. But then I hear what sounds like a train approaching from the rear. A rider goes flying past me with a carbon fiber rear disk wheel – no chance to try and hang on to him. He’s by so fast I hardly had time to realize that he must have been years older than me! He is whippet lean with white hair and grizzled gray beard…and he is fast. His name is Butch Richardson and the results page shows his age at 61. He started in position 51, 9 spots behind me, and he’s made me feel like the newbie I really am. Butch not only is the best in the 60 – 69 age group, he is 6th overall with a time of 27:51 – that’s a 26.77 mph average!
Thank goodness Susan Cooper started in the 142nd position. She didn’t have a chance to blast past me. Susan was the fastest women in the 150-person race, and took 22nd overall with a finishing time of 29:09. That is a 25.58 mph average! Oh, what about me? I was hoping to break 30 minutes…not even close. My time is 32:48 with a 22.73 mph average – not bad. Hell, it’s terrible. I’m in the bottom 3rd of my division and 76th overall. Heck, I would have done better if I could have raced against the 20 – 30 age group, what gives? I guess the guys that were racing against me when we were in our twenties have never stopped riding and are now studs in their forties and sixties. Well that’s probably pretty true but I clearly have a lot more work to do before the next time trial. I realize I need to have more structure in my bike workouts (grist for another post?)
I couldn’t stop talking about the race as we drove the three hours back to the Antelope Valley. I couldn’t wait to get another training day in. Don’t get me wrong – I was pretty humbled about my race but I’m pretty competitive and knew I just had to train harder. And yes, I need to have one of those carbon fiber rear disk wheels…
Days go by and weeks and I’m still riding. I’m starting to ride 25 plus miles on weekends and have picked up riding partners. My weight is magically beginning to drop and I now like to eat hot oatmeal for breakfast and sometimes lunch. The month of May shows up and my wife is starting to feel like a “bike widow.” Solution, buy a tandem bike. It’s a heavy Cannondale tandem but both of us can ride at our abilities. The trials of tandem riding will be a later post. But the tandem does a neat thing; it makes me a much stronger rider. My wife and I are up to 70-mile weekend rides by June. I also find out that the California Time Trial Championships are held in the city of Lancaster, a town in the Antelope Valley of Northern Los Angeles County. Since we basically live in Lancaster my wife and I decide to ride the tandem to the race and watch it for ourselves. The riders race a 40 k time trial and they push to beat a time of 1 hour. The men and women in the race are giving their all to ride their bikes at an average speed of 24 mph and greater. I now think I can get back into racing, and time trials will be my admission ticket.
18 years ago I raced in time trials, criteriums, and 100-mile road races (more on these different types of races in a later post.) I was always a large racer; I weighed back then about 178 lbs. Time trials were not my best event – I was a “sprinter.” Time trials require you to go all out against time and any extra weight, on you or the bike, is not helpful. But even though I’m now weighing in at around 200 lbs, I needed something to slake my competitive instincts and time trails seemed the safest way to start racing again – on to San Diego’s Fiesta Island.
San Diego, the Mecca for triathletes and other time trial racers, and I’ve arrived on Oct 8 for the Oct 9th race. I’m kicking butt riding in the Antelope Valley and I’m putting in training rides at over an 18 mph average – I’m ready! Yea sure, I’m ready. It’s another beautiful morning in San Diego, temperature is around 70 degrees and I’m ready to race. I arrive in the parking area to see over a hundred bikes and riders all looking better than me. Time trial bikes, triathlon bikes, bikes with 3 spokes, bikes with rear disk wheels – I’m in big trouble. I’m barely getting used to using the clip-on aero bars I put on my road bike. The time trial race is run on Fiesta Island, a little sand spit in Mission Bay. The course is 20 k or about 12.5 miles. They are running the race on the “short course” which is 5 laps around one end of the island. I’m number 42, which means I’ll be the 42nd rider to start the race – a rider starts every 30 seconds as opposed to “mass start” races where everyone leaves the starting line at the same time.
I’m off. I quickly accelerate up to about 25 mph – now I just need to stay there for the next 12 miles. I pass up two riders that started ahead of me and I’m feeling good. You don’t need to pass anybody in a time trial as you’re only racing against yourself but I can’t imagine any time trial racer that will admit he or she likes being passed in the race. I’m sailing along when I hear the dreaded words, “I’m on your left.” The 1st rider has just blasted past me – but he’s young, probably a Cat 1, 2, or 3 racer. My heart is pounding and I now realize I need a heart rate monitor – all good riders need technology. Another young rider passes me but now I’m focused, he’s not going to get away from me. You can’t draft in a time trial so I stay back about 10 meters but concentrate on staying with the young rider in front of me. My speed has dropped to 22 mph and I’m having trouble going any faster. The course is pancake flat and not a breath of wind. I start to congratulate myself as I come to within 2 miles of the end – only two riders have passed me up but I've passed up two racers myself. But then I hear what sounds like a train approaching from the rear. A rider goes flying past me with a carbon fiber rear disk wheel – no chance to try and hang on to him. He’s by so fast I hardly had time to realize that he must have been years older than me! He is whippet lean with white hair and grizzled gray beard…and he is fast. His name is Butch Richardson and the results page shows his age at 61. He started in position 51, 9 spots behind me, and he’s made me feel like the newbie I really am. Butch not only is the best in the 60 – 69 age group, he is 6th overall with a time of 27:51 – that’s a 26.77 mph average!
Thank goodness Susan Cooper started in the 142nd position. She didn’t have a chance to blast past me. Susan was the fastest women in the 150-person race, and took 22nd overall with a finishing time of 29:09. That is a 25.58 mph average! Oh, what about me? I was hoping to break 30 minutes…not even close. My time is 32:48 with a 22.73 mph average – not bad. Hell, it’s terrible. I’m in the bottom 3rd of my division and 76th overall. Heck, I would have done better if I could have raced against the 20 – 30 age group, what gives? I guess the guys that were racing against me when we were in our twenties have never stopped riding and are now studs in their forties and sixties. Well that’s probably pretty true but I clearly have a lot more work to do before the next time trial. I realize I need to have more structure in my bike workouts (grist for another post?)
I couldn’t stop talking about the race as we drove the three hours back to the Antelope Valley. I couldn’t wait to get another training day in. Don’t get me wrong – I was pretty humbled about my race but I’m pretty competitive and knew I just had to train harder. And yes, I need to have one of those carbon fiber rear disk wheels…
posted by Bob Grove at 2:36 PM
<< Home