Escape Velocity Spring Series - Race 1 River Road - Cycle


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Fort Langley, British Columbia
Canada
Escape Velocity
5C / 41F
Precipitation
 		Total Time = 1h 32m 34s
Overall Rank = 50?/100?
Age Group = C
Age Group Rank = 0/N/A
Pre-race routine:

Went out with Laura for a burger the night before. :)

Seriously though, went to bed early. Woke up and ate a bowl of vector. Got to the race site around 8:50 and registration opened at 9am. Registered then went to the coffee shop for a pee break and to get some water. Drank some water, ate a couple of fig newtons, then did the warm up around 10am. In between warm up and race start (10:45ish), at an Oatmeal to go bar.
Event warmup:

A couple of out and backs with Mike and a half a lap around the course with David. Got the legs spinning, then waited for the A's to start, then the B's.
Bike
  • 1h 32m 34s
  • 56 kms
  • 36.30 km/hr
Comments:

I rated the wind as strong because although it wasn't bad at the beginning it picked up at the end.

The bumpy stretch of road was a bit tough because there were a lot of grooves in the road, but I just held on and kept pedalling and I was carried through.
What would you do differently?:

I'm pretty happy with the way the race went, but I would have tried to get up closer to the front in the very beginning as I saw that there were some Dizzy Chicks in there and they were not working as hard as Heather and I in the turns.
Post race
Warm down:

Ate fig newtowns. I was soaked (no fenders allowed) and cold, so I just changed as soon as possible.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Fitness, I guess?

Event comments:

Alot of people didn't like this race because of the crashes, but I love the flat races. I am very nervous about next week. There's a race on Saturday (rolling hills - 6 laps) and a race on Sunday (mega freakin hill - 7 laps) and I am not good on hills, so I don't know what is going to happen.




Last updated: 2006-03-05 12:00 AM
Biking
01:32:34 | 56 kms | 36.30 km/hr
Age Group: 0/N/A
Overall: 0/100?
Performance:
Wind: Strong
Course: The course was a square lap, starting on River Road, then right on 264th, then right on 84th, then right on 252 and then right on River Road. Each lap was 6.2km and the C's did 9 laps. River Road is flat, but had a head wind. 264th is flat. 84th had some rolling hills, not very big though and 252 was really rough pavement. Like paved gravel. So the centre line rule applied except for in corners. You seed yourself as A, B or C. Me and most of the women are Cs. So are the cat 5 guys and most of the cat 4 men. This means it was a pretty big pack. My estimate is about 100 people. Maybe the number of people that started will be posted on the website tomorrow. So I started out near the back of the pack. It was a bit slow for the first lap, and I felt like I was at critical mass. :) Around the corners everyone took them wide and breaked before the corners. In fact that was the case in the whole race, so there was a lot of slowing down and speeding up. I'm sure my HR graph would have looked like tons of mountains, rising and falling. My goal for this race was just to stay safe as I heard that it is a bit of a sketchy race. So I decided to ride the yellow line the whole time. This paid off as there was a 4 person pile up just in front of me halfway through the race and I was able to break and cross the yellow to avoid them. During the race, the pack kept getting smaller and smaller as people were dropping off of the back, but I just kept working to get up to them and then held in there. When I was sitting in the pack it was great even though we were averaging about 40km/hr. The draft was awesome. However I had to break in every corner and then it was a sprint to the back of the pack again. But I held in as people kept dropping off. We ended up lapping quite a few people. So I stayed with the pack the whole time which was my ultimate goal, but I didn't know if I would be able to do it. I fell of a tiny bit at the bell and I was too tired to pick it up in the corner and catch on at the end. In hindsight, I probably could have done it, but I was being a bit lazy and I had accomplished my goal. I didn't want to be up front in a bunch sprint anyway. So coming into the finish, I was probably about 500m back from the pack and tons of crashes happened. At 200m the open up the whole road (no centreline rule), so maybe that contributed to it. A bunch of people at the end, just pulled off and didn't even do the sprint. There were all these little groups and a lot of people down, so I am happy that I raced a safe race even if I fell off a little bit.
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 3