RAce Around the Lake - CycleRoad Race

So Josh and I lined up with group 2 - Poww some one elses tire blew. Man not a great way to start the day. It was exciting jumping in with about 125 other bikers. i had no clue where to line up so just lined up front outside. 3 . 2 . . 1 GO! We were off. The peloton just flew out the gate and off we ride. the roads were fairly nice at first. some bumps but mostlythe RR tracks were issues here and there. Josh and I stayed close to each other just keeping pace with our leaders. the Peloton stayed together moving so quick and smooth josh and I couls actually talk and pretty much laugh at the 24 mile per hour pace we had going for the first stretch. It was ridiculous how much fun that was. Mhy HR was Z2 maybe.

We had some nice crowded corners. It was scary at times to be squeezed inside the corners. Lost some speed there but kept it going. Somewhere around Oshkosh i think, we hit some bumps and RR tracks. I almost took out my cohort as my 2 drink bottles were jettisoned. I guess good thing he was drafting cause they flw out to the sides where he wasn't - I think. So josh lent me his h2o bottle and life continued.

Then around mile forty we crossed a bridge hung right and hit some tracks. POW - several flats, including josh. We pulled over, SAG was there for us to use the pump. We spent about 5 mins flopping tubes and pumping it up. Off we went - Peloton - GONE, long GONE. so there were three of us. We formed a lil chase group to share the load. we kept up the 23.5 mph for the next 1o miles to HiCliff.

We hit hiCliff park and rode up their bast. We all climbed well. And there was our bottle exchange. I stopped to gather 2 fresh bottles and we were set to go. The next 20 miles we kept swapping pulls for 2 mins or so. I unfortunately at one ascent around 70 just hit a wall. i lost their tail and could not catch up. But that was okay, only 22 to go.

So I just dropped the effort to get the HR down. I found a few tails to ride around mile 80 but those 10 in between were very lonely. I saw one guy and he was going about 14 - BONK is what he told me. So I encouraged him and pulled for awhile. He gladly took the help, and I was glad to help a fellow rider.

Around mile 82 ish, We were caught by a small group. I hopped into line and took a ride for about 4 mins. Emily - from Team 4, was leading this group, but the other guys did not want to pull. so I took a turn and pulled a while. I swapped out and the guy that took my spot lasted 30 secs or less and just let Emily pull again. This was not good raod etiquette.

So I hopped in front on a down hill and pulled a few people. Then we had 2 short climbs that I did not think I hit hard, but after those two, I looked back and it was just her and me. we swapped back and forth a few times unitl we caught a few more. They were struggling too. They hopped in line and I saw someone i noticed early on -I call him Teen Wolf. He was very hairy and when I tried to talk to him he just grunted. So he fell into line with another. Our group continued with Emily leading, I pulled ahead after 3 mins to pull cause no one else would. Then after 3-4 minutes, I signalled one of them to pull - I dropped back and Teen Wolf slowed down and would not pull. He just let Emily pull us again. We lost everyone else, but our threesome continued with him doing nothing. We hit a final downhill section and he then tried to pull ahead after we did the work. so I let momentum take me with him and we came into mile 90. At this point we crossed a busy road and he looked at me and just grunted again. I thought okay I'll keep a solid pace for 1 min then crank. He hopped into my draft again and definitely wsa not ready for my final attack. I threw in a mile of hard work - looked back and he was way back. Tagging offEmily again.

So I just thought to myself take the next half mile for what it is and go go go into the finish. Well I obviously went to soon cause at mile 92 I was struggling a bit and still had a little to go. I tried to keep up the push - not my best finish, but definitely strong enuff. 4:15 finish! Well below my goals - I was extrememly happy.

Not push too hard too early, but overall a great race effort for my first. Definitely want to stay with Peloton longer next time, but a TEAM stays together, until one crumbles,Josh thanks for the help and great job!

Low Spin for 1 min, walked a little to get h2o. and then ate some spaghetti and other munchies


Could have used a little more long bike time, but still was an A effort today. Truly proud of my first road race and looking forward to doing it again. Next time I hoope my race wheel arrives earlier to actually use.


Great Event - really had a lot of fun. Definitely better if done as a team - makes some stretches better. definitley not an IM bike segment, but drafting was fun.