Once again, I'm putting in a cycling race report; I raced the Cat 5 road race today in Quincy. This is just for anyone who wants to hear more about road racing or the Quincy race in particular.

I got up and drove over to Tallahassee with a couple of friends who were racing also. Overcast skies and some rain on the way over, but it didn't rain once we got there. Quincy's a small town near Tallahassee, and the course was a hilly 21 mile loop starting and ending in "downtown" Quincy. Nothing super long, just constant rollers. The course was perfect..for somebody other than my 180 pound ass. :p

The Cat 5s didn't get started until nearly 4 PM. Note to self: don't try to buy anything on Sunday in Quincy. The whole town is like Chik-fil-A..nuthin' open. I think that's my favorite part of cycling races though; not having to start at an ungodly hour of the morning like tris. :) I sat and read a book, then finally warmed up a few miles before the start.

I had the Giant which is the lightest thing I own and I knew I was going to need it. I haven't done a hilly road race, and I really didn't know if I was going to be able to hang with the skinny college kids or not. Turns out, I was mostly fine. Any reasonably flat sections, the pace was super easy; even though we were going 25+, I stayed out of the wind in the front 5-10 people. On the hills, I'd work my way forward at the base, then meter my effort on the hill and let a few people past.

That worked pretty well until we came to the last hill before a couple of turns and the (uphill) sprint finish. I went off hard on the bottom of the climb, and it was just a little longer than I hoped it'd be. I popped about 100 yards before the first turn toward the finish, and watched about 10 guys go by. I think I rolled through in about 15th or so, back of the front bunch. Out of 35-40 starters, I'd guess we dropped more than half, including some in a crash about halfway through, so I was happy with the finish.

Oh yeah..the course was 21 miles, I had no computer whatsoever, so no time or power info. I would guess we averaged somewhere between 23 and 25 mph, based on the Cat 4 speeds. Even my finish time and placing are guesses. Call this the archetypal non-analytical race report.

I stayed upright, finished with the pack, and got some more experience. And, I got to eat at Cracker Barrel afterwards. It was a good day.