7/21/97
I was busy preparing for my oral examination, so I didn't get much riding in last week. I couldn't race on Thursday because I was at a seminar in information presentation and design. It was a very interesting seminar.
I raced on Saturday. I was very unprepared. I got home from lab around 1:00 AM on Friday, and I had to wake up by 7:00 AM to drive out to the race. But it wasn't too bad.
The race was the Snohomish Kla Ha Ya Days road race. It was 40 miles long, 8 laps of a 5 mile loop with two 'medium' sized hills. I discovered that even the smallest hills seem huge when you try to go up them fast, and they seem even bigger on the 7th time up.
I got dropped pretty early on. I lost contact with the group after the first lap, but there were quite a few slow people behind me. Near the end of the first lap, I decided to slow down to group up with the slower people and try to ride with them in a group. One guy was really slow. He looked like he was in his forties, but just starting to race. The other guy looked a bit younger, but still older than me. He was only slightly slower than me, and may have been a bit faster than me up the hills.
After a while, we started talking while riding. It turned out that it was also his first year riding seriously. He was riding a Davidson bicycle. Davidsons are custom built bicycles, and I believe they are made somewhere around Seattle. The guy's bike also had the new Campagnolo 9-speed system (probably Record). His bike was probably at least $2000. My bike was only $700.
Around the 3rd lap, we were caught by the women's group. They were working together very well. The women's group was small, so the race promoter combined their field with the junior's field. Me and the other slow guy were kind of surprised because when we joined the end of this group, they were going kind of slow. Slower than we were going as just tworiders. But after a lap, they laid down the hammer and really zipped by us.
We ended up catching some people that were dropped off the end of the fast pack. We were passed by two guys from the same team going really fast. One of them must have had a flat tire and his teammate was trying to help him catch the main pack.
We got lapped around the fifth or sixth lap. Because we were lapped we would only go 7 out of the 8 laps. I didn't mind all that much. The hills were taking a lot out of me.
Near the end of out 7th and final lap, I could tell the guy on the Davidson was trying to go faster in order to beat me to the finish. I just let him lead and drafted him to the 200 meter marker, and I easily sprinted past him as he tried to make the final push to the finish.I guess all I have to do now is to be able to stay with the pack. I like the sprint at the finish.
Since I'm going to Los Angeles this Saturday, I am going to try very hard at this Thursday's race. I hope it doesn't rain.
Oh yeah, I passed my oral examinations. Woo hoo!