It's easy to write about when races go well. Excitement, adrenaline, glory.
When they don't go so well, three times in two days, well, yeah.
Bike racing is hard. Waking up at unholy hours, driving through multiple states to arrive in time to get mentally ready for racing for 50+ miles at 35 degrees. And for the first race of the season when you haven't remembered your routine, things are only harder.
Last weekend saw me in the 'Tropics' of southern New England for Brumble Bikes Kermesse and Mystic Velo Criterium, where the peak racing temp was in the mid-40s with a coastal wind. I was on tap for a 53-ish mile road race at Brumble, and two crits at Mystic, on less than 200 miles of training in the last month. So here we go.
Brumble: Fairly straightforward (albeit cold) race. Four and a bit laps of a 12-ish mile course that included somewhere north of 4500 feet of climbing over the entire race. With it being a 4/5 field, things got off to a bit of an interesting start, with the LOOK NRS car coming to someone's rescue within the first half-mile.
In traditional Torin fashion, I spent too much time at the front working way too hard for the first three laps. Going into the "bell" lap (there was no bell), I got dropped heading up the final climb, had to re-pass the neutral support car, time-trialled my way back into the bunch, only to be dropped again heading up the final series of climbs to the finish, rolling in ~5 minutes back in 24th place.
Rest and repeat for Sunday, where the Men's 4/5 start at 9:00 had a RealFeel® of 20º. Jackets and tights were the fashion during warmups, only to be doffed at the start line in favor of skinsuits and leg warmers. More of the same from me, spending too much time in the wind and ultimately losing contact in the closing laps before the finish, coming across at the tail end of the bunch.
After that, I just thought my 3/4 race would be spent casually hanging in the bunch, working on maneuvering and whatnot. That worked for the first 50 minutes, but then I found myself tailgunning, and was unable to cover an acceleration with four laps to go. Once again off the back, I cruised in for a -1 Lap finish, ready to eat as much food as I could manage.
Last weekend saw me in the 'Tropics' of southern New England for Brumble Bikes Kermesse and Mystic Velo Criterium, where the peak racing temp was in the mid-40s with a coastal wind. I was on tap for a 53-ish mile road race at Brumble, and two crits at Mystic, on less than 200 miles of training in the last month. So here we go.
Brumble: Fairly straightforward (albeit cold) race. Four and a bit laps of a 12-ish mile course that included somewhere north of 4500 feet of climbing over the entire race. With it being a 4/5 field, things got off to a bit of an interesting start, with the LOOK NRS car coming to someone's rescue within the first half-mile.
In traditional Torin fashion, I spent too much time at the front working way too hard for the first three laps. Going into the "bell" lap (there was no bell), I got dropped heading up the final climb, had to re-pass the neutral support car, time-trialled my way back into the bunch, only to be dropped again heading up the final series of climbs to the finish, rolling in ~5 minutes back in 24th place.
Rest and repeat for Sunday, where the Men's 4/5 start at 9:00 had a RealFeel® of 20º. Jackets and tights were the fashion during warmups, only to be doffed at the start line in favor of skinsuits and leg warmers. More of the same from me, spending too much time in the wind and ultimately losing contact in the closing laps before the finish, coming across at the tail end of the bunch.
After that, I just thought my 3/4 race would be spent casually hanging in the bunch, working on maneuvering and whatnot. That worked for the first 50 minutes, but then I found myself tailgunning, and was unable to cover an acceleration with four laps to go. Once again off the back, I cruised in for a -1 Lap finish, ready to eat as much food as I could manage.
