First Race

Today was the official start of the racing season, and so I raced for the first time ever. The event was the Dominguez Hills Criterium, a mostly flat mile-long circuit in an industrial park outside of Long Beach. It rained a lot last night, so I was really worried that the course would be wet, but this morning dawned sunny and dry, so it was all good.

The race itself lasted 30 minutes, and to be honest, I've been in much tougher group rides, but it was definitely more dangerous than any group ride I've been on, even the famous Mike's Ride back in lauderdale. 50 riders, mostly racing for the first time, all in a big pack going 25 miles per hour or so. At any given time I had about 15-20 riders around me, and it didn't seem to matter whether I was on the inside or outside. On the straights, everyone was moving either forward or back through the pack, and in the corners, even if you took the absolute inner line, someone was always cutting inside of you. So mostly I stuck to the outside, where I could move up freely, and be safer in the corners. The race was about 8 or 9 laps, and I was able to move my way up into the top fifteen or so in the last two laps. Easier said than done, because there were no organized pacelines, so if the pack slowed down, all of sudden you would have twenty riders at the front. The pack was at least 5 wide the entire time.

There was a one crash, right behind me, with about two laps to go. Apparently two guys locked handlebars (one was coming back, and one was going forward - the first riders left drop came back into the second riders right hood). It was weird - it sounded like a series of crashes, and it was very loud. Nobody got hurt, althouth the one guy broke his $4000 Madone 5.5 frame... an expensive mistake.

On the last lap, I sprinted from about twentieth to about tenth, although the final results will be more telling than my perception. I may be way off. All in all it was a good first race, nothing too crazy, and I stayed safe.

Next week I'm doing a road race, which will be a 45 mile race in the mountains. A little less crazy, I think, but much more physically demanding. I'm still kind of waiting to see how this all goes. If I'm really competitive, and I have chance at doing well, then I think this will be worth it. I'm still sorting out my place in the world of competitive bicycle racing.

We'll see...


The staging area


The course


The pack crossing the start-finish line mid race