The focus of my racing season is the New Jersey Bicycle Association’s (NJBA) Category 4 Women’s Cup Series. The series includes Criteriums, or “crits,” Road Races and Time Trials to provide a broad range of experience to new racers like myself. This is a good way to find your strengths and determine what you like and don’t like about racing.
The first race was the Cherry Blossom Challenge, a crit held last Saturday at Branch Brook Park in Newark, NJ. Even though I’d spent the past eight months training to improve on speed, sprinting and pack skills, I was at a bit of a disadvantage having missed the organized training in early spring. This left me going back and forth in my mind as to whether I was prepared for this race.
Turned out I was more prepared than I thought. We had a field of about 14 women and once the race started I felt comfortable. I had no problem keeping the pace and hanging in the pack. There's one turn on this course and while I tend to be cautious with turns, I can generally make up for lost time by standing and sprinting to recover. By the second lap around, I knew I’d be able to finish this race. And therein lies the reason why I was so PI^&ED at how things turned out.
Most people who really know me would not be surprised to hear I crashed in my first bike race. (I have a history of being somewhat of a klutz). To be fair, if this had anything to do with my “rep,” I’d probably be laughing about this. And therein lies another reason why I was so PI^&ED at how things turned out.
The race was seven laps around a flat (approximately) two-mile loop. On the third or fourth lap, someone two bikes ahead of me was not holding their line though the left turn. As a result, the rider directly in front of me went down. There was no way to avoid getting tangled in her bike. So that is what ended my first race.
Or maybe it shouldn’t have.
I didn’t go down on the ground which is a testament to my ability to respond to some degree. However, if I had more of a racer’s instinct, I may have reacted quicker to get out of the mess and sprint back to the pack. Instead I struggled a bit and went to the starting line hoping for a free lap. No dice. Game over and I was furious with myself. Special thanks to Cyndi Steiner and Stacey Barbossa who helped talk me down off a ledge so I could get my thoughts together and come to a few valuable realizations.
What did I take away from this? For starters I need to react quicker in this type of a situation. If you’re not down and the bike is rideable, let your sprinting skills take over and exert some energy to get back to the pack. Not doing this caused me to not finish…or if I had I made a late attempt I would have been chasing for the remaining laps.
If anything, being as comfortable as I was in the race made me hungry for more so it was an easy decision for me to commit to the rest of the Cat 4 series. I also realize that I am probably a bit more competitive than I appear to be and ready to get out there again. Not to mention my mental toughness just went up another notch.
All in all, first race jitters over and done with. But I still can’t accept the fact that I could have easily finished this race. And therein lies the reason why I was so PI^&ED at how things turned out.
I would be irresponsible to end this post without recognizing the true risks of bike racing. You’re usually in a close pack holding an aggressive pace with people you don’t normally ride with. If you race enough, you will likely experience a crash and oftentimes it is out of your control. When racing, make vigilance and safety part of your strategy. Above it all, the most important thing is that you are physically OK and I hope that is the case for the other girl who was involved in Saturday’s crash. Same goes for a few of my teammates who were also impacted by crashes in other races at the Cherry Blossom Challenge. Health and safety ALWAYS comes first.
“Cycling is like a church - many attend, but few understand." -- Jim Burlant
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