Hi All,
I said earlier I was going to bore you all with a report from an
upcoming local race. I meant it!
The series is called the Spinn Cup named for it's main sponsor, the
Spinn bike shop. The series is 10 races, with 3 time trials. Points
are awared based on individual results and at the end there is an
overall winner, winning team, etc. Tuesday April 24 was the first race
of the 2007 series.
It was cold, raining, and windy so only the commited showed up. I
recall other races having problems with local residents complaining
about riders urinating all of the place at the start area. That was
not a problem here because the start was at a church with a graveyard.
So people showed a modicum of respect and didn't [censored] all over the
place, and even if they did, I doubt the residents would have
complained.
Here is a pic of the church I took as I stepped out of my car in the
parking lot:
The race was 4 laps of a 15km circuit. Rolling hills with one longer
hill at about 8% and 500m from the finish 250m at 10%. Right before
this "wall" was a long fast downhill right into a narrow 90degree turn
onto a bridge. The question was who was going to have the balls to
carry as much speed through the turn to have any momentum at all into
the climb.
Here in Norway there are no categories, so everyone starts together.
The field was 75 strong at the start. The best guys do 10km time
trials in about 13 minutes, so they can be pretty fast. Only 18
finished with the main "group" showing that maybe categories wouldn't
be such a bad idea...
I kept with the group the first round by positioning myself well at
the hills so I wouldn't be too far off the back at the top. On the
second round, up the longer hill somebody invaded my space and I felt
my foot hit something on the upstroke. They didn't crash, but I heard
lots of shouting behind about hold lines, etc. I know I ride a
straight line and anyway I was hugging the edge of the road so I
assume they were yelling at the guy who bounced off me. The problem
was my foot practically stopped so I lost all my momentum, and at the
top of the hill I was about 40m back when the road turned into a
headwind. I managed to claw my way back using my 12, 13, and 14, but I
was wasted and I caught the group just as we came into the 10% wall
and that was all over for me. I chased for another lap, picking up
stragglers here and there, but as is often the case with me, I get
dropped on the hills only to pick up guys who can't hold my pace on
the flats, but ride away on the hills. So I pulled these guys all the
way around to the next hill where they left me. Then I got a flat so I
called it a day and videoed the finish:
http://arbitrary.org/spinn20070424.mov
It was fun, but I wish they had categories so the racing would be a
bit more even. Even without the episode on the hill, I would have
gotten dropped so I really have no excuses. I lack burstable power.
Joseph