3 in a Week

Here' some observations from three races in one week, a lot for me. I had my ups and downs and I'm pretty tired.

1. In my mind, I'm only as good as my last race. I was fairly happy after Tuesday's crit, ready to give up bike racing after Thursady's TT and satisfied with a good effort on Saturday. My mood swings would make a tennaged girl proud.

2. I'm not sure how the final RMR results get determined. My last two races at RMR, I left thinking I was 7th and then I don't show up on the official results. I double checked with the official before I left because I fought hard for my 7th and I wanted to get the points. Apparently, something changed. I e-mailed Marek and he's looking into it, so hopefully, it will get corrected.

3. Majority doesn't always rule. In the B RMR race, a guy attacked half through the 3rd to last lap just as the A's were lapping us. Many of us yelled at him to sit up, but he didn't and ended up riding with the A's to the finish. The rest of the B's went netural for half a lap to allow a gap to open and then we raced the last 2 laps. At the finish, the guy who was up the road claimed to have gotten no help from the A's. He said he rode outside on his own. Even if this was the case, he didn't sit up for half a lap like the rest of us. In any case, there was a lot of protesting at the finish and the official agreed to let the group decided. The vote to DQ him was overwhelming. However, on the official results, he got the win. Too bad because the real winning was a 15 year kid who soloed the last lap for the win.

4. TT'ing is a learned skill. TT'ing is a whole different ball game. You have to be really strong, but you also have to be aero, have the right mindset, know how to measure your effort and be willing to suffer. The only thing I got right was the suffering. I was only 6 seconds faster than my 1st TT last year and near the bottom of the B's. I barely managed to average 24 mph for 7 miles. I was really bummed out and questioning why I was doing a TT at all.

5. There are many real fast guys on TT bikes. I was very impressed with how many fast guys there are at the TT's. There were a bunch of guys averaging in the 27 to 30 mph rage. I was one of the few without a disk wheel and aero helmet. These guys can fly.

6. Old guys are fast. I race the East Canyon road race in the 45+ group. This was my first race with this group and it was great. There were 30 of us and the race was much harder than the Cat. 3 race I did there last year. I would sit there and watch the guys in front of me and think, these guys look really fit and fast. I would then look at the face next to me and be surprised by the gray hair and wrinkles. I you don't look at the faces and hair, you'd think it was a Cat 2 field. The best part was that there are no bad riders and I never worried about crashing.

7. Ken Louder is my new hero. The man is 59 years old and he put a minute on me on the last climb. Pretty cool. On top of that, he's a pleasure to talk to in the race. I managed to finish 14th in the 45+ group and was pretty pleased. I was right there until the climb out of Henefer and gave it my all. I checked my time in the Cat 3's last year and I was about 3 minutes faster this year.

8. I can't wait for the next MTB at 5-mile pass Saturday. I'm ready for some dirt.