Beautifully sunny day, cool temps and moderate winds ringed in the season today with the Froze Toes Bicycle Fun Club Ride. Rumor was 99 riders were in the 3/4's field. The perfect size field for a race on a one lane road. I rode backwards past the start line at about 11:15. No one was milling around the start so I rode the back stretch a little ways with Justin. We came back and I was starting from about 90th place. It was going to be a teriffic race.
As expected the race was brake, start, brake, start, brake, start. Halfway down the backstretch I finally wormed my way up front. A handful of us got a little paceline going and strung the field out a little. It was so nice to be able to pedal regularly for a couple miles. Turning onto the outer road in the top 15, the field was still intact for the most part. Did the race get serious at that point. Of course not. With the southerly wind I figured the yellow line would be the easier place to move up. Instead, people steadily moved past on the inside. I guess I could have been really forceful and tried to get over there but the field was a bottleneck.
The braking continued for the whole race. Apparently people didn't read the word RACE on the flyer. Going downhill approaching the first of the two hills on the outer road and there was noticeable braking. We're going downhill on a straight road. Not even a steep downhill. STOP BRAKING!!!!! If there was any opportunity I was going attack off the front until I cracked just so I would feel something was accomplished. Instead, the WHOLE race, except for maybe the last mile, was braking. Crazy shit.
The topper to the race was yet another instance of the video cameras used to help with scoring the race being totally useless. What you saw on the TV screen was a colored blur. The brief time I spent at the officials tent they asked that anybody who felt they were top 10 to report to the tent. Ah yes, rider scored races. Love 'em. Even at 2pm, the posted "top 10" had two spots left blank.
On a positive note, CBC did a nice job with the race. The roads were generally good and registration in the gym was great. Please, please, please have registration there every year.
As expected the race was brake, start, brake, start, brake, start. Halfway down the backstretch I finally wormed my way up front. A handful of us got a little paceline going and strung the field out a little. It was so nice to be able to pedal regularly for a couple miles. Turning onto the outer road in the top 15, the field was still intact for the most part. Did the race get serious at that point. Of course not. With the southerly wind I figured the yellow line would be the easier place to move up. Instead, people steadily moved past on the inside. I guess I could have been really forceful and tried to get over there but the field was a bottleneck.
The braking continued for the whole race. Apparently people didn't read the word RACE on the flyer. Going downhill approaching the first of the two hills on the outer road and there was noticeable braking. We're going downhill on a straight road. Not even a steep downhill. STOP BRAKING!!!!! If there was any opportunity I was going attack off the front until I cracked just so I would feel something was accomplished. Instead, the WHOLE race, except for maybe the last mile, was braking. Crazy shit.
The topper to the race was yet another instance of the video cameras used to help with scoring the race being totally useless. What you saw on the TV screen was a colored blur. The brief time I spent at the officials tent they asked that anybody who felt they were top 10 to report to the tent. Ah yes, rider scored races. Love 'em. Even at 2pm, the posted "top 10" had two spots left blank.
On a positive note, CBC did a nice job with the race. The roads were generally good and registration in the gym was great. Please, please, please have registration there every year.
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