Tuesday Night at the Oval

After very warm, humid weather earlier in the day, the evening brought cool air and strong winds. Strong winds. The headwind on the back straight was going to make for a long evening, especially if (no, when) I got dropped from the group. After a few warm up laps, we lined up at the start/finish line and were off. Two lessons were learned right away:

1. Don’t sit at last wheel at the start.
2. Avoid the tall guy in the Fox jersey who’s saddle is three inches too high (more on this later).

The pace was fairly fast right from the gun, but I moved up a bit and thought, okay, maybe I can sit here for awhile. The tall was in front of me, and between his wobbles right and left, I noticed the pack starting to pull away. Unacceptable. As we hit the back straight, I tried to slip by on the left, but just as he wobbled right, he veered left, and sat up a bit. A few other riders who had fallen off caught up to us, and a paceline formed. One solid push to rejoin the group shelled all but two of us, and we continued to work, if only to stay on the lead lap for as long as possible. This worked well, but I noticed that no matter when I pulled off the front, I always managed to be the one pulling down the back straight, into the win. Soon enough, a break from the pack was nearing, and we moved right to allow them to pass. As the bunch went by I tried desperately to hang on, and lasted another lap or two before I shot off. Alone.

For five laps I struggled in the wind. I wanted to sit up and pull off. I wondered why it was that I was paying for this abuse. As the pack approached again, I caught a wheel at the back and managed to stay there. For nearly ten laps. Shocking. I fell off again as the bell lap started, a combination of hitting the final corner a bit too slow and not having enough legs to get back on.

So then, lessons learned:

  1. The STI shifters helped. I could shift earlier, especially in the fourth corner, and this actually changed my shifting pattern over the course of a lap.
  2. Push up further in the group at the start.
  3. Avoid the tall guy in the Fox jersey. Yeah, I’m new, and I may get a bit loose in the corners once in awhile, but I can at least ride in a straight line.
  4. I have to become better at judging the pace of the group. Both times I was dropped, I was caught relaxing a bit too long.