LWC Race Recap - Ben Siver

Post date: Feb 27, 2012 6:48:2 PM

All the events leading up to about 7:00 PM on Friday night were pretty hectic. The night before brought us some pretty scary reports of snow that made it seem like the drive to Kentucky was going to be terrible, if not impossible. To my surprise, everything came together and Peter, Ian, Ryan, and myself were on the road in Peter's sister's Honda Civic by about 7:30 Friday night. I think everyone had accepted that we weren't really going to sleep before the TTT/Road Race on Saturday morning.

With it being my first race ever, I didn't know what to expect. I had done (what I thought was) a decent amount of training on the trainer in the weeks before the race, but I was proved terribly wrong. I was dropped pretty quickly from my teammates during the TTT, and similarly from the main pack in the road race. I tried not to let everything discourage me though and kept riding through the road race. I had a good time trying to power through some massive climbs and going fast down some very un-Illinoisan-like descents. The next day I was surprised to find out I did not actually get last (apparently I passed someone without noticing). The crit on Sunday morning was a similar situation with me getting pulled after a few laps.

Overall my first race experience was pretty rough, but I definitely want to stick with it. I want to get off the trainer and go on longer rides outdoors. I am hoping to be able to stick with the main pack during road races by the end of season as well as not get pulled from a crit. I had a great time this weekend despite not doing well, and I am looking forward to the rest of the season.