Post date: Jul 18, 2010 2:46:51 AM
First report of the season!!! For me, first racing ever. I was nervous, mostly about crashing, but excited. Coming off a week of mountain climbing, in the Appalachians (by the way, some of the best cycling I have ridden), at the IIT spring break training camp, made me thirsting for a mountainous stage. Instead, my first race was the Depauw road race, an 8 mile loop, similar to the flat roads we Chicagoans are familiar with.
With 5 minutes to spare, before the start of the men's D road race, the team rolled into the parking lot. I registered, received my race number, and ran back to the car to get dressed, with not a second to spare (Not even enough time to be nervous about the race). I was ready to go with the help of the veteran team members, who prepped my bike and gave some last minute race tactics.
Waylon Janowiak got me a good start position, among the mass start of 75 riders, at the line by moving guys aside (ha ha ha). I kept telling myself, I'm only out here to have fun, but it was inevitable that I would catch the racing spirit (The desire to win).
The race started slow. So, I had the first lap of three for my warm up, riding near the front of the peloton throughout. It became apparent that lots of unnecessary braking and inexperienced riders would be the perfect recipe for a crash, more about that later. On the second lap, I was feeling good and was tired of riding my brakes, so I led out for half a lap. So far, the race was uneventful, and felt more like a fast paced Monday morning commute on the Chicago lake front. No attacks in sight. On the final lap, with about 3 miles to go, and one quarter of the way up one of the only hills on the course, two guys unnecessarily went down in front of me. I swerved and unclipped so as not to fall. This separated the peloton from about 15 guys that were ahead of the crash. Luckily, I have down tube shifters, and easily dropped to my hill climbing gears in a flash. I flew up the hill from a dead start, and when I got to the top of the hill, there was no one in sight. So, I put my head down and worked hard to try and bridge back to the lead pack. I look back to see if anyone else made it up the hill, and was happy to see only one rider, Jesse Young (IIT cycling team member). We both worked hard and bridged up to the main pack with less than a mile to go. I came up to the final straight away at the back of the lead pack. I went wide, into the wind, and gave it all I had, finishing 12th.
I know now that I need to work on my sprinting. In addition, I need to know when to start the sprint, so that I am not the last to step it up. Any tips??
Daniel Chavez
Men's D rider
IIT, Spring 2010