First Hard Efforts of the Season Down

Today was my normal kick-off to the racing season with the start of the GVCC Giro's. As usual it brings everyone out for a day of racing, catching up with old friends, and good training efforts. And generally it means the end of the indoor season!!

We were greeted with excellent conditions for the day, and this brought out a good number of riders. As is usual we have a little roll-out to the course and then the racing kickstarts. A break went early and the pack let the 2 riders have a little bit of a leash but they were reeled in over by Parish hil.l Soon as they were caught the mandatory Shickluna attack was launched and that got the pack a little antsy. We suffered quite a bit along the backside of the course as everyone gave chase and there was a brutally strong wind. As we made our way off the larger loop we were greeted by the local sheriff, flashing lights and all. Apparently, a few people had been complaining about us taking up too much off the road. After a brief reprimand racing was restarted. Sitting around for a few minutes really took the life out of my legs and it took me a few minutes of suffering to get back up to speed. Just prior to rolling across the line for the 1 lap to go a break of 4 went up the road. I saw the break, saw it had the right combination and hesitated. I tried to bridge, but it was futile they were gone and I was left begging for scraps. The break stayed away to the end, but their games of cat and mouse almost go them caught at the line.



Overall I was pretty satisfied with my form. I've done basically zero training above threshold specifically, so it was a little bit of a shock to the system. Hopefully mixing in these next few weeks of good efforts with some long aerobic rides (see my previous post about tomorrow!) will be just what the doctor ordered for the upcoming season!

Listening to the prayer from the album "A Weekend in The City" by Bloc Party

Technorati Tags: GVCC, Racing, road cycling