He's down. Kick him!

I always have used my first couple races of the season to get my butt kicked. This one was especially tough as I really haven't been riding the way I should be right now. The work thing has me going in 6 different directions currently so I at least have an excuse. The start was more than a bit mixed up as the promoter certainly wasn't expecting the number of riders that were there. The 123s and 40+ riders were up near 60 and for the roads we were on, that was pretty much about the max. Unfortunately at the start, it seemed they changed their minds and wanted to give us a staggered start. And staggered it was. No one, apparently knew about this staggered start so the field was split immediately with some of the 40+ers going and the rest staying. I'd started and then held back. When the rest followed then, I thought, 'oh well, we are racing with the 123s'. Nothing in the world screws up a race quite like a couple mile sprint to regain a pack right from the gun. Especially when at the end of it, there was a long dragging hill to climb. The pack broke into 3 and my fat butt wound up in that 3rd part. After chasing for a lap and keeping close to the next group who was chasing the front group hard, realization hit in that it was that wonderful 'Thanks for coming, folks' time. So, now it was a fast training ride. We were in a group of 6 now and with the exception of 2 who didn't know how to push on the pedals when going thru to the front we were working steady. The 2nd time up the climb, one rider foolishly took off. I just thought, 'DumbA**, we'll see you back in a while'. (We did and he still didn't understand what I was talking about) I did have to think twice about that though when I found out the riders I was with had absolutely no understanding of how to in an echelon. How many years had these guys been riding? It's not as if it's rocket science, but everytime I pulled off the front, the others kept pulling closer to the side of the road opposite of the wind. Now we had a string of riders who were lined up in a cross wind, one behind the other. This was cycling 101 for God's sake. Apparently, they missed that class or blew off the required reading. The short story of it was that it was a smack in the back of the head to let me know just how much I am not ready for the road season. Gotta get on that bike more and make sure I don't lose the front pack next time. Oh well, next week will be here soon enough. Time to insert another quarter and try again.