Race one

I finally took the plunge and participated in a Criterium race! The Tour de Champaign, once the stomping grounds of Amanda and Ben, was a nice small starter race. There were about 25-30 riders in the CAT5 race (beginners level). Here are the highlights.

-Averaging 24.1 mph over the 35 minutes.

-not crashing (but coming close twice.. both times around a corner. the first I just was nervous, and the second time an outside bike got close to me and my front wheel rubbed up against the back wheel of the person in front of me.)

-Staying in the main chase pack the whole time

- At the end, I managed to beat a few people in the final sprint. (12th place overall)

- It rained AFTER our race finished. It wouldn't have been fun doing this first one in the rain.

Training will now be changed to involve more sprinting. Lots of it. After every turn, there was a sprint for a few seconds as everyone grouped up. I need about 15 minutes more of sprints in my legs to do better.

It's amazing how close people are together during these things. Sometimes we were single file but lots of the time I had bikes on all sides of me in very close proximity.

Overall, it was pretty fun and I made my goal of staying in the pack. Liz posted all the pictures and video of the event at http://accidentalboilermaker.blogspot.com/