failbike

Eric convinced me to come out and do the San Jose Bicycle Club tuesday twilight criterium. I was really intimidated about my own speed an ability to ride in such close quarters, but since he had started it and said it was “fun” I decided to give it a try.

Well, to make a long story incredibly short: Eric won and I came in second in my first race. Not only that, but I feel like I was able to help him win by pulling him and our break during a good portion of the last lap. I was actually in control of my race, closing breaks as they developed, and making sure ours stuck when it counted.

Everything went really well, except when I got sideswiped by a guy on the descent, thanks a lot dude!

I’m going to steal Eric’s ride report for some better-written info…

Slonie and I got there a little late so I just had time for one lap before everyone massed up. Recognized some people from last week and said hi, then it was our turn to roll. Right off the bat I was feeling way more comfortable, just from not being the first time. The wind was less strong than last week but still blowing pretty well up the Hellyer leg. 

I really wanted to stay in the lead group on the downhill leg to practice taking the turn at speed — towards the back it would get bunched and folks would hit the brakes more, then feel like they had to work massively to not get gapped as it turned into the wind. Not efficient and no good for learning. I just took it easy for most of the laps, took turns in front when I felt like it but never topped out over LT for minutes at a time like last week. 

The last lap the SJBC gals , Benson (mentor guy, leading in ty’s second pic) Slonie, me and a couple of others picked up the pace. Benson yelled out “we have a break, if we work together we can keep it”. People didn’t work together very well but Slonie ended up pulling into the third turn. We went wide to let people come up inside for the last turn into the finish. My goal was to be 4th back when people started sprinting. The lead marshal went really early (I guess either for fun or to inspire people to pick it up) and I just let him go. He was crazy fast and I thought he was either gonna burn out or blow us out of the water, and either way was ineligible to win, so what was the point  Two others jumped and I followed over a SJBC on her Leopard. I spun up in lower gear and waited to shift up until it almost felt too late , then went for it with maybe 60m to go..bumped across the line as hard as I could and saw Slonie was right behind me and a grinning guy in SJBC kit.. Slonie said “Whoa, what just happened?!” We hung out and slapped our own backs for a bit (nobody else seemed to notice or care because hey it was C’s — what a good antidote for ego trippin’!), talked to Jon and Maurice, then headed back to town for some well-earned Kahoo ramen.

So yeah, time to repeat with the B group - which I do not have any expectation of winning; hanging in the pack till the end would be a fantastic start.