to the dark side

The UPS package that arrived two weeks ago has been put to good use. Yesterday I entered my first real road race atop my new scandium & carbon fiber road bike. The frame weighs in at 2.9lbs...freaky light although it's possible to break the 2lb barrier if extremely well funded. The sub 2 bikes should only be raced for a season or two which compounds the total cost. Nothing I need to get into, not until I get fast anyway.

I got killed in a Cat4 race. I hung with the peloton until the final climb where the group blew apart. I was in a second chase group in sight of the peloton but unable to bridge the gap. So our group worked together, sort of, in a feeble effort to get back into the mix. Was more interesting than fun. I learned plenty. The most important lesson is to put more miles in on the bike. It is pretty wild to be rolling along at 28mph or so without putting in much effort which is what happens when in a group of 100 riders. Being handlebar to handlebar at such speeds is complete lunacy, especially when some riders are squirrelly. I kept my distance from them and the potential carnage of the sloppy riders.

I like the bike. I'm thinking that the race venues that will interest me the most will have lots of climbing and suffering. First I need to suffer in training so I can make others suffer on the race course. Ahhh... it's all about the suffering.