Belterra Classico Race
This will hopefully go down in history as my worst race ever. I had not been training well leading up to it (ie less time on the bike but really intense workouts). I had also not been sleeping or eating well. My week was basically a lesson in what not to do. The race was at 11:00 so I slept in a little, ate breakfast, and rolled out for my 30-min ride to the course.
Brian was going to drive up later to watch the race. He actually ended up rolling up right behind me. He had is camera with him so I knew at least he’d get some good photos. It was nice to have him out since he rarely gets to see me race. He really didn’t have an excuse with this race being in his back yard.
I had put in some short efforts on my way there but knew it would not be good enough preparation for doing that hill over and over again. We were racing with the elite women so I tracked down Sheri when I got there. She was with Kim and Meredith, who had ridden almost 40 miles from the city. I started rolling with Kim to find out what our game plan was. The next thing I knew we were lined up. This might have been fine for Kim, who had a 2-hour warm-up, but I felt it was too early. For whatever reason, I stayed rather than adding to my warm up. Then our race was delayed by about 10-minutes so my total standing time was almost 30-min. Also, Kim had been the first person to line up so I was right at the start.
When we started, I was on the front with Kim and Kim was motoring like she always does and I rapidly realized I was in over my head. How to you fall back from your own teammate? I slowed down and the gap was rapidly filled in but it was awkward. I need to recover badly. Unfortunately, I pulled back right before the hill and couldn’t recover. Then on the downhill, I ran out of gears and had to chase. That was basically my race.
I was dropped after two laps, caught a few girls that I worked with the rest of the race until the end when I gaped because of a car on the course and botched my sprint. I think I came in 3rd or 4th from last. It was horrible. I only beat myself up over it for 24-hours, as is the rule. Then I came down with the worst sore throat I’ve had in years and really wished I hadn’t pushed myself so hard. I was so ready for another try at the driveway this week but after being sick, I know I can’t push it.