Training Camp Day 14, Racing

First race of 2009...not to be disappointed. In Majorca, the local clubs put on races throughout Feb and Mar. Its basically anyone who shows up with a license can race for 6EUR. The race took place on the far west portion of the island with a start in Peguera with climbs up to Capdellá then to Andratx then down to the port and back to Peguera. 27,7km loop, 3x. I think there were probably 100 starters. What was nice was that if you showed up to the start line late, the chief ref relegated you to the back. No bs moving to the front like is so often in the US. I took to the line early with a 3rd row start, about 8wide. It was neutral for I don't know how long b/c after the first roundabout after climbing out of town, it was just insane. I kept taking holes and moving up but the roundabouts got the better of me. Lacking racing speed in the legs and just general peloton mindframe, I suffered holding position. I know this will come around. The first climb was about 4km, 5-8% so fairly steep and with it hitting just 4k from the start made things interesting. The race was blowing up considerably and with the crazy narrow roads and the complete chaos that is racing in europe, it spelled a little bit of disaster for my start. I managed to get into a decent chase group. I think we were 2nd group. There was one insanely strong austrian and a bunch of spainairds. Several of them had radios and team cars came up to talk to them. The austrian was taking enormous pulls which I couldn't understand. The spanairds were more than happy to work. I took a few easy pulls at the front just to make a brief appearance but I always kept the pace slightly slower. Knowing that we weren't going to catch the next group, I reevaluated my options and knew that I needed to stay as fresh as possible for the finale which ended on a 1.5km cobbled section through Peguera. There was a climb just before entering Peguera. I decided this was going to be my place to attack since there was no attacking and I was feeling. I jumped before the summit and got about 25m gap but struggled to keep the pace high on the descent and was caught. Once caught I briefly rested and tried again but no bueno.

All in all, excellent experience. I now have some things I can work on. The race speed and peloton skills will only get better naturally b/c now that I have a race in my belt for the year, this aspect will come around. Fairly pleased with fitness. I don't know how much the cold I have been going through took out of my legs. But you can only do what you can do. I reached vomit stage so I can't complain too much about my effort.

Rode the 40km home. I managed to video record a sick sport session on the water. Unfortunately, I also managed to delete it via bluetooth. Dooohhh. So to recap, there were some wakeboarders who built a slide rail and put it in the water in a pretty shallow section of the bay in Palma. At the other end of the small bay was a truck with a generator and cable attached. Attached to the other end was a ski handle. So these wakeboarders were getting ripped along the water with a steel cable. It was pretty insane. Europe is definitely ahead of the curve on "sporting" events.

Well, 2 more days of training for me in cycling paradiso...
chow,
Matthew