California Bicycle Racing Premiere Criterium Series Experience #3
This race was actually #2 since the original #2 race that was supposed to occur at the beginning of February was postponed until the end of April. However the organizer already posted the race fliers for all of the races so they decided to leave the numbering as originally published. Got that? It doesn't make a difference but it amused me.
Masters 55+/60+ (50 minutes): I was hoping to regain some confidence at this race because I have raced on this course for over 15 years and the organizer was running this race clockwise which is the direction I prefer. The overall event was amazingly well-attended (who says road is dead?) to the point where I had to park in an unofficial overflow area. Our field was just average in size. about 50 riders total.
I felt decent as the race got going but it was hard to stay near the front because of a lot of, in my eyes, shenanigans in the group. A couple of strong 55+ guys got off the front about 15 minutes into the race and we never saw them again. I finally worked my way into the top 5 and after a lap of watching people not wanting to pull through, I attacked and hoped that someone would come with me. No one did.
On top of that, I started getting that asthma thing again so after a whole half lap of freedom <sarcasm>, I struggled to get back into the field, recovered, and just stayed in the pack for the rest of the race. I ended up 23rd out of 25 finishers (28 starters) in 60+.
The bright spot is that I stayed in. I need to figure out what is causing this asthmatic reaction. Could be racing in cold-ish temperatures (somewhere in the 40°F range).
The weather for this coming weekend is not promising for the races that I wanted to do on Saturday and Sunday.