A day at the races

Having a read at the posts so far I realized that even though the blog is about a race, there was already one other race that I did not review in full. In the hope of makin this very exciting reading, this is my attempt for a race report on last Saturday's bike race (fun, club, training, not peaked for, but a race is a race):

I've decided I'll be on the C grade on this season... it is probably a slack approach that may change in the future, but I did not want to have an all out 72km to start the season... I know I can stay with the bunch in the grade and as someone said the other day, B grade is flat out 2 hours racing.
So we started with a 1km neutralized start due to a patch of gravel on the road, then it was a left hand turn and the race was on. It was two loops of a 25km course and on the last lap we would take a longer straight and finish up a long steady not very steep hill. My plan was to finish among the top 10 wheels and to gain a bit more of confidence riding elbow to elbow with others. I had a free ride for most of the first lap and tried to improve my downhill skills which are medicre.
At the end of the first lap I thougth the bunch would take the gravel part easy again, but I was WRONG!, got catched off guard, drinking long sips and when I reacted I was 100 metres off, there was three others, but none jumped on my wheel when I started time trialling. Two kms later I was back at the back of the bunch and I knew I had wasted precious carbs, no HR data to look at, so all good, just conserve energy and go hard at the end.
I didn't know the last 5km of the course so I deiced to serve my bit at the front towards the end and slow the bunch for a couple of minutes until someone would take over and guide me. It all worked OK and the guy that took over put the gas down for a bit and a group was formed, 5km to finish, but 1min later no one wanted to do any work, so back to the bunch ride. The end bit is a single hill with 3 steep parts and 2 sections that are OK, someone attacked on the first steep part and a group followed, I was in the group. The bunch started to spread and someone else attacked on the flattish section a smaller group followed and I wasn't, the legs weren't responding, then all of a sudden about 20 guys went past me, and I dug deep and stayed with them, but the feeling was: there's gas for this for two more minutes, you better stay in touch.

So, we came to the next hill and the group I was in started to catch people dropping from the first group.... and someone attacked again, Bummer!, I had no reply. Sat on the saddle and tried to do the last 1.5km steady, I managed to pass a few and get passed by other few.
End of the day: finished in the middle of the bunch.. not bad, but not great either, the lesson learned: Stay cool - know where you are going.

Next report will be in the third person, ha ha.

Today's workout:
Sport: cycle (indoor)
Time: 1hr
Distance: n/a
Comment: I went on a higher wattage for this one, and the legs responded OK! I'm a happy man (after that diner anyone is!)