Melon City Criterium

I awoke this morning to some really bad weather at 6AM in Iowa City. A quick look on the radar and it showed a large system moving toward Muscatine Iowa, home of the Melon City Criterium. I really didn't want to race that course in the rain and was very tempted to not even head out there. However, I am glad I did.

I arrived in plenty of time for my race, which was to go off at 1:30. Due to the bad storm that blew through with 70MPH winds and hail, they had stopped one of the races and sought shelter. I arrived just as the women 2/3 race was being restarted. The announcers were announcing that all the races were starting 2 hours later than scheduled. At least the forecast was calling for the sun to make an appearance and the temps to slowly rise. So, now I had 4 hours to wait until race time. I should have gone to get something to eat, but I didn't think of that until just short of start time for my race.

I pulled out the rollers and rode those for a little over an hour to get my legs warmed up. Then it was off to ride laps in between races and ride through the "wonderfully" paved streets of Muscatine.
Time for my race was fast approaching and I was feeling like I could pull off a pack finish this time. The course is an oval shape with one left hand turn and one right hand 110 degree turn. The real challenging part of this race is the downhill, where at the bottom of the hill there is a 25 MPH speed bump across the road. Then it's up a long hard hill that doesn't appear that way.

Anywho, on to the race. 72 riders lined up, I had good start positioning by being in the second row. I'm feeling good about this. Then we were off, with the typical people having problems clipping in riding all over the road, at a fast pace.

Once we started approaching the speed bump, which never bothered me before, I became too aware of the riders around me and my nerves were reeking havoc with my mind. For the next few laps I would gradually pull back on the descent to give myself plenty of room behind the riders in front of me. Then I would hammer on the pedals going up the hill to catch back on. This is not a good strategy for someone, like myself, who is not overly strong at closing gaps. Around 8 out of a total of 14 laps, I was popped off the back.

Now my plan is to just ride my ride and use this for training. With 3 laps to go, and the pack only a half lap ahead of me, they were pulling riders. I was one of them. This just wasn't making me happy. Oh well, that's bike racing right?

There really is no excuse for myself. I just sucked. My mind is still playing games with me and I can't figure it out. I have already been in 2 accidents this year and one of them pretty bad. In my mind I'm not wanting to feel pavement tear my flesh off and I'm riding overly defensively. In the heat of the moment my mind keeps saying, "It's just not worth it, pull back." In the past I never had this problem and I can't understand why it is happening to me now. I guess it will just take time for it to pass. In the interim, I just need to work on getting stronger so I can pull away from all the sketchiness.

Final result was 40 out of 72. Tomorrow's race in Rock Island, Il is going to be pancake flat and fast. My nerves are already getting rattled. Wish me luck.