Ronde von Manda 123. A taste of what’s to come
This would be my first Road race with the 1, 2 crowd and I was feeling confident that I would be able to finish the race. I however was not expecting the race to have 30 mph winds by the time my race started.
The race started out really fast as we made the first right hand turn into the headwind. At that moment I moved myself up towards the front of the pack to get into a good position to avoid the full on force of the cross wind. By the time the field had made the turn into the cross wind section I was still out of the echelon and forced into the gutter to try to survive until the pace slowed a little. However the pace never let up and all I can do was wait until the next turn out of the cross winds before I can move up towards the front. Once we made the turn to get out of the cross wind I found my self having no relief cause we turned into the tailwind section and before I knew it I was doing all I can do to stay in contact with the field in the tailwind section at 37 miles per hour as I was spinning my Jr gears. This first tailwind section ended quickly as we turned back into a crosswind section and I was unable to find any spot in the field that could offer much relief from the pace that was being done at the front. Around this point in the race there were a few attacks which brought the pace way up just as we made the right hand turn onto the really long tailwind section. before I knew I knew it I was spinning as fast as I could to try to keep up with the 40 mph pace being pushed at the front, but this section was way too long for me to keep up at that speed and I started floating backwards. To my astonishment when I looked back there was no pack left. The group I just lost contact with wasn’t the peloton but they were the lead pack. As I was drifting back and recovering I got picked up by the main pack which was down to less than 20 riders or so. I tried to get into this group but It was way too soon after getting shelled by the leaders and I couldn’t put out the power to get reconnected. After a few more minutes of solo riding I then got picked up by a group of about 10 riders. Once on the back of this group I was able to sit on for a few minutes to catch my breath, after getting enough recovery I started to pull through (this is when we finished the first of six laps). Once In this group I was able to hold even and take my pulls when it was my turn, all the way until the same very long tailwind section that I lost connection with the leaders a lap earlier, this is where i lost connection with this group. I was shortly picked up by a few more riders and I was now in a group of about five or six. We worked smoothly without any attacks. After a few more laps we were down to four riders with two laps to go. At this point all four of us just looked at each other and shook our heads, but we just kept riding. In the final kilometer of racing we can see the finish and we didn’t really care about sprinting for the line. I started my sprint probably about 500 meters to go not really caring about my placing. I got passed by one rider at the line but I didn’t really mind, All I kept thinking was I finished a 77 mile RR against the best in the state.
After changing I went up to see the results and saw I finished 18th. That is way better that what I thought I was going to get. What I can say about this experience is that it was a lot fun while I was mixing it up in the lead group. It felt great racing against racers who are a lot faster than me and seeing what I’m going to have to do to be on the top of the podium. Every race from here on out is going to be very hard and a test of willpower as well as dedication to this sport.
Id like to thank and congratulate Eric Attayi for driving me to the race as well as his win in the 3/4s that same day.
