Off and Racing

Well, given that I have gotten a few emails saying that it was worth reading or had at least been read then I guess I should try and keep it up to date and include some new content. So what has been happening? I’ve played football with the exchange students a couple of times now, not that I’m very good but it is good to watch them play (as they are very good, a few guys in particular) but it makes for a bit of fun , and then of course I have been working and that covers most of the period.

On Saturday I entered and road in a bike race. 6 x 10.something km long laps. I didn’t try to get too close to the start line as I didn’t expect to be the fastest by any measure. After a bit of a slow start I jumped through a couple of groups and found a bunch that were holding a similar speed to what I was happy to ride. I stuck with these guys for a lap and a half and then felt that we were not going fast enough. I could see another group of riders in front of us but there was a lone rider just around each bend. I decided that if I broke away and caught up to the lone rider, then I could stick behind him for a while and then try to do the same to reach the next group. This was not as good in practice as it was in theory. Every time I got close to the guy he pulled away again. By the time I got right on the back of him, I’d ridden for a lap by myself and half a lap later the group I’d been in caught up to us. After this the group pace felt slow and I ended up in front for the better part of two laps. We slowed a bit as the race progressed and as we approached the end of lap 5 two very energetic riders pasted me at what felt like twice my speed. It didn’t take me long to realise that these were the race leaders. Not long after, their was an amazing roar as 30-40 bikes screamed past me in the last 200m before the start/finish line. So over half the field overtook me on the last lap, but I was still racing and then had to weave through them all as they stopped after the finish. We took the last lap fairly easy and didn’t kick into a sprint until about 500m to go. I finished in the middle of the group I had been riding in, 68th out of 77 riders on the long course. The is a video of the finish and I pass in front of the camera on the 26th second of 1:06. Yes I’m the guy who looks severely underdressed compared to all the other riders, and of course I still have one lap left here.

On Sunday I did the final race of the season on the 33 footer. It was a fairly light race and we didn’t push too hard. We had three on board again which meant Mats and I shared Trimming the Jib and the Kite. It was a mostly uneventful race but the weather was nice and sunny and although not warm, was very pleasant out on the water and quite enjoyable. We crossed the line third about 30 seconds behind the boat in front, and won the race on handicap from the boat in front by about 40 seconds.