From Start to Finish...to Start

It seems like a lifetime ago. Hammering to the front of the peloton on the downhill, only to see the entire pack pass me on the uphill. And ride away from me. Smaller and smaller. And smaller. Twenty-two point three kilometers into my season and I was cooked. Not the start to the road season I had envisioned. What had all those hours spent on the trainer with JvD putting me through hell been for?

 In a season chock-full of criteriums interspersed with a couple of road races and time trials, I had a few other bad days on the bike. Except bad is a bad description. Unless we’re talking about Michael Jackson bad. Because racing my bicycle against other people’s bicycles makes me happy. And ain’t nothin’ bad about that. (Unless, of course, we’re talking about the aforementioned context of bad meaning good). But for the most part, the season was a dope (dope, of course, meaning good). I was more aggressive while also racing smarter than years past.  Part of it was questioning what the heck I was really getting out of sitting midpack in a peloton just so I could be outsprinted and finish 9^th instead of shaking things up and, if all else failed, finishing 23^rd. And part of it was for the photo opps. Maggie loves the camera. (And I must say, the camera loves Maggie. Yeah she’s had some work done, but she’s looking good for 10 years old. That’s like 70 in bike years). Speaking of old, I learned that going off the front of the pack at the age of 41 can take a lot out of a person. But here’s where all that winter training with JvD came into play. Ahh, the sweet scent of mid-race recovery.

So if being aggressive was so much fun during the road season, why not carry that into cyclocross. I kicked the season off last Saturday with a very challenging MEC CX race. I took advantage of a call-up to take the hole shot (for those not familiar with the lingo, hole shot is taken from the auto racing world, meaning you have the fastest start to take the lead. Or something like that. People yelled “Yeah Stringer, hole shot” as I passed the Bici tent into the first corner. So I’ll assume that’s an appropriate definition. At any rate, it’s a good thing. Not just because it’s fun to be fastest at something, but because in cyclocross, being at the front allows you to pick your line and helps you avoid being stuck behind the congestion until the pack thins out. So work on your starts. Unless you’re racing against me. Then forget what I just said). But I digress. So first up the first hill, led going into the second hill, hit a small bump and off popped my chain. It took me about 5 seconds to get it back on. Enough time for 15 or 16 guys to go past me. Déjà vu from the road season – leading on the downhill and ran into trouble on the uphill to start the season. Ugh. But the legs felt fresh this time. Roksi managed to keep her chain on the rest of the way. I crossed the line 12 out of 30. Not a bad start to the season.

And that, my friends, is how you fit a summer of racing into 3 paragraphs.