What: Road Bike Race
Where: Mosport International Raceway
When: April 15, 2007
Distance: 44 KM
Website: www.bikecrazie.com
This was my first Road Cycling race and it was a huge learning experience for me. This race takes place at the Mosport Raceway located North of Bowmanville so it was nice and close, which was a good thing as I forgot my water bottles at hom
e and only realized when I was half way there. The course is a 4km track that is fairly technical with quite a few turns. 90% of my riding is solo so I wasn’t sure how I would do with all the turns in a group. I arrived only about 40 minutes before the race so quickly registered then ran back to my car to get changed. I then headed out for quick warmup and was happy that I had chosen the right clothes as it was fairly chilly and snow was in the forecast. After a quick bathroom stop I headed to the start line with major butterflies in my stomach. I started to get cold while waiting for the start gun to go off but then the race finally started, or did it. The pack moved forward at what felt like a snails pace, averaging about 19 or 20 km/h. The first lap was completed at this pace. It was tough for me to hold back with all my nervous energy, but it was a good way to see the course which I had not ridden before. At the end of the second lap was when I made my mistake. As we rounded the secondlast corner after coming down a slight incline I moved just outside the pack as I was coming up fast on the guy in front of me. As we started up the final hill into the start/finish area the front of the pack began to speed up. I was caught out of the pack and was unable to get back in. I powered up the hill but was caught behind some other riders and missed the break. As I came to the top of the hill I saw the break about 75 metres ahead of me and tried to catch up. Unfortunately there was no chance of catching them on my own. After 2 laps of slowly falling behind I teamed up with another rider and working together we started to make up time. With 2.5 laps left to go I was coming around a corner when I heard a weird sound coming from my rear wheel. I looked down and saw to my disgust that I had a flat tire! I pulled over and tried to quickly do a change. If this was a MTB tire it would have taken me about a minute to change because I have had a lot of practice. Unfortunately I haven’t practiced on a road bike very often. To make matters worse the tube was stuck to the tire and it took me an extra minute to rip the tube out. In all it took me about 7 and a half minutes to change the tire which put me a lap behind. I finished with my tire, jumped on my bike and took off to try to finish as many laps as possible. In the end I finished 1 lap down but felt pretty good. I will definately be trying another road bike race, probably the Douro Road Race in Peterborough at the end of July.
