Tour of Lawrence

The Tour of Lawrence was this past weekend, and since I won't be able to race the triathlon I had planned on racing next weekend I decided this could be a fun substitute. Also, I could use the experience racing in a group over some tight courses if I really want to race ITU someday. The Tour of Lawrence basically consisted of two races. A tough, hilly 4 mile circuit race on saturday up on the campus of K.U. and a criterium race around a 1 mile course downtown on sunday. Because I have never raced in any road races before I automatically ended up in the Cat 5 (the bottom category) for both races. That was fine with me except that it meant racing with a lot of inexperienced riders over some courses that require some pretty solid bike handling skills. The circuit race on saturday was a lot of fun, except that my water bottle got ejected from its cage when I rattled of a pot hole on the second lap and was never heard from again. The main pack jumped off the starting line way faster than I expected but I was able to bridge back up to the main group on the numerous, and pretty tough climbs (400ft of elevation change per lap). We did 3 laps and I ended up in 11th place out of some 50 riders... not bad for my first road race! The crit race downtown on sunday was a bit of a different story. Again, the pack shot off the line way faster than I was expecting and I got dropped completely by the end of the first lap. So I spent most of the 25 minute race out in the wind by myself, although I was able to work with some guys off and on throughout the rest of the race. If nothing else it gave me some good time trial practice and the course was a lot of fun. The whole experience was a good learning one for me about the intricacies of racing in a pack. It really does take some major skill and solid game planning to be able to hang in a pack for the duration of a race and my experiences this weekend along with continuing to go on group rides with the Lawrence Bicycle Club will really pay dividends towards making me as good at it as I need to be in draft legal triathlons. These road races just might be something I do a little bit more often... well, maybe. Here are some images from the races: