How can a race go wrong before it even starts? Let me count the ways….

First all is going just like normal, hanging out with my friends and teammates, getting dressed and pinning on my numbers, warming up like normal with a couple sprints and steady state efforts to loosen up the legs. Then standing within sight of the finish line and talking with the race director, my old roommate Kristian House who is also the current British National Champion and finally a race official.

The race is just minutes from starting and the lead and follow cars drive up behind us, as we make room the race official tells Kristian and I that we should turn around and go through the park over to the staging area instead of following the cars through the start line. Of course we say ok no problem. We turn around and roll around the park and to the staging area where multiple fields are lined up. As soon as we arrive my friends in the cat 3 field immediately shout to me that our race has already rolled out and that we have missed the start! Of course we assumed they were joking but when they persisted we caught on and pushed through the crowd to the road ahead. In the two minutes that it took us to roll around the park the race had rolled out. So with little to do now but chase we jumped onto our bikes and accelerated.

Now when I say “we” accelerated, I mean Kristian rolled up to speed and never slowed down! I cannot say that I am as fit as I used to be when I raced full time but I can hold my own in a typical cat 1 race. Kristian rolled up to speed and according to my SRM I averaged 360 watts for two and a half 8 mile laps and I never touched the wind, not even once! My heart rate went straight to 190 and I never started to recover. Now, Kristian has always been super strong but man I have rarely personally followed a rider that can pull that hard for that long without slowing down. Needless to say after 30 minutes I was completely blown and I cracked on the short steep hill that the course goes up each lap. At this point I rolled the next ½ lap into the start finish and called it quits for the day. Our field was never in sight despite Kristians high powered chase. Kristian continued on for another lap without me but he too pulled the chute at that point and decided to just save it for another day of training.

On a side note, you can see how the race ended for the junior rider Patrick Smalls that drove down with us from Little Rock. This is after he skidded out in a corner and hit a tree! You can see the fork didn’t break but pulled through the head tube of his frame! He was a bit knocked up understandably but he was fine in the end.
Another weekend of racing down and the season is officially ON! Next stop Mardi Gras!

Here is a photo album of the race, courtesy of Tokarski Photography.

-Zach Spinhirne-Martin