A Sunny Sunday in Phoenix

Another eventful day was had here in Arizona yesterday.  After the previous days misadventures, Eric and I were ready to have a nice day riding in the sun.  On the schedule was an easy ride to the site of the Criterium (~30 mi away); Eric was going to be racing and then another easy ride back to the house (~30 mi).  When you don’t have an automobile it really makes it easy to rack up the miles.

Since the race wasn’t until 3:30 we had plenty of time in the morning to get ourselves together and relax.  We ended up heading out to the race around 12:45 and other than hitting about a million stop lights, the ride was uneventful.  It ended up taking us a little over an hour and a half to cover the 30 mi to the race.  Once at the race I just couldn’t stop myself from getting in on the action.  After talking to Eric I decided that racing was the only option for me.  I know that this race was not scheduled but I have been wanting to race in an actual bike race for quite some time, and personally I feel like it can only benefit me as a cyclist and triathlete.

It ended up being an absolute blast!  Here is the Garmin File for those interested –> 1st Bike Race.  So the race went pretty much like this…me being a complete newb to the whole bike racing thing spent that majority of the race near the front and completely in the wind instead of sitting nicely in the pack and conserving energy (watts).  Even though my HR was at astronomical levels I felt like a million bucks.  It was so fun to be in and around other cyclists all getting after it.  There were surges and lulls, I totally understand how some people relate bike racing to poetry in motion.  Sure this was a very low level Cat 5 Crit…but I got it!  It was great.

With 3 laps to go I decided to step on the gas a bit and try to string things out so that Eric could have a better shot at taking 1st.  He obviously is the stronger bike of the two of us and the more experienced bike racer as well.  He would be the one to give us a shot at some $$.  Well for about two laps I was in control, I felt like Mark Renshaw leading out Cav.  After I had my moment in the sun I was content to finish mid-pack and enjoy the finishing straightway as Eric tried to get the win.  In the end he finished third and earned a $40 paycheck.

After making the 30 mi trip back to the house (we made it back 10 min faster than our way out) we promptly spent half of the days earnings on dinner…which consisted of this –>

And oh yeah, I almost forgot to add that on the way home from the race out string of misfortunes continued as Eric flatted not once, but TWICE!