Like I mentioned, personal pursuits and otherwise have kept me from maintaining a semblance of proper training for racing. While I love racing, it’s not the sole reason I ride — in fact it’s kind of secondary. Anyway, the Glencoe Grand Prix is a great event and a crit I plan to continue racing in every year — regardless of my fitness, etc. (unless I become dangerously out of shape).

Yesterday’s event was, again, run superbly. Every volunteer, official, etc was really cool (they we’re probably actually very hot) and helpful. Everything within their control, IE: not the weather, was great. All that was left for me was to have a good race. Well…

While I know that my fitness is not its best right now, outside of training with power, there’s really no way of determining just how much of a downturn I’ve taken without testing myself. The scale let me know I’ve gained ten pounds — that’s about all the measurement I’ve got to work with. So, on the hottest day of the year, I lined up with about 50 other racers, soon to find out just how out of shape I’d become.

Not ideal conditions to do so. I was more frightened about this race than any in a while. The course is a great one, but pre-race I honestly felt like I could be a liability. I hadn’t raced a criterium in close to three months and I was out of shape I honestly did not know what to expect of myself.

While you could pedal through three of the four corners, there was immediately a ton of braking going on in each. I found myself towards the back of the pack and with each l corner it became a bit more difficult to stay on. There were a few laps that I solidified a middle position, but more times than not I was dangling off the back. Then I got dropped. My only goal was to not let this happen, but there was no way around it. I felt like garbage and rightly so.

Quite a few others we dropped before me — and there was some work in vain done by myself and a few other to bridge/keep from getting lapped, but at the bell I looked back to see the break and the peloton chasing closely behind. I promptly pulled myself for a DNF as to not pose a threat to the field.

Most of my surprises, though, were pleasant ones; that my base fitness is still there for the most part, that handling and pack riding are still strong points of mine and that I can still recover very easily after hard workouts — it’s the intervals that I’m not doing that effect the opposite of that though… It really makes me think about shifting focus next year… we’ll see. Congrats to Tom MacNeill-Zimmerman on his podium in the men’s 5! Also to Stanley Sterlinski for 6th place in our race (men’s 4) and the rest of the team that braved the humidity!

Hanging out for the remaining races was a blast — after I attempted to “cool down” with some fluids. The women’s 1/2/3 race in the rain was awesome to see. And, as I’ve said before, just hanging out at the event was nothing but a good time. The only bummer was I broke another rear wheel on my ride home. I’ve broken four so far this year. Wow!

I gotta get fast (maybe lose the ten lbs.?) and get a wheel sponsor… Check out some great photos from teammates/friends of the team.