Part of webmaster's adventure in Cycling
Good evening, I have returned home with my t-shirt. I did not take home a jersey. One of my friends came in 2nd place in his race. I am waiting for the timing results to come back. I want to see if his overall time beat most of the overall times in the 1 lap races.
I signed up for the Cat 5 race several weeks ago on BikeReg.com. I think that I might have received the last spot on my race. I did hear from Dave that he wanted to sign up but he had missed the cut-off. They had several spots open on race day.
The weather was spectacular. It was not hot and it was in the sixties. I was not going to overheat. WA1NYC and I rode down in Railfan two to Jamestown, together. We arrived shortly prior to the official opening of the registration lines.
I presented my license to the women. Neither of the ladies reviewed my age. They were trying to find my paperwork and they were unsuccessful. They were looking in the folder for the 35-45 field. I just managed to stay in the 18-34 field. The timing guy did the same thing later on. I really wish that they would look for me in the 18-34 folders versus the 35-45 field. This must mean something.
I did some warm up on the streets of Jamestown. It was pretty uneventful. I started on the line. I was in third position for awhile and I led the pace line for awhile in the beginning. I tried to shake the wheelsucker behind me. I went diagonally across the road back and forth. We had a good hill going out of the East Ferry area. We took a curve underneath the bridge and we were headed North on a pretty and sedate street.
Next, we did several turns of complexity. We turned onto a tough stretch of road. I have been told that the Rotary goes with asphalt to patch the surface prior to the race in this section. There were some rolling hills. My field was playing the French game. Everyone wanted to see who would go first. If they crested the hill, then they would slam on the brakes. It was definitely very bad to be in the rear of the peleton. The back and forth flow would really send you far to the rear, if you did not keep the pressure up.
I hung in the front with the top 10-15 riders. I was able to swoosh around the lighthouse loop. I really banked through that loop. Two riders went crashing down to the ground behind me. They both ran into a third racer fixst in between the two. He kept on charging behind me. He stopped and chatted with me for a little bit.
I was getting a little bit nervous. On the final hill I lost traction in the pack due to poor place
ment and I had to slow down due to parked cars. I will ride on the left on the final hills. It is safer and better.
I managed to pull in 25th place. I had to wait forever to hear the results after I crossed the line. Eventually, they posted the results on the board. My name was not there! I spoke to one of the officials that I know. He gave my bib number to the timing guy. The timing guy started looking for me in the 35-45 field.
I went over to the timing booth and we found myself at 25th place. I received a promise that I would be on the web posting. I thanked the timing official. One of the other officials was nonplussed since I was only 25th and I should not worry about ranking 25th.
My friend, Jerry, came in SECOND in his field. I grabbed a picture of him receiving his medal.
N1EY
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