Ah, last night I went out to the Tuesday night training crit. It was heaps of fun. Well, you know the suffering kind of heaps of fun. This was my first race of the season. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel or how well I would ride. Well, for the most part it was a decent night.

I was a bit nervous at first and it took me a bit to settle down through the corners and find my groove. At one point I had to give myself a stern talking to… I was not riding the crit like I know how to ride crits. Once I settled down though things seemed to flow better. I did get dropped at one point but I took a couple of laps to catch my breath and drink some much needed water and hopped back in. I was rolling along fine and saw 14 minutes to go – I was pretty happy to know I’d be finishing the race. But then my wheel (I think front) started to give me issues. Intermittently it was making a squealing kind of noise through the corners – sounded like metal on metal. Kind of unnerving. And then it started making this same loud noise through the start/finish straight – I ended up pulling out – I was worried the wheel was going to do something crazy and I would end up hitting the deck.

In hindsight I probably should have stayed in but I was a bit nervous about the ridiculous sound. Haven’t sourced the problem yet – but the guess is that it is my hub. (I’ll leave this to the in-house experts…)

So all in all, a great time was had. It was just super sweet to be out racing again. A good barometer of my fitness and how the training has been going. Marc looked at my power files and the good news is, I wasn’t beyond any of my “limits” so this tells me that my fitness is good and that really it was the “silly” way I was riding last night that put me in some deep holes. Many thanks to the pushes – I love that feeling of the hand on my bum giving me a push when everyone is going forward and I’m going backward! Also thanks to Chris R. for the offer of hand-sling – unfortunately I was bit addled at the point and it took me too long to figure out what I was supposed to do!

Looking forward to getting out again in two weeks time for another kick at the cat and then on June 20 we have Preston St. This should be a good time as always. I remember watching Marc and the Sportable boys race this way back in 1994…

Today is looking good. Just about to head out for three hours on the road bike with some intervals thrown in for good measure. Then tonight I’m off to Camp Fortune to meet up with the Creative Wheel Centre mountain biking crew for a ride. Definitely a good day. Oh, and I’m doing the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour this weekend – 177 km to Kingston on Saturday and the return trip on Sunday. First time doing Rideau Lakes – should be a good weekend of riding and friends.

(Sorry that this site was down for a few days…. But good news is we’re back up and racing again.)