Greetings From Mid-pack
Tomorrow I’ll officially start racing my 2013 season with the Tour of New Braunfels. Two weeks ago, I wasn’t thinking about my season at all. I assumed I’d start in mid February with Walberg or something. I was sure I would not race New Braunfels. Then one of my teammates put together a pre-ride of the new course. The pre-ride happened to correspond with a huge debate within the club about whether racing should be part of the mission. As part of this debate, my commitment to racing was called out. If there’s one way to get me to do something it’s telling me I can’t/won’t do it. So two weeks ago I rode one of the most difficult courses I’ve ever ridden. The next day I started race training, and 10-days later I was registered.
The background is that I started my race career at New Braunfels. It was my first race, my first crash, and my first DNF. I swore I would never do it again because the course is too easy and the racers too inexperienced. This year’s course is uphill for the first 10-miles. With that aggressive a course, the race should break up quickly making crashes unlikely. That’s really my only requirement for race right now. I have no idea how I’ll do on this course against this field. I’ve finished mid-pack in ever road race I’ve ever done, no matter how well I thought I was riding. It’s also been 2 ½ years since my last road race.
So I hope you will all eagerly await my report from tomorrow’s race. I have no predictions except that it will be very difficult. It will be windy so I’ll need to stay protected. The wind is supposed to shift from NNE to ENE during the race which will mean a head-wind/cross wind for most of the race. I need to be on the west side coming back down the river. Well, until tomorrow.