CU Candela's Circuit Race

Well, that sucked.  Today was the University of Colorado Candela's Circuit Race.  This is a 4-lap hill-climb event out in Arvada.  It seemed like a pretty reasonable event, and I was looking forward to it.  But I didn't count on the weather.

This morning, my 7-year-old son had his first football game.  It was an enjoyable 3 hours in 25-degree temperatures and some wind.  Oh wait... it wasn't enjoyable at all.  Actually, it was pretty miserable.  All the kids were crying.  I think some of the parents were, too.

After coming back from football, I had some lunch, then started pulling all my stuff together for the race.  Shortly after, it started snowing.  And it really never got any warmer.

I drove to the race, picked up my number, and started getting ready.  And the weather kept getting worse.  It kind of varied between snow, sleet and freezing rain, along with some wind.  I spent most of my prep time in the car instead of warming up.  I just didn't want to sit on the trainer in that kind of weather.  Instead, I eventually just hopped on the bike and started riding around a bit.  And I'm glad I did, because that was when I noticed that my wheel was iced over.  I knocked some of the ice off, but ended up having to chip the rest off with a tire lever.

I made my way to the starting line, and off we went.  I felt pretty good on the first climb, but then ran into some trouble.  As we got to the top of the climb, we did a u-turn and headed back down.  At that point, I should have switched over to my big front chainring, so I could push it hard downhill.  But when I looked down, my chainring was covered in ice.  If I tried to shift, I would have thrown my chain, which would be really annoying, especially in a race.  So I was stuck in my small chainring.  And that means I couldn't spin the pedals fast enough to do anything.  The only thing I could do was get as aero as possible and coast downhill.

And when I got to the bottom, and needed to start pedaling again, I realized that most of my rear cogs were also iced over, except the one cog I was currently using.  So I was basically stuck in the gear I was currently in, for the rest of the race.  Fortunately, this was a decent climbing gear, so once we started climbing again, I did ok.

And that's how the whole race went.  I climbed fine, keeping up with some people, catching and passing others.  But once I got to the top, I had to coast downhill again, and those people just passed me again.

Here's what my bike looked like at the end of the race:

And here's what I looked like at the finish:

I have no idea why I'm smiling.  I might be delirious.

I ended up getting 22nd out of 28 riders.  Not a very good result, but the best I could manage with my bike troubles.  I'm looking forward to some nicer weather tomorrow, and hope to get out for a nice ride.  No racing tomorrow, so it's kind of a day off.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Salad with chicken
• Dinner:  After race burger and beer at Rock Bottom Brewery.

Exercise:

• CU Candela's Circuit Race

Today's weigh-in:  183.8