Boulehard!!!

It's me again. Just a quick race report on Boulevard. When you look at Boulevard on paper, it should set up perfectly for me. Starts off fairly flat, a few miles of that, then it goes in to a nice fast descent, a great chance to get in to the big-ring and get the legs warmed up for the 10 miles of climbing to follow. It looks good on paper. Why is it then, that when the race reaches the climb, I'm always popped off the back? This year I must admit, I fully expected that, so when it happened, I was OK with it. You can't be off the bike with injury and sickness for almost two full months and expect to come back strong after only two weeks of training under your belt. This wasn't what made Boulevard so tough this year though. The BIG story of the day, was the weather. Yes, anyone who's ever raced Boulevard knows that the weather is always a factor. High winds, freezing temps, etc. But SNOW!!! Arrived at the race 1-1/2 hours before my scheduled 9:15am start. Should of been plenty of time, but by the time I moved the car (to get out of the mud), got dressed in every piece of gear I own, pinned the numbers, etc., it was five minutes til 9, and still no warm-up! So hop on the bike and ride around the parking lot for ten minutes attempting to get the blood flowing...useless! Roll over to the staging area, and wait for the official to do her thing and blow the whistle. This was one of the worst parts of the race. Now I'm not moving and getting cold fast. Finally the whistle blows and off we go. A teammate of mine takes a flyer right off the start, and another asks, "What's he doing? Probably trying to get warm I say. Anyhow, race through the back half of the course staying in the top twenty of a field of 61 riders. Beautiful. Reach the first climb, the heart rate soars, and the pace never lets up. Bye bye peloton. Needless to say, the rest of the race was uneventful, except for the wind, the rain, the freezing rain, the hail, and finally the snow that begin to fall on the final climb. Finished 54th out of 61. Not exactly the result I was hoping for back in late November when I begin training, but then was stopped due to earlier mentioned injury and sickness. I have another RR this Saturday, the UCLA RR up in Pearblossom. Again, no grand plans to finish high with my fitness being as low as it is right now. I'm aiming to be competitive for the UCSB RR on March 8th. I figure I have a full month to prepare for that. Until next time...