Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #4, 10/18/2012

Published 2012-10-18

Not much to report. Thom rode SS, I had gears. We staged near the front but I had a sluggish start and lost a lot of places. I spent all race slowly inching up on him but never overtook him. Finished 32 of 87. I screwed up my Strava profile for the race but in a fun way.

Recent rains turned the course slippery (not tacky as I expected). Still, better than dust.

My lack of descending/handling skillz really hurt me this race. As at Rainier, I was back and forth with about two other riders: I’d overtake them on the flats, climbs, runups, and in the velodrome; yet they’d get it all back on the descents or tricky sections. So: need to work on that for sure. But it was comically like anti-tactics: we were mutually blocking for each other yet not advancing much.

I had a lot of trouble engaging my pedals. Cleats all jammed up with gunk. This morning I gave them a good look, the eggbeater shims act like little wings that collect crud. I'll need to cut or file them off, perhaps.