Norfolk Classic Road Race: Race Report

Saturday was the Norfolk Classic Road Race. This was a race that I skipped last year but I had always heard that it was a good race and the guys that put it on always do a good job so the family and I loaded up and headed to Norfolk for the weekend since there was also a Crit on Sunday so it was a good weekend for racing......Well it was supposed to be a good weekend for racing.

We arrived at the start of the road race with a little over an hour before start time so I had plenty of time to walk off my 2 hour drive and get changed. When they started lining us up I realized that yet again the Category that I was in was the largest. I felt pretty relaxed at the start but could tell as we got rolling that the legs felt a bit heavy and I could feel the lack of sleep from the night before. I think I only got about 3 1/2 hours total.

As the group got going I was rolling in the pack but when we were about 20 miles into the 64 mile race I wasn't really thinking and mis-shifted and dropped my chain on the first of the 2 biggest climbs and had to stop and put it back on and then chase up the rest of that climb and then up all of the next one. I was in the red the whole time I was chasing.

I managed to get back up to the group but I was having a hard time getting my breathing under control. It felt like my throat was have the size as normal and I just couldn't recover long enough to stay with the group and was spat out the back of the pack.

After I got myself pulled back together I tried to start chasing again thinking that I had enough time to catch back up. I hooked up with another rider also having problems and started to chase again. The only problem know was that my stomach started to do flip flops and I had to go to the bathroom really really really bad. By this time I could no longer see the group and I know that I didn't have much in me so I stopped and took care of business and started to chase down my lone partner and after hooking back up we rode the rest of the race the best we could till the end.

I ended up finishing 24th out of 40. This is my first race that I finished in the bottom half that I can remember. I was pretty dissappointed and I think that I need to make sure I get better rest the weeks before races plus I just wasn't mentally prepared for the race.