Tour de Red Bud 20 miles Aug 18 2007

Tour de Red Bud 20 miles. (Marvin) What can I say about this race. Our faces from the picture tells it all. It was the YMCA's first tour and I was feeling good that day. The race was small with 20 or so competitors, and I was nervous not knowing what to expect with this being my first bike race only and not a biathlon. I started out riding in the front pack with two other cyclists. The leader was way out of everyone's league, and nobody was going to catch him. I rode with two other cyclists drafting off each other. This is the first time that I ever drafted and it makes a very big difference on effort. As the race goes on I pull into the 2nd place with only one cyclist drafting me. I could go faster, but I'm holding back because they oiled and chipped the roads we were on and they were hazardous. Another downfall was coming almost to a stop to cross major highways. At one crossing there were volunteers with water but no one watching for cars. That is when I almost hit a truck that was coming out of a bad blind spot from a hill. I felt that the volunteers could have been watching and giving warnings. Incidents like this kept the number 3 rider close to me. The last few miles of the race was in Red Bud and I was in second feeling good. I saw the lead car coming out of a side street. Thinking that this is where I turn, but she pulls out and yells that I missed the turn because the wind blew down the sign. I have to back track about a block and half and catch up to the number 3 rider that slipped into second and pass him. We then turn onto another main highway and rode and rode and rode until we were leaving town knowing that we had to of missed a turn somewhere. We back track until we finally found the finish. The reason we missed the turn was that a police car parked in front of the sign blocking the view. Later they had volunteers telling where to turn, but too late for me and the other cyclist. I was very mad and didn't care what place I came in. After the awards we talked to the director of the race from the YMCA she was very nice and apologetic and she appreciated Dave and mine input of the race. Overall I had fun riding, and now will be looking for a bigger more establish race/tour to do.

(David) "What a horrible, horrible nightmare." Wait, this race wasn't a bad dream? O.K. it wasn't that bad, but it could have been better. One problem was that we had to cross a highway three times and along it once. Another was they had oiled and chipped about four or five miles of road. Of course this was out of the coordinator's hands. They didn't have enough support people, they needed more in town. The start an finish lines were five or six blocks apart. There were a few other things, but back to the race. I showed up on time but without enough time to warm up. I started the race cold and after a mile or so couldn't even hardly see Marvin. I caught up to two other guys after about eight miles and we rode together until the last mile or so. The oil and chipped roads didn't start until nine miles or so. These were fresh too. Usually there are smoother patches on well used roads, but not these. It must have been just a couple days since they did these. I did enjoy the drafting off other riders. We lost one rider as we went up a hill, later he told me his calf cramped up. It got kind of goofy going back into town. You had to cross a highway, turn down a subdivision, go back to the highway, turn down another road (the one Marvin missed and the one I wish I had), and then turn right and sprint about three blocks to the finish. When doing this last part I had one guy in front of me. I didn't know if I could catch him or not, especially running down city streets. He turned down the last street to head to the finish. The street was narrow and had cars parked on both sides. As I turned there was a car coming up to the stop sign. Since the street was narrow the car was in the middle of the street. I locked up my back brake leaving a long black mark and the lady driving the car stopped too. I tried to avoid her but ended up hitting her left front fender. I scratched up my brake hood and left pedal but did not find any other damage. Her car had scratches and a dent. I asked if we needed to do anything and she said as long as I was o.k. that we could go on. I didn't know what to do so I finished the race. When I got there the guy in front of me asked "where did you go?" I told him I got hit by a car. My stats for the race were: dist.- 18.08, time - 55:01, avg. spd. - 19.7, max. spd. - 30.0. When I got there I did not see Marvin so I assumed he had finished and went back to his truck. After about five minutes I decided I would go too and then he came riding up. He and another guy had taken a wrong turn and was just then finishing. So I FINALLY BEAT MARVIN IN A RACE!!!!! O.K., I wasn't that excited. I don't know what I finished, maybe third or fourth, maybe even fifth I didn't even ask. I think the guy in front of me got first in his age group, that was Marvin's age group. My age group was something goofy like 35 to 49 or something. I was excited about this race at first because it was a bike specific race and I had never ran one. But after it was over I just wanted to get out of there. Marvin and I ended up talking to the coordinator for awhile. She seemed real nice and concerned about our problems. She also seemed receptive of our ideas for future races. It was good talking to her and I hope to do this race again if they change a lot of things. Also, while talking to her, we heard that about another six or so people had gotten lost and three of them were still out there two hours after the start.