Sunday at Oracle, AZ is the first 'real' race of the season. … U of A Bioblast Weekend - Oracle RR . Sure we did Dawn2Dusk in Dec and last week we did a little TT, but Sunday is 'show time'.
No matter how many years you do something, there is 'opening jitters'. When I played at Texas A&M we always opened with LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. It was the same year after year. I was always nervous…….by the 3rd game, ice water was running through my veins.
This is one of the reasons, I like to race early and race often. A person really needs to race in order to race at optimum. I have had team mates fold under the pressure of races and it is sometimes due to the fact that they have had long layoffs. If you go a year or two without doing something that is intense, can you expect to be anything but nervous?
The good thing about getting out Sunday, is it will be 'opening day' for many of the racers. The course is hard as heck but actually quite safe.
Christina will be racing Cat 4 (likely her last as she has more than enough points to cat up) along with Masters Women and Collegiate ladies. She is likely looking at peleton of 40. The course has such a large amount of climbing that it will give her a nice advantage. I am racing combined 55+ and 65+ and the numbers will be about the same. There are just a lot of fast old guys out here.
We race 2 laps around 20 mile course. After 10 pretty easy miles downhill, we face 10 miles going uphill. I look for races of attrition. We are both in good fitness for this time of the year and the only negative is a couple of pounds, over race weight, that each of us is carrying. The jeans are fitting tight!
The TT last week was a confidence builder…….I will report back next week!
I am not sure where you two are hiding those few extra pounds. From our vantage point you are ready and fit. Have a good race and we will catch up with you at the finish. Carol and Roy
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