My first race back on the road yesterday turned out to be a mild success; I didn’t break anything.

Unfortunately, that was because I rode the entire thing solo.

The Mount Tabor Race Series is a set of six weekly (Wednesday) races around a 1.3 mile loop with 140ft of elevation that I’ve signed up for (5 of 6 are scored for series points, which only matter for bragging rights – I’ll only be able to make 5 due to being in VA one week and this week was a wash so I’ve got no chance even if I do find the legs I don’t have). In reality, I’m mostly doing it because Mount Tabor is a volcano and I think it’d be cool to be able to tell my grandkids that I used to race bikes around one.

Due to the length of the laps and the elevation change, the race is a constant push-fest. If you’re not going uphill, you’re going downhill, and there are no brakes required at all due to the course structure; literally 0 rest. Possibly different if you’re with the pack, but I was not. I haven’t tasted that bloody metallic lung taste since the days of high school cross-country.

So why did I race alone? The primary reason is I showed up late. Except not too late. I was 20 minutes early. They don’t offer preregistration saying they can handle everybody with ease. Except at Race #1, I presume a lot of folks are renewing their yearly memberships so the process was pretty slow. I received my bib with two minutes to go until the race. I rushed over to some random guy, asked him to pin it on, and he completed the last pin just as they started us. I wasn’t clipped in and was at least 100ft from the start. By the time I got halfway up the hill that begins the race, they were already heading down a 35mph, .6mi hill. My chances of catching them were slim to none.

So I raced alone. Picked off a few stragglers, but mostly an uneventful solo time trial that really hurt.

Results are here. Relatively good considering the circumstances (27th out of 38)? I don’t know… At the very least, I was able to recon the course for next week and get a start under my belt (the upgrade from Category 5 to Category 4 requires 10 starts).

Pretty excited for the next few races. Based on the fact a buddy of mine who is faster than me and a much better climber didn’t podium, my hopes aren’t too high, but I do hope to hang with the group through most of the race.

My GPS dump including ride to the race and then ride downtown to meet Heather at work so pretty much useless for getting any data from it other than solo segment times.