Tour de Fair Haven

My first ever bike race was a rude awakening, making me realize that I'm not a cyclist. I'm a triathlete, and I'm a runner, but cycling is just something I do in between swimming and running.

The Tour de Fair Haven is a brand new event and I decided to do it because I always wanted to do a bike race, and this one is close to home and on very familiar roads. For a first-time event, there was a huge field in my race (Cat 4/5), 80 people, much more than you'd expect in a local bike race. It was 5 laps of 4.4 miles, for a total of 22 miles, and they called this a circuit race, not a criterium, but same rules applied - if you get lapped by the peloton, you're out.

It was extremely cold in the morning, around 45 degrees, and I got numb during my short warmup. I was surprised to see a very big start/finish area, with many booths, vendors, spectators and, of course, dozens of cyclists (in all 4 races for the day, there were more than 200 participants). As I went to pick up my number, not only they gave me a goodie bag and tshirt (quite unusual for a bike race), but when I said I want to pay for my one-day cycling license, they said I already have one. I said no, they said yes and didn't want to let me pay. Whatever, I never paid for a yearly license.

Well, my first big mistake was to line up at the very back of the group. As a triathlete, I'm not used to big groups of riders, and this was one of my main concerns, getting caught in the middle, crashing, being pushed off the road... You could spot the numerous newcomers, easy to spot by the fact that they didn't have team jerseys, or shaved legs... The peloton started rolling led by the Mayor of Fair Haven, Mike Halfacre, a multiple Ironman and friend of mine. The course went West on River Road for a few blocks, then do a short loop to the left, one block wide, before returning to go East on River Rd. The main portion on River Rd had some easy rollers. Then it turned right and climbed up to Ridge Rd, went for a few blocks on Ridge Rd before returning down to River for a few more rollers to the finish.

Lap 1: Already getting dropped

Second mistake was that at the first 90 degree turn, I preferred to stay out of "trouble", which dropped me back even more so, when I got back to the start line, barely half a mile into the race, the pack was a hundred feet ahead of me. And of course there was nothing left for me to do. As a single rider, there's no way you can match the speed of a bunch of riders. So I started to time trial... Bridging the gap to the rider ahead, staying on his wheel for a bit, then jumping to the next one, and so on. As riders were getting dropped from the peloton, that created more targets for me, and kept me busy for a while.

Lap 2: How not to race a bike race: Alone!

After I finished the first lap, as I was entering the turning loop, the peloton was coming back, so it was maybe more than a quarter mile ahead. As I went on River Rd for the second time, there were fewer and fewer people to pass, as most cyclists who got dropped quit the race (in the cycling world, once you're dropped it makes no sense continuing to race; compared to running or triathlete, there's no such thing as "just finishing", once you're out of contention, the race is over). On the climb to Ridge Rd I hooked up with another first-timer, a guy in a Rocket Racing jersey, and we continued together from that point, trying to share the load. We passed maybe a couple more riders, and then it was just us. On the second lap, we saw the peloton go by slightly before the finish line. It was kinda pointless what we were doing, but I had in mind to get in a good speed workout. Of course, this was quite tiring on my own, and I was probably slowing down considerably.

Lap 3: Time trialing and getting a good workout

As me and my new friend were going over the finish line for the 3rd time, the race official looked at me and signalled that he wants to cut my throat. Oh well, actually he meant our race is over and we have to pull out, as the peloton was just a couple of minutes behind us. So that was my first bike race experience, made it through 60% of it. I didn't have my computer, since they wanted me to remove my aero bars, where the computer is mounted, so the only data I have is that it took me 38 minutes for the 13.2 miles that I completed, which means an average of 20.9mph, not bad at all for a workout. Actually, it ties my fastest ever speed in a race (which was on a flat 11mi), and this time it was on a pretty hilly course.

I had plenty of time to rest and then go to the line to get ready for finish. And that was pretty exciting... The peloton came at an unbelievable speed, I barely had time to notice the sprinter getting ahead in full force, apparently helped by his teammates from Team Campmor. Watching that competitive finish kind of made it worth getting to this race, not to mention the good speed workout. But do I want to do another bike race? Maybe, but if I do, I'll stay much closer to the action. Too many people scared me about crashes, and I didn't see anything dangerous today.

Lap 5: Watching the winners