The “ego thing” is exactly what you have displayed throughout this thread…an unwillingness to listen to the advice and feedback from this with more experience.
Every single one of those “reasons” you just listed is just an excuse. You entered the 3/4 race when you were strongly advised against it and it unfolded exactly as people said it would. Yes, you followed and arrow but clearly missed something else…and regardless, it is the riders’ responsibility to know the course, etc.
The list of mistakes you made is all up there, but you seem intent on shifting the blame to others for YOUR mistakes.
I honestly don’t care if you quit or not…but we have all been where you are. Whether you want to learn from the experience and race or just pick up your ball and go home is up to you.
I ordered the junction box to be shipped priority and it got to me on Friday. I had 1 day to install and charge. If it wasn’t working, there was no other option. I don’t have a 2nd TT bike sitting around and I’m not converting to mechanical at last second. LBS out of question since they are closed on Friday evening and open too late on Saturday. At that point it was what it was.
I shifted it on the stand. But I didn’t pay attention to front derailleur. What I’m saying is that at that point, if I had noticed something wrong, there was not enough time to do anything about it. I’ll look at it after work today and see what the issue is. All the wires are connected
OK, to clearly state it… you should have tested front shifting in the stand, right after finishing your install (which sounds like it was the day or at least evening before the event).
Regardless of you being able to fix it or not, you should have known it was a problem the day prior, not while getting in line for the start.
TAKEAWAY: Test your equipment BEFORE event day, AND AGAIN the morning of the event.
Things can always happen, even if you don’t make changes, that can lead to bad experiences like you had. Best to catch them as early as possible.
Like everyone else mentioned, we’ve all been there…
I also imagine things get really complicated these days with zwift and other indoor platforms.
Hitting a virtual number and beating virtual opponents while sitting in front of a screen is giving too much sense of confidence to some, which is not at all related to real world situation.
Racing is hard even in the lowest categories, and the only way to get better at it is to race and race and race.
It’s hard to say without knowing the reason you got dropped on the second day - but I’d wager you could improve your pack handling and tactics and conserve a ton of energy to avoid getting dropped, particularly on a relatively flat course.
In my opinion, the feeling you’re having is the difference between someone who rides bikes and someone who races bikes. Bike racing is a (mostly) miserable experience. You’ll get dropped, you’ll suffer, you’ll have a ton of terrible experiences - some of which will be mentally painful, some of which will be physically painful.
It seems everyone else has detailed out a lot of possible learning experiences you could take from this event, so let me just briefly mention a mindset change you should consider.
You got your ass kicked this weekend. If your takeaway from that is ‘this is miserable, never doing it again’ that’s fine. However, I’d encourage you to try to consider that everyone gets their ass kicked in bike racing. Think about what you could do differently to do the ass kicking in the future. Change your training? Change your approach? Pick an easier race? Easier field? Take a skills clinic?
There are a ton of things you could learn from the last two days that would make things better for you next time, if there is a next time. This approach is how you become a bike racer - understand you will lose and lose and lose. Identifying the reasons for those losses and trying to improve so they are removed one at a time will take a while but is achievable
I hear you, FWIW my solution is to do weekly Wed night worlds that are only a 10min warmup ride from the house. I’ll pay to race once I have enough fitness to hang with the lead group on Wed. Would be great if you had an option like that.
I was reflecting on this and I now realize why cycling has problem as far as getting people to join and increasing popularity. There is really no novice category.
Running used to have this problem in the 70’s where if you couldn’t run your first marathon under 4 hrs you wouldn’t even contemplate signing up for a marathon race. They undid that and now races have upwards to 50k people and lotteries. There are fun runs and races of all varieties. When I did Disney marathon a few years ago, they had kids races and at the time my 4 and 5 year olds “raced” got medals and were cheered on by Mickey and Goofy. The kids had a good experience and I don’t know if they remember it or not but I do and even though they participated the impact was mostly to me and my wife who ended up doing some 5k’s and runs regularly now.
Any run race We have ever joined, even the small ones has people going in waves and the serious people are in the front ducking it out, followed by people wanting to be in the elite, followed by people who are serious but not elite, followed by people trying to improve followed by people who want to just finish the distance. It’s a single race of varying capabilities. If you are stronger than your group, you catch the group in front of you, if you overestimated yourself or have a bad day, you fall into people you can have some competition with. The party people in the back, get to see guys in the front on their way back, and because the race is bigger, the spectators are larger, the energy is higher, and nobody is left on an island by themselves. The winners get their prize purses and the people in the back, get a medal, shirt, and a sense of accomplishment to build on.
On the other hand, you have me for example, wanting to dabble into a bike race with confusing categories and different start times. Half the people that started at 8 am were gone by the time we started at 11:30. It was desolate from the get go and by the time we were done it was empty. I’m in the top 1/3 in biking triathlons on a good day and top 1/2 on a bad day. There should be a place in a race where I can lign up and be somewhat confident I’m in the right place. Never mind that all those people who aren’t as good won’t even think about signing up for a bike race. Almost every 10 year old has a bicycle. Where are the races for them? Where is the race for the guy who just gets a thrill from going 16 mph? Where is my shirt and medal? How hard is it to have some volunteers hand out water at feed stations?
Have one big race where the faster people lign up in front and slower in back. Send the people out in 2 min waves. That will punish sandbaggers in the back and you still have racing in front and nobody is left out.
I should be sitting here today saying damn I’m sore but it was a blast! Let me see what other races I can find and maybe I can do better. But instead I’m at work wondering what is wrong and will I ever enter a bike race again and reading about people who are offended by my ego. If I do it’s because of you all who have been supportive and awesome mates and not the experience I had.
I think mountain biking does a better job with this. At least where I live. There was a summer and winter series and the “beginner” class was really a good intro to mtb racing. Also, endurance events, like 4, 6, 12 hour events are much more casual, often have teams, and are generally more accessible to beginners.
However, you may have something local that you just aren’t aware of. Many areas have “practice” crits that are regularly scheduled. Locally, we have one that runs every Thursday until the end of summer. Often those are much smaller groups and can have an instructional component to them. Perhaps not a true race, but absolutely can simulate one. There are also often clubs in the area that do a weeknight circuit. We have one where they just do FAST laps around a business park, which obviously gives you a ton of practice riding in the bunch.
Not to mention, we also have quite a few non-serious road events around here. 6 times a summer, there is an “unofficial” supported 65 mile road race to the top of a local mountain and back. Big turn out, with both fast and less fast participants. There are also several local “charity” rides kind of like you are describing that have both fast and slow participants.
I’ve been in closed road mass participation events where start time is supposed to correlate to ability. Let’s just say that people overestimate their ability to go at a certain speed. Plus a moron with no bike handling skills is far more dangerous in a crowded event than a runner who thinks they are faster than they really are.
Also, you’re comparing running races to cycle races. Running is much more like a TT.
You’re not wrong but economically, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a resource constrained promoter to dump a bunch of resources into beginners who may only race once. Dabblers will find the races and continue or not. They want to create the best race for the repeat customers, teams and sponsors.
Sounds accurate. A neutral start is just a race to the neutral end point.
Don’t be so quick to give up on it. We told you it’d be different than anticipated. Racing isn’t easy, it’s something you have to work at. If it’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine, but don’t let one event (or weekend) discourage you from pursuing it further.
Reading your report there were a few things that stood out:
You ideally never want to start in the back, even if you’ve got the best fitness in the group, you’re going to experience exactly what happened in your race. Riders getting gapped off and then you’ve got to make up the distance. There’s only so much of that you can do. If you do end up lining up in the back, priority #1 should be moving up asap.
This one comes with experience, but never try something new, or replace bike parts/pieces right before an event. I get sometimes there’s emergencies, but it’s always best to make sure that you give yourself time to work out the issues (if there are any).
It’s a mistake to think that you didn’t make any mistakes. Even the best racers in the world make mistakes, it’s an important skill to have to look at your performance honestly and reflect on what you could have done to improve. There’s always something you could do better.
USAC literally has a category called “novice”… I believe (but am too lazy to scroll back and look) that you were even advised to race that category if it was available.
That’s just bike racing. We’re not competing for thousands of dollars and there isn’t some giant sponsor to support the event, so why stick around if you’ve got no one else there?
There is, it’s the novice category. You have to keep in mind that bike racing isn’t triathlon. They’re two completely different disciplines, and no intentional disrespect, but a lot of the triathletes who think they’re “fast” on the bike just have a nice diesel that creates the perfect draft for guys like me to sit in until it’s time to blow the doors off.
There are both kids and junior age categories.
What you’re describing is more of a charity ride, not a race. Triathlons are events where everyone medals regardless of their time. That’s not what bike racing is. This is a competition against the other racers, not just yourself.
Again, you’re describing a charity ride or Fondo type event. These are very different things from racing. It seems that there is a fair bit of misconception of what you were signing up for, and that can feel bad for sure. But you can’t compare a Tri event or running event to a bike race, they’re not the same in nearly any way.
Wait, what? There is a category like that…it is even called “Novice”. You opted to skip that category, remember?
But yes, there is a fundamental difference between bike races and running races and that is because of the draft. If you lose the group, it is immediately noticeable…you aren’t just another nameless face in the parade. No amount of staging will change that.
Except it was explained to you multiple times in this thread. Own your decisions…c’mon.
If that is your takeaway, I’d say you are proving my point. No one is “offended” and people are offering tons of advice and support. But your only response is to continue to blame others for YOUR choices and mistakes.
My experience is a most people doing a triathlon are there to ‘finish’ and do the best they can…not to ‘race’ others really (much like a charity or Fondo ride). A bike race is a VERY different mentality.