Worst race performances

My worst races are the ones where I didn’t do justice to my fitness on the day. I’ve had mechanicals and crashes and they suck, but it’s just bad luck (assuming I maintain my bike properly) and out of my control. Have also had bad races because I’m a bit sick on the day, or develop an injury during the race, also sucks but out of my control assuming I looked after myself properly so nothing to get too despondent over. Have had races where I’ve had good legs and tried hard but just didn’t get a very good finish position because my tactics didn’t work out or the field was strong. That’s fine, that’s racing, will review and change tactics but not going to beat myself up too much.

The race that annoys me most is one where I had good legs but barely fired a shot. 90km fairly flat road race, big field (main pack was still about 60-70 riders when we finished). I was racing solo though knew a lot of people, and there were 8-10 teams with good representation. A small break of 5 riders got away very early representing 3 of the teams, but 2 of the strongest teams had no rider in the break, nearly all the strongest riders were still in the pack and with it being a flat race I initially assumed the break therefore had no chance. I made a couple of attempts to bridge across to the break, a few others came with me but either wouldn’t do a pull, or were only capable of a weak pull that saw us sucked back into the pack. I wasn’t willing at that stage to bury myself towing other people across to a break that I didn’t think would stick anyway, so I settled into the pack to conserve energy and wait for an opportunity to either counterattack when the break was caught (which I thought was inevitable) or get in a bridging attempt with some strong riders from teams not represented in the break which would make the bridging effort easier and the break more likely to stick. Except neither of those things ever happened. The pack would periodically pick up the pace and close the gap a bit, but then inexplicably slow down again - never figured out why, the teams with riders in the break weren’t doing anything much to disrupt the chase. Nobody was really launching any serious attacks that would stick. Everybody just assumed like I did that it was all going to come back together and was saving their energy for that. With 10km to go it got fast and furious but at that point the break was over 2 minutes up the road and everybody was so fresh that there was no chance of getting away from the pack. I’m no bunch sprinter at the best of times and when the pack is 70 people who haven’t done much work and I’ve got no team I’ve got no chance. So rolled over the line in about 40th place feeling fresh as a daisy. Pretty much a 2 hour z2 effort with a few short surges.

And I hated myself for it! Made me realise I’d rather have done something, anything, to try and change the race. If I’d fully committed to bridging and failed then at least I’d have known I tried my best. If I’d made it across but in doing so motivated the pack to chase and doomed the break then at least I’d have had an impact on the race. As it was I might as well have stayed in bed that day, I had zero impact on the race and nothing to show for my efforts. Not even a good workout. Worst of all was then taking to other riders afterwards. The strong guy who came up to me and said he felt bad seeing my initial bridging attempts and had resolved to come with me on my next effort, except I never tried again. The guy who was in the break who admitted they thought they had no chance and couldn’t believe it when the pack never really chased properly. All the various riders who were moaning about what an unsatisfying race it was and wishing somebody had done something about it. Basically turned out that all it would have taken was probably me (or anybody else with a decent engine) rolling past the front with some decent momentum, putting my head down with a sustained 2 minute VO2 effort, and the whole race would have changed in a way that gave me a much better chance of a decent finish.

Have had a few races in the past where I’ve felt I didn’t really do myself justice, but this was by far the worst because my instincts during the race were all correct (I wanted to launch an attack) and there was nothing really stopping me (have done other races on tight courses where teams make it very hard to even get to the front let alone do so with any momentum, but this wasn’t like that, there was plenty of opportunity to go). I think it was also particularly frustrating because my background is in timed events like triathlon, running and TTs, where you might have bad days but you always at least get to tire yourself out. Vowed never to let it happen again, and also joined a team so that at least when the race is unfolding in a way that doesn’t suit me I can still help a team mate.

showing up to a hilly road race 20lbs too heavy and getting dropped on the first climb.

but, by july I was 20lbs lighter and got a top 5 in the toughest climbing race of that year. was pretty much trash after that, though. dieting works until it doesn’t.

Hah, that’s easy… As a young triathlete, I had some pretty quick success and racked up a lot of age group hardware; also was running 5K in the low 5 minute pace.

So, a buddy convinces me to sign up for a 30-mile CAT 5 road race. I was so sure I would be in the mix at the least, right? Well, the race went out of the hole at about 32 mph in a total melee and I got dropped in the first mile! I was both shocked, and feeling totally blown up in the first 2 minutes.

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one, and me and about 15 other people got re-organized and worked our way back into the main pack. But still… that race was DOA.

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So many great stories here :laughing:

Mine was early in the season last spring and at a weekly practice circuit race. I have seasonal allergies and for whatever reason my allergies got super bad the week I wanted to race. I wasn’t feeling great but still determined to go; however, I was late due to traffic and still struggling to get my number on as people were lining up. Then, my nose started bleeding so I missed the start while dealing with that. A lap or two later I tried to get back on as the group came around, but I missed them and wound up chasing futilely for a couple laps. I soft pedaled until they came around again and this time successfully managed to get into the draft at the back. 3 laps later, my nose starts bleeding AGAIN, after which I decided to call it a day.

The “racing” was a total fiasco of course, but I think my greatest mistake in that was not listening to my body and not taking a couple easy days until the allergy meds kicked in.

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My worst was probably my third crit. It was the B race of the Wednesday night series. I had been dropped in my first two races and this one wasn’t any different.

It was pouring rain for almost the entire race. Near the end, guys from the A-race were warming up by rolling around with those of us who had gotten dropped. One of them was behind me and said, “dude, that’s a lot of soap.” I looked down and there were just suds and suds running down my seat tube from my chamois. I said something like “well, I like a clean ass.”

Luckily nobody really knew me so I didn’t earn a cool new nickname like Sudsy or Soapy or Mr. Clean (though I kind of resemble the last one). I was pretty embarrassed afterwards.

I still haven’t figured out how to get all the soap out of my chamois. We rent, so the washing machine is pretty crappy. I dialed back how much detergent I use, but I’d rather have clean stuff that suds from time to time.

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I’ve been in 35+ races like that (as a 50+). Hanging on for dear life hoping a break will go and the pack will settle down. OR barring that maybe a meteor will hit me or lightning or something to end the suffering.

It is fun when you do manage to hold on though.

-Mark

My worst race was an ultra endurance mountain bike race that I was going in with a bunch of fatigue from the previous ridiculously long race only two weeks prior. I just wasn’t ready for it.

2/3rds of the way through I crashed low speed going over a very small log, I didn’t have the strength to lift up in the bars. I was done, I quit. I pedaled through half the field and everyone was like, “what are you doing” which was a fair question considering where I quit, a less than ideal place to make the decision. It may have almost been easier to just limp through, hindsight.

It took me years to mentally recover from that. It was demoralizing and I almost gave up racing. I did take quite a break from it at that point. I then started focusing on shorter races and realized that was the way I preferred to race bikes, short and sweet. It was a good lesson in preparedness, mental fortitude, and a needed change of perspective for my race goals.

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My worst race performance was at a cross country MTB race in Cedar City. It was a very tight course, with lots of technical features. At the start, the whole pack stayed together and we were very tight coming through the technical section. I managed to work my way up to the top 5, but then I got knocked over in one of the tight technical sections when my bars got bumped. I lost a couple spots but it wasn’t a horrible crash. Soon thereafter, I started having severe stomach issues and couldn’t maintain a pace faster than like Z2 without being on the edge of throwing up. We climbed a hill with a 16% grade, and I threw up at the top, something I have never done before because of exercise ever. I got passed until I was in 31st out of 35, and there were still two laps to go. Then it got super windy, and started pouring rain and there was lightning pretty close as well, about halfway through the second lap, so they cancelled the race early. Riding in the wind and rain was horrible and I had hypothermia after finishing. Overall not a great race.

Probably my first sprint tri. It was a short swim but I still struggled. The bike I was on was a very heavy hybrid and even only being 10 miles I killed my legs grinding away at some low cadence. The run was just painful.

I’ve had a couple races with wrecks/injuries that I’d consider the worst, but my 2020 Cedar City BWR was probably the poorest I’ve executed a race. I had good fitness, but was just doing the race with some teammates and wasn’t taking it too serious. It was pretty much the only major race happening during during that time with Covid still at the top of the news.

Anyway, I was overly concerned about the distance and elevation and made 2 big mistakes early. I way over-hydrated in the morning and ended up having the stop 3 times in the first couple hours (losing my group each time). I also rode way too conservative early and let a bunch of groups go that I could have hung onto. I was treating it too much like a steady TT and not like a typical gravel race where it’s so important to stay with a fast group early, even it there are attacks and surges. My strength is my all day endurance, so I’m much better off burning lots of matches early and staying with a fast group. At BWR, I was strong all day and passing lots of folks for the last half of the race, but it was basically a solo TT effort because everyone I’d catch was cooked and couldn’t contribute to the pace. The damage was done in the first 30 minutes, just really dumb racing. It was still a good time, but very disappointed with my effort. I should have either raced it all out or just hung back with some teammates that were treating it as a social ride. Good lessons learned though for future races, I had a very good gravel season in 2020 and also had a good leadville race.

My worst race performances came in 2018 I think I was over 33mins for a 10miles TT. I had a few bad TTs that year, including this one photographed:


My face says a lot to me given what I know now.
About 9 months later I found out why they were so bad. I had a catastrophic iron deficiency.

Well, there was that one time I got 2nd at the Tour de France.

This is assuming the theory of parallel universes is true.

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That was your worst performance :open_mouth:

This is easy.

Silver State 508 this last September.

Put tons of focus and attention into the prep, had everything dialed in and was on an absolute tear! 110 miles in(after doing a sub 5 hour century to start!) I was gawking at some jets doing training in the valley I was riding through and drop the front tire of my TT bike onto the soft gravel shoulder and nailed a road marker post with my right quad at 25mph. Still managed to finish the last 400 miles, but it cost me a lot of time and made it WAY harder than it needed to be. By the next morning, it couldn’t hardly ride, my right leg was dead weight.

Ended up getting 2nd male, missed out on 1st by ~30 minutes. Pretty confident had I not hit that post I would have finished 1st male.

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I did one season as a junior when I was 18 where I went all in on triathlon. Former swimmer so biked and ran my ass off to peak for a race. Did 20 hours a week, two a days all summer. Said no to partying (not easy when you’re 18!), just worked and trained. Was absolutely dialed in for my peak race.

Came out of the water in first with a one minute lead, was out of transition as 2nd place came in. Was about 4km down the road, stood up to accelerate out of a corner, and my seatpost dropped all the way to the collar! I had forgotten to retighten it when preparing my bike the night before. And of course, didn’t have any tools.

Biked the entire ride like with a slammed seatpost. Alternated between coasting and standing to accelerate. Must have lost about 20 positions, completely furious and so over it. Not sure why I didn’t ask one of these people passing me for a tool. Just gave up mentally, still finished the race but wasn’t trying at all. Think I ended up 30th. Splits looked pretty funny on the results. I was so mad at myself and felt like such a screw up.

To this day I still am so disappointed in myself for that race. Not for the result, but for just caving mentally so quickly. I could have just pulled over to the side, and asked someone for a tool, fixed my seatpost and gotten right back into it. Instead I just folded and decided my race was over. But I learned from it and will never let that happen again!

My 2nd full Ironman. IM Chattanooga. Training leading was pretty spot on. Even had a good night’s rest the night before race. It was hot which wasn’t unusual for that race. Swim was fine. Was going as planned on bike until 2-3 hours in. I started to get a really bad hot spot on one foot as my foot had likely swelled a bit in the heat. It got super bad so I would stop at each aid station every 15 miles, get off the bike, and take off my shoe. My gut was also not cooperating as it wasn’t absorbing my liquids. Had contemplated stopping but figured I’d get on the run and see what would happened. Started the run. Did the run walk thing since I was already feeling awful. Walking parts got longer. Everything got slower. Got to mile 18 and felt awful and had not been able to eat or drink anything. It was still hot so called it a day as not being able to drink in the heat was not going to end well.

Too many to choose from.

5k at the track & field regional that was held in severe 100 degree heat. I made the poor choice of taking the lead and pushing the pace with 4 laps to go. Ended up in an ambulance and collapsing a lap to go.

Or that time I bonked in the marathon so bad it took me 33 minutes to finish the last 3 miles.

Or that time in high school when I was so pumped for the 4x800 relay, I split my 400 PR and then was passed by the entire field in the last lap (went from first to last).

But my worst race ever… the one that still stings to this day… As the top runner on our college cross country team I finished as our #7, about 3 minutes off my normal time. We were ranked and expected to make nationals, but thanks to me… we did not.

I have plenty of more horrible races if anyone needs to feel better. :rofl:

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