{"id":25,"date":"2013-05-02T14:05:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T12:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2013-05-02T14:05:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T12:05:05","slug":"the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"The Race &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\n@page { margin: 0.79in }\n\t\tP { margin-bottom: 0.08in; color: #000000; widows: 0; orphans: 0 }\n\t\tP.western { font-family: \"Thorndale AMT\", \"Times New Roman\", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US }\n\t\tP.cjk { font-family: \"Albany AMT\", \"Arial\", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt }\n\t\tP.ctl { font-family: \"Albany AMT\", \"Arial\", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: ar-SA }\n\t\tA:link { color: #0000ff }\n--><\/style>\n<p>I have always seen myself as a racer although my age weighs against this as does, err, my weight. But recently my bike club organized a shortish race, the \u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.asmcyclo.fr\/show.php?page=ufolep\/course\/course.php&amp;puid=4.5\">Prix de la ville de Meudon<\/a><\/span><\/span>,\u201d on the flat. Even those not familiar with the mechanics of cycling will be aware that pedaling uphill is a lot harder if you are a somewhat overweight person as I have to confess I am. But the extent of the difference is hard to understate. The steeper the hill, the bigger the time difference between a lightweight climber and a heavyweight \u2018<i>rouleur<\/i>.\u2019 On the flat the balance actually tips a little the other way. Big riders are generally more powerful and can crank it up a bit more than the smaller climber. So much for the theory\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The course was 7 laps of an 8km loop around the local aerodrome on roads that were for the most part closed to traffic. Lots of mysterious administrative activity was involved, I needed a \u2018<i>carton course<\/i>\u2019 and a special stamp. Then followed directions to the start and waited for the off.<\/p>\n<p>I think we were 50 or so in this the \u2018GS\u2019 category, the entry level of French road racing. In my mind\u2019s eye I envisaged the race as a high speed chase, more or less flat out all the way. That is not how it turned out.<\/p>\n<p>At the start the peloton accelerated leisurely to a cruising speed well below what I had expected. Even so, in the heat of the moment I forgot to hit the start button on my watch and as we got moving, I was so concerned about not colliding with anybody in the <i>peloton<\/i> that it seemed superfluous to fiddle around finding the rather trickily placed button. So the race went unrecorded \u2013 no speed, no heart rate. Anyhow I should think we were cruising at around 35kph for the first half lap or so. Right up until we came to the first proper corner in fact when all of a sudden, as if all had simultaneously taken fright, the <i>peloton<\/i> accelerated briskly. Well I am a <i>rouleur<\/i>, but not a great accelerator. So it took me a while to get up to the new speed (40kph-ish on a slight rise) by which time I had lost some ground. Fortunately, the sudden burst of speed burst did not last too long and over the next few hundred yards I pedaled my way back into the group. The same procedure for the subsequent sections \u2013 a lowish base sped along the straight parts and at every tight turn or slight rise a burst of sped.<\/p>\n<p>The average speed of the peloton did increase slowly some and at one stage, we were careening past the pits \u2013 i.e. the place where the organizers had their tent and we were potentially being observed \u2013 when someone to my left turned around and made a rather expansive gesture to a colleague \u2013 and at the same time wobbled towards me. I of course wobbled slightly to my right and felt a sharp thwack as the pedal of another rider made contact with my leg \u2013 and an indeterminate part of my bike. There was by then quite a bit of serious wobbling going on and I had visions of a major pile up occurring behind me \u2013 but I just concentrated on staying upright and in preparing my defense. In the event nobody fell, there was no court case, although as I realized a week later, there was damage to my derailleur which explained why I subsequently was having trouble staying in gear.<\/p>\n<p>Around lap five I was still hanging in with the peloton but each time the gap was opening a little more and it required more distance and effort to close it. I was royally bollocked by a rather impolite rider who railed against \u2018the guy who couldn\u2019t keep up\u2019 as though this was an option. I later thought that I could intimate that I had been placed at the back by the lead riders to screw things up deliberately \u2013 but ideas are hard to formulate on a bike and harder to convey.<\/p>\n<p>At the tail end of lap six with one to go the inevitable happened. After one acceleration, I lost contact completely. It is a curious feeling when you see the peloton moving away and you realize that you are just no longer going to catch it. The result was that I did the last lap on my own and came in at some distance from the leaders. I understand that there were a few who had lost contact before I did so I didn\u2019t quite come in last. Better luck next time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Meudon2013.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"Meudon2013\" src=\"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Meudon2013-274x300.jpg\" width=\"174\" height=\"191\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always seen myself as a racer although my age weighs against this as does, err, my weight. But recently my bike club organized a shortish race, the \u201cPrix de la ville de Meudon,\u201d on the flat. Even those not familiar with the mechanics of cycling will be aware that pedaling uphill is a &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/?p=25\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Race &#8230;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}