Univest Grand Prix Cyclosportif: 20 Mile Mistake

On September 8th of this year, Jon and I decided to do the Univest Grand Prix Cyclosportif 40 Mile ride. It was more of a community fun ride than a race, but there was a prize for the first finisher of the 40 mile and the 60 mile rides. Jon and just wanted to go for training and fun.

The race started at about 8:00, and Jon and I embarked on our 40 mile ride. Jon and I worked together to move forward, but about 5 or 10 miles into the ride came a sharp right, uphill turn that I bonked on and Jon continued to move forward. I stayed back hoping to catch up to him at some point. I never got that chance because of what happened...

About 20 miles in to the race, I was behind this guy who just would not keep his line, and I had no opportunity to pass him. Coming to this left, downhill turn I saw an opportunity to pass him, hoping he would go to the inside of the turn so I could go to the outside. Well, he did go inside, so I went outside. He, again, couldn't keep his line and drifted to the outside as I was trying to pass him, forcing me off the road and into someone's front yard. I first hit a small ditch just off the shoulder of the road, and then when I was still up and riding after that I was headed for this HUGE tree. I just barely missed it, as in I felt the tree brush my shirt. Had I been going even slightly faster, I would've hit the tree and could've been badly injured. After passing the tree I turned to head back onto the road but when I got just off the side of the road there were riders coming around the bend and I just got so frustrated that I got off my bike and threw it into the ground. This ended up lodging my computer's wireless sensor on the fork into the wheel without me knowing, and when I went to take off (after the riders have finally passed me) I heard a snapping sound, and saw that my sensor broke. I no longer had a working sensor for the rest of the ride so I kept asking other riders "what mile are we at?" throughout the course. This all took me out of the race for about 3 or 4 minutes, so I really didn't stand a chance to catch up to Jon.

Now for the 20 mile mistake I made. About 30 miles into the race is where the 60-milers and the 40-milers break apart. I guess I was riding with a bunch of 60-milers and wasn't paying attention to any of the signs. At this one left turn, the 40-milers were supposed to turn right and I did not because, again, I was not paying attention to the signs and I was riding with all 60-milers that made the left turns where I was supposed to go right. So yeah, I did a 60 mile ride when I was supposed to only do 40 miles.

I don't know if I plan to do this again next year, because this was a bad experience for me, but that is because of errors. The whole 60 mile ride took me 4 hours, 38 minutes and 13 seconds (4:38:13). I did decent comparing myself to other the other 60 mile riders' time, and I didn't come in last in the 40 mile. For the results, click here.