Monday, September 8, 2008

Le Tour

My cycling season culminated yesterday in Tour de Helsinki. Man, what a great event! I had a vague aim of riding the 140 km route in less than five hours, which I achieved by doing it in four hours and 38 minutes.

It was certainly thrilling to ride in a huge group of cyclists. At first I was just looking around at others and enjoying the feeling, so much that I forgot to find the pacesetters of the 30 km/h group that I had planned to ride in. When the real "race" began after a 11 km stretch of riding at a limited speed, I realized that I was behind the 28 km/h group. I caught up with a faster group, which went at 30+ km/h speed, but I never found out if it was the official 30 km/h group or some other group.

Being a newbie, I'm sure my group riding skills were somewhat lacking, but I suppose I didn't cause too much dangerous situations either. I tried to ride straight and at a steady pace, and repeat the hand signs shown by the riders before me. Even though I didn't dare to ride very close to anybody, I was still able to draft enough that riding in a group felt very light. A little too light, even, as I often would have liked to go slightly faster in ascents.

I stopped to eat twice. I ate bananas, pickles, raisins and filled up on sports drink. I had my second pit stop because I had to urinate, but the group didn't stop, unlike I had assumed. Well, there was no time to think, I barely had time to brake and turn when the pit stop appeared behind a corner.

After the second stop I rode solo for about 20 km, until the next pit stop. Some guys left at the same time as I did, but apparently I was going too fast for them, as they were left behind. At times I saw a large group in the distance, but it was just impossible to catch it alone. However, it was exciting to ride alone for a change. I am a bit of a lone wolf kind of a guy, if you pardon the expression. The middle part of the trip had been kind of uneventful, just long stretches of riding steadily in the middle of a group.

I figured that at the final pit stop at 117 km, I'd find some company, and I was right. Four guys, some of which I'd already seen riding in the same group as me earlier, left the pit stop just as I passed it. They were going rather fast, at 35-40 km/h, I suppose, and it was perfect for me as I'd gotten into racing mode myself. I even pulled for a while. It felt good, like I did my part of the work, even though it wasn't nearly as much as the other guys did.

The last 20 km were great as we were riding at speeds I haven't before been capable of, in the middle of the road, as opposed to the side of the road or the cycle path. The road wasn't closed for cars, and there were quite a lot of them, but for once it felt that they were forced to consider the bicyclists.

I passed several cyclists on the last few kilometers. I'm glad that I started the race so lightly, as it was so much fun to go full throttle in the end. The last few corners were a bit dangerous, but I knew what to expect, as the route went directly beneath my balcony. Arriving to the finish at the prestigious velodrome felt ceremonious, the highlight of my humble cycling career so far. There were even a few dozen spectators applauding to the racers. It felt really nice. So did the compliments from an organizer at the finish line, who expressed his approval towards my Kraftwerk cycling jersey.

The whole event was just excellent. A few weak points here and there, but the organizers did a great job. A communal feeling was evident. I can barely wait for next year to do it again!

Distance: 142 km
Time: 4:38
Avg: 30.6 km/h

2 comments:

kentsu said...

I had a similar experience to yours regarding TdH. What a great event it was. Didn't know it even existed until the previous friday, when there was a short article about the upcoming event in the Nyt-liite of Helsingin Sanomat.

Based on the article, I found the TdH web site, and decided to participate. I have a passion for bicycling, but have never participated in any events.

So like yourself, I was quite unsure how to behave when cycling in a group, and what pace to keep.

I started slowly, tried to find the 28km/h group, but never really were sure if I found it. The most exhausting part was at around 50-60 kilometers into the race, when I tried to increase my speed and catch up to groups ahead of me. Riding alone, trying to catch a group of bicyclists cooperating is no easy task as I found out.

Finally I caught up with a large group, going about 32km/h, which I followed until Sipoo. There I again increased my speed, but this time I did not have to go on alone. The last part was really quick. My finishing time was about the same as yours, 4:36.

I found the event suprisingly well organized, and already look forward to next year.

Ville said...

Hey, I have a reader! Thanks for commenting. So, you caught a 32 km/h group by yourself, THEN increased your speed again? Wow, that's quite a feat.