I thought I would take this blog post in a slightly different direction and do run through in the day of racing Speed Week from my experience.
Wednesday 1st of May: Speed Week Criterium # 4 Walterboro
8.30am: Wake up and trundle off to the hotel breakfast room. The food selection is average at best and with the best option being the waffles. They are actually pretty good with some honey and a glass of orange juice to wash them down. I half sip a mediocre brewed coffee for my caffeine fix but I’ll have to wait later in the day for something a bit more decent.
10.30am: After chilling out back in the room for a bit, catching up on emails and curbing our social media fixes, we suit up and head out on the bike for an easy hour spin. This helps loosen up the legs from the previous night’s race in preparation for tonight’s race.
Noon: We shower and leave the hotel and begin the search for a decent coffee and something to eat for lunch. A Starbucks double espresso goes down well with a Cashew Nut Chicken Curry from an awesome little Thai restaurant we find in Savannah. We mingle around town a bit and grab any supplies we may need before we are back in the car and on our way to Walterboro, an hour and a half away.
4.00pm: We arrive in Walterboro and find a spot to set up our camp for the evening. We manage to find a good area in a parking lot next to the course, and pop up our Giant gazebo with the camping chairs. With our base established we head off to sign in for the race. We now have a good 3hours to kill before the race and it’s time for my pre-race meal of rice which I have made at home. With two hours to go before crunch time I start sipping on my Gu Electrolyte drink, while pinning on numbers and pumping tyres amongst other things. We kill most of the time by playing on social media and joking around. In short, being as lazy as we possibly can be before the race.
6.15pm: After I’ve changed into my skin suit and made my bottles I jump onto my bike and spin around town for 10-15minutes really easy. I then hop onto my trainer and start my warm up proper. With 10 minutes to the start of the race we make our way to the start to get into the huddle of riders waiting to grab a spot behind the start line as close to the front as possible. As soon as the ladies finish their race we are onto the grid behind the guys who have call ups
7.15pm: The whistle goes and we’re off! Tonight we race 37 laps of a 1.1mile circuit. By the time we finish the last lap we will have done 57km in 1.15(average speed 45.6km.h) I attack the race a few times but can’t seem to get in a move that sticks. Brian does well in going in the early move and spending over 10 laps off the front of the race. The back end of the course gets dark with limited street lights and it gets sketchy in the later stages of the race. I’m sitting too far back, although I do try to push forward and come home in 26th place. It’s an improvement but not where I want to be yet. DZ gets 32nd and Brian 40th.
8.45pm: Slug down a Gu Recovery Brew along with a cold Coke. We pack the bikes onto the car and get changed. The race organisers have dinner for us tonight so we enjoy that before getting in the car at about 10pm and start the trip back to Greenville.
12.30am: Arrive home exhausted, get my bags and bike out the car and get into a hot shower. Unpack a couple of things and then finally get into bed at 1.30am.
Fortunately we have the next day off racing (Thursday) before we kick off the last 3 day leg of Speed Week commencing on Friday night where we race through until Sunday night.
chriswolhuter.com 