Sometimes it's OK to break the rules

After the race today, someone asked me if I had planned to work as much as I did during the race. Hell no! The first commandment of bicycle racing is:

Thou shalt conserve thy energy for the winning move.

First, you should notice there isn't a period after the word energy. If you're in a breakaway you probably aren't conserving energy, but hopefully it was the winning move.

Second, it's OK to break this commandment if you're already losing. Today at the State Criterium Championships I found myself in the back of the pack before the race even started. I took a lap to scout the course and guys were already lining up at the start. I ended up in just about the last row. That was a monumental error on a course that provided very little opportunity to move up.

The result was that I wasn't anywhere near the front when a group of riders opened up a gap on the rest of the field. Cat 5 racers are notorious for letting a bike length open up between them and the guy in front. If you're in a fast paced race with any significant amount of wind and you're a bike length (some would say two feet) or more back, panic! You must close that gap immediately.

It was a hellafast pace today from the start and the wind was brutal. The pack started to string out and moving up became slightly easier. I finally found a rhythm and I spent the next hour (OK, it only felt like an hour) closing gaps between riders and spending a little time on the front of the chase group myself. We lost time. We lost more time. We got lapped. We finally got the shepherd's hook and were pulled from the race. A heart pounding 25 minutes was all I lasted. Congrats to the winner. Well done.

So no, I didn't plan to work as hard as I did. At this stage in my cycling career, I never plan to work. I'm an opportunist. But when you miss the winning move, you have to resign yourself to losing or dig deep. I still lost, but I gave it my best.

-Jim Vidler