What type of rider are you?

I completed my first road cycle race on Sunday (Surrey League Kirdford 3rds). Not my first road race ever, but the first one I've finished (the actual first race involved me breaking my rear wheel on a pothole on the final lap after 50 miles of racing - talk about frustrating). Just finishing gave me a little buzz, but has led me to reflect on the type of rider I am. And the conclusion I arrived at is:

Too polite (if that can be termed a type)

I felt that I had the legs to do better, my lungs weren't hurting, I felt confident and very aware of what was happening in the race (it sounds odd to say that I was 'aware', but there are riders who are so obviously blinkered in pursuit of victory that they lose the ability to predict others' movements). But rather than close a gap and prevent another rider from moving in, I am too willing to be sensible and give them the chance to get back onto the left hand side of the road. Note to self - need to get a bit more aggressive.

I suppose I always hoped winning (or coming in the top 10) would be as a result of silky acceleration, deft handling and sustained power in a breakaway. I used to (and still do) think a classy second place is better than a ramshackle victory. And by classy I mean stylish. Think Bjorn Borg over John McEnroe, or a slick 50-yard pass by Glen Hoddle (before he went all 'Come on Eileen') rather than a Bryan Robson surge. If I want to have any success this season, I have to either get in a break and cruise to victory, or abandon all pretensions of style and grub around for points in sprints. No prizes for guessing which is the more likely!

Aha - my blog

So I've decided to do a bit of blogging. Mainly about cycling, and my attempts to gain points as a new 3rd Cat rider with London Dynamo. But not exclusively about cycling. I don't want this to turn into another of those blogs that details the minutiae of every training program (yes, I am following one), every power reading (yes, I use a powertap as well) and every race (and again, yes, I race when possible and could easily blather on about the tactics, my luck or lack of it, equipment and other riders). There seems to be a certain level of hubris in assuming that other people will be interested in the training and riding details of someone they have:

a) never met
b) probably will never meet, and
c) no background info with which to determine the truthfulness of all the claims

Oh, and by the way, I rode 60 miles in the Surrey Hills yesterday, average power 280W, average speed 20mph. See, absolute cobblers!

As I have family, am currently looking for work, want to move house, plan to write about random thoughts that pop into my head, etc, I will probably include various musings, chatterings, twitterings and general burbling on these and other subjects...