Gears

I've advanced to changing my gears. OK I still need help but I'm thinking about which gears I should be using. I'm pretty sure I have been under geared. Of course it's easy to think that when you keep finding yourself at the back of the pack. Last week I raced a 48x16 which, depending on the gear chart is an 81 inch gear or a 78.8. It depends on what wheel size your chart is based on. Many of the charts still use 27 inch wheels which nobody uses anymore (I'm told). I used the Sheldon Brown Web page calculator http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ . It's weird but you can actually get a bigger gear-inch by using different tires. Most of the women I've asked are using an 88 inch gear. Last night I used a 48x15 which converts to a 84 inch gear (or 86 using the older charts).

The format was very close to last week except instead of the tempo we had a point-a-lap race. The scratch race went pretty relaxed - a few riders tried a go but nothing too much changed. We had about 3 laps to go and I saw my teammates were in good position so I went for a break. I got caught in the last lap but my teammate took the win. Yea!

The point a lap was a pretty fast pace. I think my gearing is better than last week but I'm still not able to contest sprints. I didn't go for the first point. Since I didn't get any points this week my strategy wasn't necessarily any better. I felt like I could have gone for it later in the race but I was tired like everyone else.

The points race I tried to get in better position. The one time I made a good move though there was some bumping behind me and somebody was yelling. I was afraid I had cut somebody off so I moved back to the back. It turned out is wasn't me but at least we all finished safely. I started to feel sick from the gels I had eaten. Maybe next week I'll try shot blocks between races.

Somebody commented to me that we sound like a bunch of flamingos on our neutral lap. The group likes to chat and giggle during the neutral. It's almost a shame to break up the fun with racing. I guess the men don't do this on their neutral lap so it seems odd to them.