Bike race...again

So, it did come the day.
I had promised to myself that I would have never ever made a cycling road race again (promised done in 1994 and 2005), but today I was on the starting line again....

Weather was crappy, with showers and quite chilly for our standards. Because the Transport Department did not show up to close the road, we had 1 hour delay and they had to rearrange the different races and cut short to only 15km ! So we were grouped M30 and M40 together, which in HK means probably the most competitive batch of cyclists apart from the very few full time Elites.

Before the race I had a series of progressive objectives:

1. Essential: do not crash or fall
2. Basic: do not get dropped by the peloton
3. Expected: at least "do the race", race in front and do not simply hang up on the back
4. Optimal: get into the Prizes (top 5)
5. Dream: win, if I was really lucky

Well, a 22 min race goes quite fast. The 2 race favourites got away quite easily and I was surprised that any of the largest team did not react. It was really a pity that we left them go and I tried to create some gap but there was really poor initiative from the others. At the last lap we slowed down to 30kmh so it come down to a huge bunch sprint for the podium places and it was really bad that going so slow we were all fighting for places. I norroly avoided a crash and, all of the sudden, after a turn, with 1k to go we started to sprint. I was really too far behind (maybe around 15th-20th), so I had to immedialty sprint hard to catch the train. I felt good, but I was scared to blow up too far from the line, so I did not really sprint hard until 300m to go, which is definitely too late to catch up those ahead. I closed in 7-8th and 4th Master, not even feeling exhausted.

So I can declare myself satisfied. Now I am clear with my cycling potential and I just to need to be more careful at the sprint.

Also the PT has eventually taken the right path and I feel the tendons less sore. The PT found my calves "a total mess" (her own words). She says that the tendon will be never be the same as before becuase is permanently degenerated, so if I want to resume running I will need to be hugely attentive (streching, shoes, soft surfaces, etc) because the tendons will not be able anymore to forgive me anything...
Anyway let's see...I will not give up running so easily