Had my first race ever today and had an excellent experience.
The competitors and the volunteers that make the whole thing happen were really welcoming and very helpful.
There were a few juniors which is great but not many 20 somethings at all, as a matter of fact most riders were over 35, which was a bit of a surprise (42 myself) but probably helped with the atmosphere as although they were all very competitive, they were also more than willing to help a newbie with some advice.
I was in the second group off at 9min(the scratch guys were off 27min and it was a 51km race). There were three of us and luckily for me one of them was Bob Panter ex Pro rider and Australian road champion
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/200 ... -news.html He used to coach Robbie McEwan! One thing I must say is he never told me any of this, I only found out from some of the other guys afterwards and a bit of a google search. Extremely helpful and very humble, I was extremely lucky.
Anyway as we hit out Bob explained to me what to do and always let me know 1-2 minutes before it had to happen. He was very good at explaining the best technique for drafting and passing and which side to pass on and why. The third guy was struggling a little so he would miss about 10 turns and then do about 3, miss 10 turns etc, which was fine as Bob said he was still helping us and doing what he could and not blowing up and being useless to us.
Thankfully today the greyhounds couldn't catch the rabbits which was 90% to do with Bob's experience. Bob tried to set it up so I could draft him then try and come over the top for the win but he was not going to gift it to me and I was simply not strong enough and he beat me by a wheel.
An amazing experience. I learnt more today with Bob than I ever would have learnt in a season working it out for myself. He was such a nice guy he even thanked me for listening to him! It was then that I mentioned his help to some of the other riders and they let me know his background.
Loved the day can't wait to go back, but with family commitments and the fact it costs about $65 in fuel to get there I can probably only get up to Whyalla once a month.
What a day, a bit sore, a bit pissy, had a ball!