Yesterday, March 3rd, I entered for the first time, a British Cycling Time Trial race being held on the Classique route in London.
ZP has me at Cat C so I entered the Cat C pen.
Now if you have not entered one of these before, they run slightly different to a normal TT.
It’s a mass start but a solo effort with no drafting.
Unlike a normal TT where you can’t catch the rider in front and dozens of Cat A riders fly past you, in this event, you are encouraged to push harder because you have lots of people around you.
I race on a small screen but can see the time differences on the leaderboard so I kept pushing hard trying to keep people behind me.
There was one rider matching my pace and I was worried he would get me towards the end or an incline (I’m a genuine fatty and always keep my weight accurate on my profile)
It was great being pushed as I knew I was working harder than I normally would have done going solo.
At the finish, I can see that the guy chasing me was a B and there had only been one C in front of me.
Yeehaw! A long time since I had had a podium so couldn’t wait to check ZP.
Nothing.
Kept refreshing and still nothing.
I clicked the ‘unfiltered’ button and there I appear in 2nd place, Cat C, with ‘WKG’ in the left column.
No points or anything.
My best effort for ages and nothing to show for it.
Not even moved up into the lower standings of Cat B.
I had managed 3.4 average and would have finished second from last in B.
To rub salt into the wound, ZP now has my minimum category as C, almost B.
So we get to my gripe, finally.
I entered the race correctly, felt strong and pushed my socks off which resulted in my best effort.
Why didn’t I earn my podium?
Should I just have sat at 3.09 for the whole race and not try harder?
If I had performed better than C, why couldn’t I be classified in the B group standings?
I don’t get anything in the results but ZP still registers it as an improvement so threatens to bump me up into B, how is any of that fair?
(Should I end up in B soon, I’ll just get dropped every race and end up being demoted back into C again…I’m too old and fat to cut it with them racing snakes but can sometimes have an enjoyable scrap with the Cs)