It has been snowing all day in Montreal today. Quite a contrast from last Saturday where in Ste-Martine was held the first road race on the Quebec circuit.

I've been practicing yoga for a few years, and during asana's (the poses) one aspect is to challenge oneself while respecting ones limitations. The starting point is always the point you are at. So with a little more than 500 miles in my legs, better than in the past couple years, I setup myself for a challenge.

My girlfriend, coming from a triathlon background, also decided to challenge herself by trying out a road race. But since her race was at 14:40, and the masters races were early in the morning, we had a small logistics problem. Simple solution - I decided to participate in the cat 1-2 race, which started 10 minutes before the womens race.

Simple story, we both got dropped.

I tried to give as much advice possible to my girlfriend for her first race. It is hard to explain to a triathlete the intensity of a road race. The expericne of the "elastic" effect of being at the back exiting a corner, then facing a head cross wind, while the head of the pack is already going at twice the speed that you are carrying in the corner, can only be lived not described.

So after two corners, the pack slowly slipped away...  A good learning  experiencing about positioning within the back.

On my part, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. My form is rather good, having kept a good endurance this winter with a mix of cross-country skiing, bicycle commuting, and a bit of running. But with limited racing form, and especially in a category with motivated athletes half my age, my goal was only to give myself a challenge.

After 60km of motorpacing with cross winds at the back of the pack, I decided I had enough.  When you are at the back of the pack, you know you shouldn't be there. But when you've been riding above your threshold for while, there is no other option because you can't give any more to move up in the pack. Not sure if it was my legs or my mind that gave up, but with a yogic approach, I dropped out of the race feeling positive and satisfied with the challenge I had given myself, while respecting my limits.

Being dropped isn't a reason to be negative or to be discouraged. It's a challenge for next time.

Speaking of next time, next Saturday I'll be on my turf doing a local time trial with the Beaconsfield Cycling Club, trying out my new Kestrel Airfoil wind cheating machine. I'll keep you posted on that :)