[Archaea]

Number 1. It is hard for any older guy to race against younger guys.

Number 2. Two hard rides per week by an older guy is not sufficient to keep up with younger guys riding six times per week. IOW, lessons numbers one and two seem to compound each other.

Number 3. Some guys are really fast.

Number 4. Did you know some men with lycra, small jersey, can have a sag in it? It is true.

Number 5. If you are strong enough, you can torq and break a bottom bracket during a sprint, but it doesn't look pretty afterwards.

Number 6. It is still very fun to race even if you're last place.

Okay, an aside.

I'm sitting in the start line of the crit, not feeling too great, with normal anxieties.

So the starter talks about some of the rules, and states, if you violated a particular rule, you'd be dropped down to number 80. Which as luck would have it was my placing out of 89. Yes, I sucked, but at least my placing got special sucky mention. In reality, my placing was appropriate for my training. Everybody was bragging to me how they trained 500 miles per week. I responded, I got in a wonderful 80 miles so there.

Bottom line is, an older body with less training will not compete well against a younger body well trained.

However, bike racing is fun!