Greg's story: back-to-back races

BaseCamp alumnus Greg Dartt shared his experience in a weekend of back-to-back races.

Part 1.

I did something for the first time today. I took on back to back races. A teammate talked me into it at the first real race (i.e., not a practice race) of the year. I didn't think I could do it, but thought I'd give it a go. My goal was to just get in as many laps as I could in the second race and get in a good workout.

The first race was hard. I went off the front a couple of times but couldn't get away. I used up a lot of energy in the process and sat in for what ended up being a field sprint. I snagged second.

I had about 10 minutes to down a gel, swap bottles, hit a port-a-potty, and then line up for the next race. That left me starting farther back in the field than I normally like. My legs were burning still, but whatever. The whistle blew and off I went. There were a couple of moments where my body was screaming to stop, but I just plowed on. At some point the screaming stopped and I felt better. I couldn't catch the younger 3s but managed another second place finish in my age category (60+).

So, who would have thunk it? That was roughly 90 minutes of hard crit racing at age 60. I surprised myself.

Part 2.

I've been cycling most of my life, but I never took it very seriously. Going into the winter of 2019/20 I set a goal for myself to get on some podiums once I got into the 60+ categories. I had roughly two years to prepare. The pandemic messed up 2020, but I doubled down going into the winter of 2020/21. 2021 was when I became licensed age 60 in cyclocross. I managed 4 CX podiums last season. The first one was in the first CX race of the season. In 2022 I am now 60+ in road and I manage 2 podiums in my first day of racing. I guess I've checked off a couple bucket list items.

You've all been part of my journey, whether you've known it or not. Thank you for the teaching, the learning, the support and just being there. I'll finish this year, then I am going consider hanging up my cleats and just do some rec riding.