Unfortunately, my throat is getting worse, so this story is going to be a bit incoherent.
We left off at how the start happens. I was in the second-to-last corridor - there were no corridors behind me and people were just crowding in randomly because their numbers were over 5000. In front of me in the corridor were the Laima folks, and many of them were squeezing into the wrong corridor, making the excuse that they wanted to be together. Very touching, but they were getting in everyone else's way, since the corridor fits a calculated number of participants, and the rest have to step on each other's toes, or worse, scratch each other's bikes. The organizer girl looking after our corridor couldn't stop the outrage, even though she warned the Laima people about possible disqualification.
Some dude hauled a kid in a stroller the whole distance, and I only managed to pass him halfway through.
There were originals like this too
With a facial expression like that, you should be working as a boss
It's a sea of red from the Laima folks
And a sea of yellow from the postmen
The entrance to the corridor and the girl from the organizers
There are quite a few postmen
Around 1 PM they took down the ribbons between the corridors, and everyone started compactifying, which took exactly until the start (at 1:20 PM or so).
At first I was nervous (my nerves aren't great, there's no reason, but I still worry), then I calmed down. Thankfully, the start kicked off slowly, since there were insane crowds in front of me.
I have to admit that there was a benefit to the punk not going - I snapped these funny people for you.
As you can see, even a little girl is passing me here. For now. I actually planned to stick behind this hardy guy, but I could hardly do it. Pun intended.
Dudes in weird "Swedwood" shirts. We thought it was Swedbank fooling around, but Google told me these comrades are part of the "IKEA" cooperative.
More freaks
The main bicyclist
Also some jokers
Anyway, after a while we finally got going. I wasn't overtaking very quickly, as it's dangerous to ride recklessly in a crowd. After a conversation on the train back with Mārtiņš (see later), I decided that from now on I need to ride even more carefully. If you're going to participate, never steer abruptly, and always signal with your hand before a maneuver. This applies to both races and roads, in case anyone isn't aware.
Later, when the crowd thinned out a bit (although overall it was permanent), I started overtaking on the gravel shoulder. Weirdly, almost no one else did this besides me, even though there doesn't seem to be anything in the rules about it. In principle, many of the pros were on thinner tires, and overtaking on gravel is fraught with danger for them.
Overall, for a very long time, almost half the distance, all I did was overtake, and only later did they start overtaking me. The goal was to maintain 30 km/h. It was a mediocre success - my average speed was 26.7 km/h according to the organizers' data.
But here you have to understand that very, very many things were against me:
1. I didn't plan to ride for speed, but I did for some reason.
2. I forgot my cycling jersey, rode in a jacket and pants.
3. I didn't lighten my bike, didn't remove the rack, didn't put on thin slick tires.
4. Before the ride, I rode quite fast from Riga to Sigulda, 60 km.
5. I slept little before the ride, and walked around Riga the previous night (Balta Nakts).
6. I had a torn ligament in February, I didn't put any weight on my right leg for a month! It is visibly still much smaller than my left in many places, the muscles are atrophied.
7. I had a very far back spot in the corridor.
8. I rode by myself, without a "slipstream," that is, a person who would shield me from wind resistance and set the pace. This is very important, which everyone who has watched the Tour de France at least once knows.
9. I didn't eat before the race, and you need a ton of energy there, and it's best to gobble up carbs.
10. I weigh 95 kg, which I hope to fix, as I've made a bet to get down to 80 by next September.
I could probably come up with more reasons, but these will do. I achieved my main goal — to finish better than half the participants, which I'm happy about.
Since I spent a lot of time on this post again, the last part will be in the continuation (including my time and placement).