Today is the big race. Its a 25 mile ride to the start, a 28 mile race over some very hilly ground and a 25 mile return. My goal was to podium in the 50+ category so I had to beat the nearest point people, Lydons and Kevin. Currently I am sitting in 3rd in the points totals.
My race plan was to stay with my group and work as a team to keep up speed. I also planned to take very short pulls and to surf the back to conserve my energy. If I got dropped, which was bound to happened on the hills, I planned to race down the descents and reattach myself to save energy on the flats. Robbie said do not let the leaders of my group get too far ahead on the climbs because I will not be able to catch-up on the descents. My hydration plan was to drink 2 bottles during the ride. My feed plan was 1 GU or Enerviteene every 30mn and 2 Endurox every 30mn starting at the 15mn mark.
A quick aside. Camp is not only about riding but also about how to be a better rider whether it is bike skills or nutrition. Thursday night we had a sports nutritionist talk to us about race feeding and hydration. Let's just say that everything I knew was wrong. Based on yesterday's lecture I totally revamped my prerace meal and my feeding schedule during the race.
Today is a very windy day. The gusts are about 10-15mph and it will be a crosswind which is hard on the zipps. The race start is handicapped according to power to weight. Because I have had a good week of riding I was starting in the second C group about 15mn after the first riders were sent off and about 5mn after the first C group. Initially our group worked really well together. We each took turns pulling into the stiff wind. I was very careful and stayed on the non-wind side of the pace line to conserve the maximum amount of energy. I also surfed the back of my group when possible to stay fresh.
The first real climb is very long and steady. I was able to hang on for 3/4 of the effort and was only behind the leaders 15 seconds at the top. I then raced down and was able to rejoin the peloton. About that time Leigh from the first B group joined us. She is awesome strong and we were all very content to let her pull. I think we were a bit intimidated and were not willing to step up and help. I know I was and was very happy hanging on the back.
After the flat Leigh and the stronger riders pulled away and I was left to hang on to others that were around me. Very quickly I was passed by the A group. The good news that we were almost at the halfway point which is the entrance to Jalama Beach. Carefully I avoided the speed bump, totally missed it last year, and bam we were all at a stand still. I seems that there were several cars in front of us and they had to pay their entrance fee before we could advance.
Let me set the scene: I have just raced 14 miles hard. I have been dropped by my group, passed by the A group that was just totally flying by, and we are now all stopped at a guard gate waiting to turn around. There must have been 20 riders sitting looking at each other wondering what to do. It was like a scene from Blues Brothers or is it Monte Python. What a scream. After what seemed like 5mn but probably 1mn Robbie yelled turn around and we just turned and the race was on again.
Before i continue the numbers. Today I rode 75 miles, in 4:50, ave mph 15.7 max 41.6, ave watts 122, max 512 and 2116kjs. For the week I rode 308 miles, used 8800kjs in 20:30. That is a ton of riding.
After the turn there is an up hill. I had been chasing my coach Joe for a while and was finally able to catch him. We worked together for a while but I was tiring on the climb and Joe kept pulling away. I refueled rested a tad and then passed him when I was passed by another group and was able to hop on. The group worked well together, with me surfing in the back but they proved too strong and pulled away on the last killer climb.
In the last group was Elisa the VQ strength coach. She is very strong and had about 45 sec on me at the summit. I decided it was now or never and rode tempo to catch up. As I mentioned in earlier posts the zipps are lightning fast. I peddled on the decent and was able to catch her before the last baby hill. I decided that if I was going to beat her to the finish I had better ride tempo to get some distance on her before the last 500m climb to the finish. As I spooled up the zipps Elisa said I hate the zipps you can hear them for miles. Its only fair because as i started the effort i mentioned some choice words for motivation. To give a better idea of what was happenings Elisa and I traveled the last 5.4 miles at 27mph thats 2:13 minute miles. My top speed during the chase was 41mph.
I gradually began to pull away but I was in the wrong gear on the last climb plus Elisa is very strong and she beat me by a bike length. It was a very exciting finish to a very strong ride. I came in 30th which may be enough to keep on the podium in the 50+ category. I will know tonight.
I had a great day of racing and a very strong ride. I learned a ton and many of the things I had been hearing for months finally came together. Like coach Joe says, This is the most fun you can have on a bike.
