I expected today's race to be painful -- I was still sore from yesterday's effort. But with the kids & wife out of the house and a bit of a break at work I hopped on the bike for the TFC race. Same course as yesterday -- 7 laps Volcano CCW. The most notable difference was this was a categorized race so everyone had a nice category identifier. The different cats were in different pens, but all started at the same time AFAICT. As a result there was near immediate mixing of groups.
I was a bit concerned I'd gone too hard at the start as we were mixing with a few A riders, but they pulled away and I was in a group of maybe 15, mostly Bs and a small number of Cs. A couple Cs were up the road, but I figured they were likely going to DQ or blow up, so I ignored them.
With fewer riders and I suspect fewer strong riders, the pace wasn't as painful as yesterday. It would be a stretch to call it easy, but it wasn't nearly as painful as I expected. I was never in any real danger of losing the group as we slowly picked off individuals and spit them out the back. I recognized one other C rider from previous races and expected he'd be the man to beat. The other C rider in the group appeared to be going way over on W/KG. I basically tried to stick with my mark the whole race.
He got a bit away by himself once, which I watched closely, but nobody from the group went with him and it didn't look like he was really going to make an effort to catch any of the individual riders up the road. We reeled him in without a major effort. He rolled off the front with a group of 4-5 others with a couple riders ahead of them, but potentially in reach that they could work with. I quickly joined and we had a small gap on the rest of the group. I took at stint in front to see if we could work together and widen the gap, but it wasn't meant to be and we let the larger group reel us back in.
I stayed with the group through the penultimate climb into the volcano (guessing the easier pace left me with a bit more in the tank than yesterday) and through the last lap. I didnt' have a real sprint in me at the end, but I did keep up a good work rate through the final climb into the volcano and through the bumps up to the finish line.
My mark took 1st of the qualified C riders. I took 2nd, behind by about 1 second.
What was most interesting was my feeling that we were taking it a bit easier than yesterday. Yet my 5M power was highest ever, besting yesterday by 6%. 20M and 30M power were both up by around 2% (good, but not personal bests). Time was about a minute slower though (even with me at full speed on the final lap today). That probably says a lot about the effect of a large drafting group. Yesterday we were probably a group of ~25 and the lap times were noticably faster.
Expecting to wrap up the tron bike climbing next week. Probably 2-3 more efforts and I'm done.
I was a bit concerned I'd gone too hard at the start as we were mixing with a few A riders, but they pulled away and I was in a group of maybe 15, mostly Bs and a small number of Cs. A couple Cs were up the road, but I figured they were likely going to DQ or blow up, so I ignored them.
With fewer riders and I suspect fewer strong riders, the pace wasn't as painful as yesterday. It would be a stretch to call it easy, but it wasn't nearly as painful as I expected. I was never in any real danger of losing the group as we slowly picked off individuals and spit them out the back. I recognized one other C rider from previous races and expected he'd be the man to beat. The other C rider in the group appeared to be going way over on W/KG. I basically tried to stick with my mark the whole race.
He got a bit away by himself once, which I watched closely, but nobody from the group went with him and it didn't look like he was really going to make an effort to catch any of the individual riders up the road. We reeled him in without a major effort. He rolled off the front with a group of 4-5 others with a couple riders ahead of them, but potentially in reach that they could work with. I quickly joined and we had a small gap on the rest of the group. I took at stint in front to see if we could work together and widen the gap, but it wasn't meant to be and we let the larger group reel us back in.
I stayed with the group through the penultimate climb into the volcano (guessing the easier pace left me with a bit more in the tank than yesterday) and through the last lap. I didnt' have a real sprint in me at the end, but I did keep up a good work rate through the final climb into the volcano and through the bumps up to the finish line.
My mark took 1st of the qualified C riders. I took 2nd, behind by about 1 second.
What was most interesting was my feeling that we were taking it a bit easier than yesterday. Yet my 5M power was highest ever, besting yesterday by 6%. 20M and 30M power were both up by around 2% (good, but not personal bests). Time was about a minute slower though (even with me at full speed on the final lap today). That probably says a lot about the effect of a large drafting group. Yesterday we were probably a group of ~25 and the lap times were noticably faster.
Expecting to wrap up the tron bike climbing next week. Probably 2-3 more efforts and I'm done.
I feel wrecked to be honest. The pace was intense at over 26mph until eventually, I could no longer take it and went pop at mile 87. The signs were there I was beginning to feel at mile 70, but I hung in and kept near the front knowing once off the back of the pack that was it. It was painfully slow riding 15 miles solo, legs numb, everywhere numb
