19 March 2011

Tour de Dung RR #2

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food 1.5 large bottles each w/3 scoops Perpetuem, gel
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 2:20 PM
Workout Type race
Weather mid 40s, dry, mostly cloudy, light wind
Course Tour de Dung 12 mile loop
Distance 60 miles
Time  
Power  
Results Masters 35+ Cat 1-3
9th
official results
Equipment Road Bike
Clothing knit shoe covers, knee warmers, bib shorts, Craft long sleeve undershirt, short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, Polypropylene gloves, cap

I think I like AM races more than PM races, you are not gone the entire day...

I have done well here in the past getting a win and pretty much always top-10 but I was unexpectedly nervous today as my training has not been what it was the past two years and my breathing is giving me problems. Oh well, right? I really wanted to race again and it was not wet so I was also psyched to get going. In attendance was Corrie M and I think the field contained about 40 riders.

We started out and Todd G drug us around for the first few miles in what I can only guess was an attempt to warm up. After he pulled off the attacks started and continued for the next 1.5 laps.

It looked like KR, Garage and Audi had the numbers so I made a point of going with every attack that contained two of these teams; no way was I going to be able to cover all the moves so you need a plan.

A little over two laps in I got in a move approaching the hill that looked promising but the pack was inching closer and then on the hill Todd put in one of his monster accelerations that not only caught us but passed us. I could not go with that and by the top of the riser it was all strung out and gaps started to open up. By the time we rounded the corner into the headwind seven riders were off the front. And damn of all the teams I was trying to cover weren't represented including Todd. :(

I tried to catch my breath but the gap was slowly opening up so I had to go NOW. On the first riser I gave it everything I had and jumped away. One Cucina rider came with me and good thing as I was not able to close this by myself. It took three pulls by each of us to bridge and when we finally got there I was totally gassed and had to sit on for a couple of miles. Looking back I made the right call as we were riding away from the pack.

I got back in the rotation soon and for the most part we worked well together. There were a couple of times where the rotation would stop and twice I closed the gap as did others.

With less than half a lap to go (3 km maybe?) we saw some riders pulled over with cars and Phil M was waving us to a stop. Turns out there was a big crash at the finish of a woman's race and the road was totally blocked so while they waited for the ambulance to arrive we had to chill for safety reasons. And chill we did, literally. It was not that cold but when you are wet you start freezing pronto. We were all also experiencing a severe case of open-quads-pour-in-concrete and there were many jokes about how it was going to feel once we got started again.

Not only did we get pulled over but our pack, the Cat 1-2 break and the Cat 1-2 pack as well. It was a big party. Finally, they let us go again. And they released us with the same gap that we had when we stopped.

Ouch... cold legs for sure. So, what to do? I can't really sprint and there were at least three great sprinters in this break. I thought of going NOW but my legs were just not up for it so I waited. As we rounded the last corner I was in second place and behind me people started to watch each other so I figured now was as good a time as any and my last chance so I jumped just before the 1 km sign.

I held them off for 500 m. :) When I got caught and everyone slowed again but it was impossible for me to recover and so when the sprint launched all I could do was watch as everyone passed me and I rolled across the line in last place.

Good times, at least I made the move. My legs did not feel super, my breathing is still problematic but I'm happy considering. At least my back was fine.

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