Photo © 2008 Mark A. Adkison, Ph.D., Hors Categorie Photography
CTL: 122
TSB: 3
Signed up for the 4 and the 35+ 4/5 races but decide that twenty minutes is not sufficient time to recover from a 40-50 minute time trial so I decide to do the old and slow guy version.
It's a new course this year with similar terrain. The last three times I have done it, it was super windy but we luck out this year and get a slight breeze, probably less than 10mph.
I've done this race on my fixed gear pursuit bike for the past few years but being aero on the fixie doesn't leave a lot of room for sit adjustment and last year I could not ride seated for a week after the time trial so I had someone change my pursuit bike so I could have at least ten gears instead of one and would be able to coast for a bit to change position. This worked out better as I didn't injure myself this year.
Start close to last due to alphabetical start order. This gives me plenty of people to chase. My 30 second man, Sam, thinks I will catch him but I am not so sure. The start straight is long enough that I can still see him when I go, and I think I am gaining on him but it's hard to tell. The first turn happens within 1.5 miles and I am within fifteen seconds at this point, and almost blow the turn because there is a ten second penalty for cutting the first corner for permit reasons. Not sure if I got penalized or not, rode the yellow line on entry, and had to correct my line to make it on exit. But Sam makes the next fifteen seconds take a really long time, it feels hard but the silly competitive drive makes me keep going and after he catches his 30 second man, I catch the two of them, now I have keep it up because it would be pretty lame for me to pass someone and slowdown like the folks on Foothill are wont to do. At first I try to keep my average above 40 kph, but realize that the wind is strong enough that I need to just go above threshold into the head/crosswinds, and slightly below threshold on the tailwind sections. This works out pretty well because my normalized power is exactly what I thought it should be with a SRM equipped bike. But I might have gone a little too easy on the tail wind sections, since the race was much shorter than an hour. Misjudged the final straight and surged (it's close)and slowed(no it's not) and surged and slowed there a few times until I saw the 1KM to go sign.
6/~45
T:45:40
C:92
S:40.8 kph
D:31.0 km
H:179
Pavg:253
Pnorm:254
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