Friendly rivals: ~30
Great day for a race with moderate temperatures and an overcast sky in Seaside. Course started in the middle of a gradual road road with a circuitous route off road with a mix of single and double track typical of the trails around Fort Ord, back to the bottom of the road climb.
Started in the back because the first descent was sketchy with tree branch barrier that would cause a big bottleneck, we would all be rushing to funnel into there, just like Sea Otter, so no point to burn a match to get in a line. We started so close to the prior group that it was possible to catch them on the first time up the hill. Maybe that would have been a better strategy, dunno, but I don't think I passed or got passed by that many people in our group.
I could see Mike just behind me on every switch back so he was doing pretty good for someone who was sick and hadn't ridden during the week. :)
The one big hill took less than a minute so even though it looks intimidating, I should have pushed myself harder as I was trying to only go at a little over FTP, this was way too low.
I was dueling with the same Sycip rider from last week and was pulling him back when he had an unfortunate mechanical. This left me riding by myself for most of the rest of the race. During the last two laps a SCCCC rider starting catching me so I concentrated on riding hard on the hills and flats and under control and not making any mistakes on the technical spots. He actually got pretty close on the last straightaway but I was able to hold him off for the glory of 17th place.
Managed a bit higher NP for this week's race so that's an improvement.
17/32
T: 46:02
S: 22.0 kph
C: 78
H: 179
Pavg: 164
Pnorm: 204
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