My thirty minute warm up went well. Legs felt good, heart rate brought up to 140, finished in time to change jerseys, strap on my small Camelbak and put a fresh 24 oz. bottle in the cage, drink Pickle Juice, and rest a few minutes before coming to the start line. There were sufficient 70+ riders that we had our own group, rather than having to start with the 60+ guys. And there were enough (6 I think) in the 75+ group that we had our own medal race. It was 96 degrees with a brisk (some might say strong) wind out of the east-southeast. The course runs north-northeast for a little over fifteen miles, south-southwest for a little under fifteen miles, then west for about three miles.
I knew about half the riders and knew the "young" guys would set a strong pace in the mostly downhill first four miles. We started the first couple hundred meters being reasonable, then they ramped it up. I caught on to Tom's wheel when he came by and five of us followed a rabbit, leaving the others gapped. We did the first four miles in 10:35 before the first hill. This has a 10% ramp and usually separates the weaker riders. I still clung to Tom's wheel, but Whitney gapped three of us and was off in pursuit of the rabbit (whose name I didn't know, but he was a teammate of Whitney's). I was feeling good. Heart rate was in the 140's for the downhill race and only hit 154 for the climb.
Then it was off to the second hill at mile seven and a half. This is about a half mile climb with ramps of 9% and on the second ramp I lost Tom's wheel and in the blink of an eye he had twenty yards and that was the closest I came until climbing on the podium. I checked my mirrors, nobody in sight. It was time trial time for the rest of the race. We had some downhill and after a few of those I noticed a bike in my mirror. He was making up a lot of ground on the descents. At the start of the race I noticed a lot of guys sitting on their top tubes and he was one of them. I'm not ready to do that yet. Eventually he caught up and I saw he wasn't in my age group (a young guy at 71). Then, just before the turn, another rider caught me, Sean. He was also in the younger group.
I made the turn and made a quick stop for a Gu. It was also a water stop but I figured I had plenty of liquid so didn't take any. The hoped for wind over my left shoulder didn't materialize. It was on my left shoulder ok, but the front left. Sean was my rabbit. He hung about 100 yards ahead and stayed between 100 yards and a quarter-mile for the next eight or so miles.
Meanwhile, I began having difficulties. The strain of fighting the wind by myself, climbing, and the heat had taken a toll I hadn't anticipated. Now, rather than pushing at a reasonable 142 heart-rate, I was having trouble at 132. Fred came whizzing by me on a downhill. Fred is ten years older than me and continues to be faster. Definitely, I was over-heated, reduced to noodling in for the last ten miles, with two tough climbs before a right turn and the wind at my back. But I was better off than Sean, who was cramping big time. On one of the climbs I finally passed him as he slowly zig-zagged his way up the hill. I was also better off than Jaime. I'd dropped him on the first hill, but like Fred, he was in pursuit. Unfortunately, he became disoriented and missed a turn and fell into a ditch. While he wasn't hurt, he was unable to remount his bike and the sag wagon told him his race was over. It was about this time that my neck started to cramp. This is a big tell-tale to me that I haven't been drinking enough fluid. I took the last dregs of the water bottle (with Nuun), then discovered that the Camelbak was also empty. Should have taken them up at the water stop.
The right turn finally came, but with the wind at my back also came a big hill. I felt better as I increased cadence in a small cog. Once at the top, even though the climb continued at 1-3%, I could move down a gear, then another, and I was almost at a decent speed. My heart-rate returned to the 140's and I started feeling better. The leaders of the ladies group that started after us came by. Fortunately I didn't have anyone to sprint against, although I could have.
Rather than immediately go into a cool down ride, I headed for the car and a fresh bottle of water. After some large gulps, I got back on the bike to cool down. I had very little energy and mostly just sat in the saddle, not bending my neck, and drank water. Rather than ten minutes, I only took six. But that was good because as I was getting off my bike I heard my name on the loud speaker being called to the podium. Andy verified I'd finished behind Fred and directed me to the 3rd place spot on the podium. I went over and sat down on it, took off my helmet, drank more water. Tom and Fred came over, as did Jaime, just to get in the picture. As you can see, they took the picture before I could straighten up. Then again, I had a hard time straightening up.
Interestingly enough, my time from the start to the first turn was exactly the same as when I reconned the course by myself a couple weeks ago. And my recon was ten minutes faster than the race. Perhaps I should have noodled up the first two hills. Or, do harder, longer training rides. Well, this is the end of the racing season, other than a couple of Driveway crits. Time to start planning next year's agenda.
No comments:
Post a Comment