I whine a lot about racing at Pace Bend. This year is no different. But if you want to read about them you'll have to look up my other posts. Just do a search for Pace Bend. Without the whining, this will be a short post.
Because the organizers format the races with the 40k road race first, I skip it and save my legs for the 20k road race. I only did the 5k time trial this year for the same reason. The course is just a tad short of 10k per lap. Last year it was cold with a bit of a wind, this year a very nice 70+ but an ever-freshening wind. I didn't recognize anyone in my age group so assumed I was racing myself. Not that it matters, I use it as a training ride.
Last year I was dropped on the first climb, this year I was staying up, close to the leaders, easily until the first turn, about 1.8 miles into it. I made the turn with the bunch but a couple hundred yards later, when the road turned up, I slowed more than they did, and folks started to pass. I latched onto a couple of guys and was able to draft until the last big hill on the back side. I could keep them in sight but couldn't close the gap as we started down, around, and back to the start line and the beginning of the second loop.
This time I was on my own into the wind and speed dropped precipitously. In my mirrors I caught sight of two guys and knew they were faster than me. Eventually they caught up on the back side hills. Like the first pair, they were about ten seconds ahead but holding steady. On the last big hill, I detected a slump in one guy as the other left him. I started closing. But once we made the last turn and headed into the wind, he was able to hold his gap. Thus I finished third in my age group.
The first place winner was several minutes ahead, and the second was 28 seconds ahead of me. The second place guy (Richard) I had forgotten about because he had serious health problems a few years ago and hadn't been riding. The winner (George), I looked up and apparently he, too, took a bunch of years off. His last races according to USA Cycling were crits in 2015. He has no record in Senior Games. I suspect they are both aiming at Nationals in Pittsburg. Richard has always been faster than me.
But both Richard and George used a lot of muscle in the road races. Richard skipped the time trials and I was faster than George in the 5k. That in itself is a story. As I switched bikes and did a little warm up on the tt bike, my shoulders and neck started to cramp. I couldn't get down on the bars. As I slowly pedaled back to the car I contemplated not doing the time trial at all. I remembered that my neck starts to cramp when I get dehydrated. So I downed a bottle of water and hoped that would do the trick.
The race itself was routine. Once started I gingerly got down on the bars and was pleased that I could stay there. My legs, on the other hand, wondered what I was doing. It took a few minutes of complaining before they would get to working. I felt pretty good on the way back (out and back course) and as we neared the finished actually had some oomph left to ramp up the cadence and finish strong. As it turned out, George was 27 seconds slower. So I managed to come home with one gold medal.
As I write this, my whole body still aches. It was a hard workout. One more thing. My upgrade to Di2 was completed on Friday. I familiarized myself with the shifting and paired it to the Garmin on Saturday. I really had fun with it on the 20k, shifting effortlessly in order to keep up with the peleton for the first 1.8 miles, shifting up and down the cassette and in and out of the chain rings. Going between chain rings was especially handy with the multiple hills.
