I know, I know - I need to post on here a little more often as this is supposed to be my Training Diary. Meh. I'll get to it eventually. This past week I put a lot of hours in on the bike. 7 hr and 45 min to be exact. Had a really good ride on Thursday for the Pedal Moraine group ride. Took a lot of pulls and sat on the front three wheels for the entire ride. Popped two or three off the back as well. Made me feel good as it was not me for once.
On Saturday, I set out at 5:30Am to meet up with fellow Team Extremers in Cedarburg for a base miles group ride. I had planned on riding for about 30 miles or so as I would be racing in Madison on Sunday. The pace was moderate for the most part. Got to my turn around point, but didn't turn around.... kept on riding. Ended up with a Metric Century.
Wheels on Willy Crit:
Sarah and I ventured out to Madison on Sunday for the Wheels on Willy Criterium Race. A short .6 mile left hand turn course with a slight uphill finish. I had a feeling it was going to be a fast race. Sure shit, right out the gates they're hammering it into turn #1. Down the slight dowhill stretch and into turn #2. This is where we met the 7-10mph crosswind. Not bad if sitting in, but solo gets a bit old. Turn #3 takes us into the headwind for a short stretch before turn #4 and the slight uphill finish.
I managed to hold onto the 27-30mph pace for just over 3 laps before I got gapped after turn #2. Tried to bridge up to the field, but fell short. Welcome to No Man's Land. Coming into turn #3, I looked back and did not see anyone else around except a few others rolling out of turn #2. I knew I was not going to be able to get back onto the field with the headwind I was about to face and sat up for others to work with. After about 2 laps, I found a rider from UW-Madison / Evil Racing to work with. He and I ended up working with each other until the last three laps. One rider from the field went down hard in turn #4 and stayed down for a while, which caused the race to be halted.
Race Officials restarted the race in two groups - main field and those off the back. I had trouble getting clipped in after the restart and couldn't get on with a group of ten riders. Found the UW guy again and we worked together until 200m. He started to ramp it up. I see him start to stand on the slight uphill and put it down. I knew from sitting on his wheel in the head wind he wasn't going to have much, so I went around and put the hammer down. Well, at least I got a good sprint in! Felt good to get that out. Finished 40th out of a field of 57 riders.
I'll definately be working on intervals and being able to sustain a higher pace for short amounts of time. Seems that the 4/5 races are really fast for 1/2 the race, but they slow significantly after that. I also refrain from any Metric Centuries the day before a race! Grant says I should be in good form for Grafton with all the riding I've been doing lately. Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and finally be a pack fodder.
Patrick
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