Lesson #1: A $1000 worth of GPS's is worthless unless you actually look at it.
Lesson #2-4: If you're gonna do a hard 70mile RR in 90+˚ heat...take a freakin' 3rd water bottle, wear some sunscreen you idiot! And wear gloves so your hands don't go completely numb.
Lesson #5: People around you are suffering just like you.
Ok...After driving lost for 3 hours we parked for the race about 9 minutes before it started. That was fun. Luckily it started out very mellow...I actually asked LL "are we neutral?" so we at least got a chance to warm up our stiff-ass legs before all hell broke loose.
Things slowly got animated and I was able to ride near the front to keep an eye on things. I felt pretty good starting out but knew I needed to conserve A LOT to make it to the end. The field was pretty stacked with lots of youngish 30+ Cat 1 types who we never race against.
Pretty early in the race LL got away with 4 others...I kind of missed that and had to ask Jay where he was as I figured he was hanging out at the back as usual ;-). Jay and I moved up to the front to cover attacks. I rode a fair bit of tempo on the front to keep the chase mellow. At one point I covered an attack (waited way too long to go after it, stupid move on my part) then there were hard counter attcks and the field exploded just as we got caught...man that double effort really, really hurt (380w ave for 3 min...Ouch!)
When the gap to LL got to about 1:40 Jay said he would try to get away by countering an attack and that's exactly what happened as he got a gap with a few guys and that turned into a group of 7 or so.
At this point...at about mile 50 I had a complete meltdown.
Legs completed cramped...both hamstrings and quads. I was off the back and out of water, I stretched a bit and luckily there were 3 others who had gotten dropped who towed me back up to the field. Thanks!
I spent the next 15 miles in total survival mode. I could ride steady but if there was a surge or attack I would instantly cramp. That sucked and I did not want to lose contact with the field or I would still be riding out there in the backwoods of NC. Looking around at the other riders--it was pretty brutal...people looked BAD. Luckily right then the group just totally shut down...we rode real, real slow (well, 20mph). That was the longest 15 miles of my life! I finished and felt awful.
LL got 4th and Jay 10th and they both went threw their own personal hell...I'll post links to their race reports when they're up. Update: Ladd, Jay
Pretty early in the race LL got away with 4 others...I kind of missed that and had to ask Jay where he was as I figured he was hanging out at the back as usual ;-). Jay and I moved up to the front to cover attacks. I rode a fair bit of tempo on the front to keep the chase mellow. At one point I covered an attack (waited way too long to go after it, stupid move on my part) then there were hard counter attcks and the field exploded just as we got caught...man that double effort really, really hurt (380w ave for 3 min...Ouch!)
When the gap to LL got to about 1:40 Jay said he would try to get away by countering an attack and that's exactly what happened as he got a gap with a few guys and that turned into a group of 7 or so.
At this point...at about mile 50 I had a complete meltdown.
Legs completed cramped...both hamstrings and quads. I was off the back and out of water, I stretched a bit and luckily there were 3 others who had gotten dropped who towed me back up to the field. Thanks!
I spent the next 15 miles in total survival mode. I could ride steady but if there was a surge or attack I would instantly cramp. That sucked and I did not want to lose contact with the field or I would still be riding out there in the backwoods of NC. Looking around at the other riders--it was pretty brutal...people looked BAD. Luckily right then the group just totally shut down...we rode real, real slow (well, 20mph). That was the longest 15 miles of my life! I finished and felt awful.
LL got 4th and Jay 10th and they both went threw their own personal hell...I'll post links to their race reports when they're up. Update: Ladd, Jay
1 Comment:
Yeah, that last 15 miles sucked bad - Head wind, 90 degrees, out of fluids. I was real happy to see the finish line.
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