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06-07-08, 11:22 PM
Got 2nd.
LAMBRA RR championships @ Natchez State Park, Natchez, MS ~5 mi loop x8 for 41 miles total starting at 12 noon CAT 5
Course: 3 tough hills early, small rollers otherwise, headwind for last .5 mile to start/finish
14 in the field, first 4 laps painfully slow avg17-22 taking all turns super cautious with virtually no attacks, stayed toward the back out of the wind, able to mark a couple strong riders.
Beginning of 5th lap I go to the front on the opening straight to raise the tempo to a measly 22mph. Look back and the field is 100yds away? climb hills at normal tempo and continue as the field begins to disappear behind me. Ok, either I go balls to the wall for 20 miles by myself or I sit up and wait for everybody else. F it, I'm going.
I carve lines pedaling through every turn using the entire road. The hills are for attacking, the descents for spinning. I have to yell at the motorcylces to get out of the way when they slow too much for a turn. If I don't make this work I'm toast at a sprint. BTW, TT is not my strong suite.
From the start finish, I come up a hill (feed zone) and pull a switchback onto a long exposed flat with about 1.5 miles of visibility back. At the beginning of lap 6 I've got 40 sec on the field. By lap 7 I've got over 1.5 minutes! WTF? Keep it up. Lap 8-bell lap-brings a chaser. He catches me 1 mile into the lap, I'm dying. We've just finished the 3 big hills and he pulls up to me. We agree to work together to keep away another chase group.
He's much stronger right now, I'm fading hoping to hold his wheel and do enough work to get by. After all that, I don't want 5th.
At the last turn with .5 miles to go he takes off, I watch. It's all I can do. I roll across 15 sec behind him but 1 min in front of the next group.
Hardest 16 miles I've ever ridden solo.
First time I've placed.
That is all.
LAMBRA RR championships @ Natchez State Park, Natchez, MS ~5 mi loop x8 for 41 miles total starting at 12 noon CAT 5
Course: 3 tough hills early, small rollers otherwise, headwind for last .5 mile to start/finish
14 in the field, first 4 laps painfully slow avg17-22 taking all turns super cautious with virtually no attacks, stayed toward the back out of the wind, able to mark a couple strong riders.
Beginning of 5th lap I go to the front on the opening straight to raise the tempo to a measly 22mph. Look back and the field is 100yds away? climb hills at normal tempo and continue as the field begins to disappear behind me. Ok, either I go balls to the wall for 20 miles by myself or I sit up and wait for everybody else. F it, I'm going.
I carve lines pedaling through every turn using the entire road. The hills are for attacking, the descents for spinning. I have to yell at the motorcylces to get out of the way when they slow too much for a turn. If I don't make this work I'm toast at a sprint. BTW, TT is not my strong suite.
From the start finish, I come up a hill (feed zone) and pull a switchback onto a long exposed flat with about 1.5 miles of visibility back. At the beginning of lap 6 I've got 40 sec on the field. By lap 7 I've got over 1.5 minutes! WTF? Keep it up. Lap 8-bell lap-brings a chaser. He catches me 1 mile into the lap, I'm dying. We've just finished the 3 big hills and he pulls up to me. We agree to work together to keep away another chase group.
He's much stronger right now, I'm fading hoping to hold his wheel and do enough work to get by. After all that, I don't want 5th.
At the last turn with .5 miles to go he takes off, I watch. It's all I can do. I roll across 15 sec behind him but 1 min in front of the next group.
Hardest 16 miles I've ever ridden solo.
First time I've placed.
That is all.