Originally Posted by
TMonk
Raced twice at Ontario yesterday, nothing to write home about. In the first one (cat 3/4) I was in a 5-6 man break that stayed away for more than a few laps which was cool, but it wasn't fast enough. It didnt' feel hard. I lined it up and kept it hot when I'd hit the front but others seemed unwillling/unable. Really, I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did - every time I rotated to the back I expected the field to be there.
The second one (3 only) just sucked, mostly due to the 98 degree temp. reading at the start of the race. I pulled out voluntarily, not even hurting really. A break of 5 lazily accelerated away and after a few laps it was clear that no one was willing to chase or help. My teammate and I each took a couple hard pulls, only to have it decelerate right after.
Maybe your legs were good yesterday, because looking at the data, we were averaging just shy of 28 up until we got caught in the e3/4, and a full mile an hour slower for the rest of the race. Kinda wishing I had committed to that one earlier on, as I think if we built up a bigger gap the field may have given up. I'm not used to going right from the gun though, so I wasn't sure how serious to take it. I was definitely saving a bit to get back into the field.
The second one was frustrating. Since the early break in the previous race didn't work, I didn't worry too much when a group rolled off a few minutes in. But sure enough, their gap grew, and no one wanted to race bikes. I tried pulling, I tried bridging. Every time I tried to pull, no one would work with me. The only time they seemed to want to work was when I was in a group with two others trying to bridge. THEN they chased us down. Sigh. Pretty sure the break came close to lapping us. Also the heat sucked, real bad. Garmin is showing an average of 107, max of 111.
I decided to do the P123 I'd signed up for as well. Practiced my cornering a bit, felt a lot more confident than the last two times, but 35 mins in I started having cold sweats and figured I didn't want heat stroke, so I pulled out. Avg temp 108, max of 115 in that one, woof. Hottest race I've ever done.