First race as a cat 2! Victorville Road Race P12. Originally 14x6 mile laps, but the official took a poll at the start and we decided on 12 laps instead. Small field, pretty strong but steady wind. Neutral roll out for like 30 seconds to the start/finish, then it was on. The pace immediately rocketed up, and as we went through a zig-saggy section of road with really bumpy pavement, I started to fall back through the pack as I didn't know the lines and the road surface was messing me up.
As we turned left onto a tailwind straight, I realized I was a bit too far back and stuck behind a guy who was already pretty much done and opening up a gap (later find out it's the owner of the socal cycling team or something like that). Burned a match and did 400-500w to the next corner, took the right turn and of course had to burn another to match the surge, so another 700w push settling down into mid 300s for a bit, then finally chilling in the pack for a headwind descent. In the mean time my teammate went off the front. Recovered for a little bit, then saw a move forming to chase/bridge to my teammate, so I jumped to follow it, then we hit the turnaround for a tailwind climb up the main hill.
Man, tailwind climbs suck. Started it at around 400w, then slowly faded while everybody passed me, but was in that spot where I just couldn't dig to accelerate up to everyone else's speed. Heart rate just kept climbing, maxing out at ~180, and then I was just done. 10 minutes into the race, dropped like a stone. FML.
Power-wise, that effort should have been doable, but I think it was all the digs before that and maybe too easy/short of a warmup that did me in. I expected it to be hard, but didn't count on it just going ballistic from the gun. A few others got popped on that first lap, including a couple teammates who I consider stronger than me, so I don't feel toooo terrible.
Chased hard for 1-2 laps hoping they might slow down, then just settled into tempo pace with one other guy for the remaining couple of hours. Luckily they finished us a lap down, as we got lapped with 1.5 to go, and I was able to watch my super strong teammate duke it out from the winning break coming into the finish. Unfortunately, he was up against two pairs of teammates working together, and got 4th. Good workout I guess
On to the next one!