Yesterday I did the first crits of my comeback from knee surgery. Who the hell races crits in the rain seven weeks after a major operation? Yeah, I'm not really sure either, I think it's my alter-ego. I've got sort of a Dr. Noah and Mr. Bike relationship with racing.

To keep a long story short, I pulled 9th place in the rain and cold in Greenville. I did as I'm wont to do and jumped to a 7 lap solo break, got caught, recovered, and got into the winning break for the last 20+ minutes. We NEARLY got caught at the line. I sat up as I thought I was out of the money (8 deep), but it turns out a lot of guys we lapped decided it'd be cool to jump on our break in the last lap and clog up the field and sprint for 40th...lesson, never sit up.

Woulda/shoulda/coulda...


Power Data
3/4 Race:
Duration: 50:08
Work: 924 kJ
TSS: 85 (intensity factor 1.009)
Norm Power: 323
VI: 1.05
Distance: 20.418 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 896 307 watts
Cadence: 29 198 104 rpm
Speed: 9.2 30.3 24.4 mph
Pace 1:59 6:31 2:27 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 426 84 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1272 255 lb-in (anyone wanna explain how I laid down 1272 in/lb - yet only 900w?)

The following 1/2/3 race was ugly. It's the first race I've been dropped from in 2 years, the first effort, a small, fast field and the wet cold really took it out of me. I did the big boy thing that I've preached about on here...once I was out of contention I pulled off course so as not to make a hazard of myself. I don't feel too bad though, as all of the 3s who'd raced before were dropped within the first 20-30 minutes.

In the end, I'm incredibly lucky, and incredibly happy to be able to race once again. Once I tune up my anaerobic engine a little bit more I'll be in good form. I've been focusing more on longer, steady efforts, and today illustrated that I need to start the over/unders with a purpose. Until then, I'll keep focusing on breaks in races. It's what Jens would do