Wednesday at 3:00. I had considered that a race car course where TdG had raced the TTT years ago would be relatively flat and favor me. Wow... what a screw up. Tough climbs and concrete legs...
My legs were dead. I didn't know it at the time... I was not in difficulty on any of the climbs (and there were at least 3 punchy climbs (did it clockwise)... seemed like more by the end). It was just getting harder and harder as the race went on and I really never found a good rhythm. Coming into the finishing straight, I got on the wrong guys wheel who bumped against another rider... I tapped my brakes and lost 10 spots... I was glad... I was gassed and didn't feel like I could really contest the sprint...
The finale was a 48 mph drop into the finish line. I thought that would be a good thing for me and it probably would have been if I would have held my position. The sprint was fast but we were going fast anyway. I sat in and didn't pedal on the sprint... no one came past... I just tucked in as tight as I could and held my position... mid-pack.
Thought that I would have set big records when I got home, but there was not a serious effort on the whole ride and the overall effort was weak... even for a heavy guy, I didn't have a big normalized power average over the hour... I was shocked.
This is really when the power meter in a race earns its keep. I would be apt to say that the pace was high and I am not able to handle climbing with the guys in my group, but the truth is, my legs were just not up to it... maybe it is that I am not used to racing on Wed. when I raced twice on Saturday... maybe I took it too easy the last three days (I think this might be it- lost a little snap)... maybe I am thinking about vacation (starts Saturday)... maybe I knew I should have been working rather than racing...
Lessons learned...
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