Indian River Road race - Cycle

Well, my theory of it not being a fast start was wrong. There was a group of 5 or 6 that went fairly quickly off the start and within a couple of minutes the attacks really started. For the entire first lap, it was hammer sprint then soft pedal and repeat. The guys were stronger than me and most of the time I fell off the back and would catch back on during the soft pedal. I kept with them in the hope that things would settle down a bit but that never happened. :) Eventually one of the times that I was catching back on, someone attacked again and that was the end of me, I never got within 5-10s of the group again. My power profile for that first lap looks like a saw tooth. AP was 259w but NP was almost 300.

Once that was settled, I just started trying to push my target power of 250w, a bit more uphill/into the wind and a bit less with the wind. About half way around lap 2 I noticed another rider up ahead that had been dropped by the group. I focused on trying to catch him in the hopes we could work together to make the wind less miserable. I eventually caught up to him and he looked like a broken soul but still jumped in behind me and we started rotating. He liked to hit the hills a bit harder than I would have but it was nice of him to drag me up them. :) We rode together for a little over one lap and then suddenly he was gone. I was doing the elbow flick and nothing was happening, took a look behind me and he was way back. He ultimately DNF'd. AP for lap 2 was 255w.

Rest of the race was a solo ride. I just tried to keep the power around 250-260 and was able to do that except for the downwind section where I was spinning out at 60+ km/hr. AP for the last 3 laps was 242w. I finished the ride pretty tired, especially since the last 5-6k was into the wind and I was trying to finish as strong as I could.

Overall AP 248w, NP 262w, happy with the effort. I would have liked to try to hang with the lead guys a bit longer and I think I may have been able to if it hadn't been so windy but who knows. I certainly wouldn't have been able to keep with all the attacks for the entire ride, wind or not.

Layed down in the grass


Unaccustomed to constant, relentless attacks!