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Lifetime Gran Fondo - CycleOther

View Member's Race Log View other race reports

Minnetrista, Minnesota
United States
Lifetime Fitness
67F / 19C
Overcast

Total Time = 7h 30m
Overall Rank = /225
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 0/26

Pre-race routine:

Got up at 5 am and made myself pancakes and had some coffee to get the system rolling. Filled my water bottles and then took off to the park.

Event warmup:

Once I got parked I meandered over to registration, picked up my swag bag and timing chip and headed back to the car. I loaded my jersey pockets with the food in the bag (GU chomps, and a couple of bars, assembled my bike, and headed out to the road to stretch my legs a bit.

When I hit it hard on a slight hill I had a phantom shift so I rode over to the mechanics tent and had them do a quick adjustment. Things worked great after that.

Bike

3h 25m 54s
64.7 miles
18.85 mile/hr

What would you do differently?:

Been a little better prepared for where the race sections were and I should have removed my light before hand so I didn't have anything that could fall off.

Post race

Warm down:

The post ride party was great. Grilled chicken, chips and Summit beer. Lifetime knows how to throw a party. I hung around with some friends for the raffle then headed for home.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Considering I went into this thing hoping to average about 17.5 mph and I finished at 18.85 I was quite pleased. My conditioning is all that held me back

Last updated: 2010-06-28 12:00 AM

Biking
03:25:54 \| 64.7 miles \| 18.85 mile/hr
Age Group:	0/26
Overall:	0/225
Performance:	Good
ave HR - 142 max HR - 174
Wind:
Course:	It was a bit dicey with 225 riders starting out and then making a right hand turn onto a highway shoulder. On the first down hill we had it opened up to over 35 mph and the group started to sort itself out. I had lots of fun jumping up group to group looking for a pace to settle in at. I felt really good. Eventually I settled in to a group and we cranked it out as we rode through Mound. After a couple of hills the groups pace started to slow a bit so another gal and I made the jump to the group in front of us. This whole time we are cruising in the 22-24mph range. Then my only piece of bad luck hit and it was my own fault. I should have taken my rear light off. I hit a hard bump in the rode and sent it flying. So I doubled back to get it and of course lost my group. The beauty of this ride is there is always another group behind you :) It wasn't long after this that first "race"took place. The King of the Mountain. I had driven the hill the night before but did not know where the start and the finish would be. Of course it started right after a hard right! I was out of the saddle as soon as I rounded the corner and hit it hard. I went over the first couple of rollers passing people left and right. Then came the steep hill and I made a tactical mistake. I was feeling strong and thought I could climb this thing in my big ring. I knew better. About half way up I am bottomed out in the big ring. This was not the time to be changing rings but I had no choice. So I sat, eased up just a bit and made the shift. I lost what little momentum I had and just gutted it out to the top. I finished 14th out of 26th in my age group and 63 over all. After this I settled in with some guys and we all worked very well together. Everybody held their line and we rotated through the pace line like clockwork. In Watertown we hit our first water stop and out little group broke up. I stuck with a guy I will call Hawkeye since he had an Iowa jersey on. As soon as we rounded the corner in Watertown we hit the Time Trial race. OK I thought. This is my road. I ride this all the time. Lets put the heat on. At this point we are near the halfway mark and are averaging over 20 mph. The sun kind of poked out along this section and I really burned some matches. Hawkeye pulled away a bit and our other riding partner dropped back from me. The TT took us all the way into Delano and I was hurting. I finished 18th in my age group and 99th overall. As we doubled back to Watertown on the backroad I drifted into recovery mode. There was a lot of riding left and I was toasted. And the wind was picking up. I was doing a little better by the time we hit Watertown and I hooked up with another group of guys including Hawkeye. We headed out toward Winsted into the wind. A few miles in, during a rotation in the paceline, the lead guy amped it up just a bit. There was no way I could hold it so I waved the guys behind me by. I was out on my own. Shortly after we rounded the loop at Hollywood I could see Hawkeye was spit out of the pack also and I was slowly gaining on him. As I got close I could tell he was pretty hatched so as I passed I told him to grab my wheel and I would pull for a while. I should have know when he got quiet I was dropping him. After a long hill I looked back and he was about a 1/4 mile back. I felt bad but we were almost back into Watertown and I was out of water. I stopped at the waterstop and Hawkeye went through. By this stretch of the ride it was pretty strung out. Between Watertown and hwy 92 there were a couple of pretty good hills. I could tell I had been pushing pretty hard as my legs were starting to run out of juice. I rounded the corner onto 92 and guess what I found? The flags for the sprint - oh joy. There was a lady there cheering us on to sprint. I looked at her and laughed! I said, "You have go to be kidding". My intention was to just ride it but in a moment of weakness I got out of the saddle and started to put the hammer down - even if it was a small tack hammer. Fortunately the sprint was short.I finished 13 in my age group and 79th over all. Of course the first thing you had to do was climb the hill into St. Boni. I was completely hatched and at this point was looking to just finish the last few miles. My average at this point was 19.1 mph. I knew that was going to go down. I caught Hawkeye on hwy 7 and we rode into the finish line in a shower of rain together.
Road:	Smooth	Cadence:
Turns:	Good	Cornering:	Good
Gear changes:	Average	Hills:	Average
Race pace:	Comfortable	Drinks:	Just right

Post race
Weight change:	%
Overall:	Good
Mental exertion [1-5]	4
Physical exertion [1-5]	4
Good race?	Yes

Evaluation
Course challenge	Just right
Organized?	Yes
Events on-time?	Yes
Lots of volunteers?	Yes
Plenty of drinks?	Yes
Post race activities:	Good
Race evaluation [1-5]	5