Friday, July 10, 2009

Seward Park 7/10/09 - The Opposite of Smart Racing

What's the opposite of smart racing? Me at Seward Park yesterday. Too much work with nothing to show for it. But I guess it was a training race so that's what it's for right?

Pulled the peloton around for the first lap, stayed up front until the first prime, went too early for it. I was fourth wheel and saw the three ahead soft-pedaling and coasting, playing cat-and-mouse so I attacked hard from the back. I had a gap but ran out of gas on the uphill towards the line.

Then it took me just about the rest of the race (10 more laps) to recover, and I slowly slid backwards in the pack, ending up in the middle. Moved up for the last lap, and ended up stuck in the wind on the front with two up the road. Had nothing for the (uphill) sprint..

When I got 3rd in this race I sat in until the final sprint - I'm thinking this means I need to get smarter. Or stronger. Or both.

Photos

Early in the race I think, here I am 3rd-wheel. A strong junior (Max?) was pulling the field, and look who made a guest appearance in 2nd wheel? Mr. Elbows. He kept them to himself this time it seemed.
The pack coming up to the peak/turn:



The peloton coming up the 4% hill - this is what you get to sprint up at the end!

Here's Chad going for one of the primes.


And then coming in for the win, a First Rate Mortgage rider. If I'm not mistaken he also raced the Masters 35+ at the Joe Matava Crit last week, and looked strong there.

Thanks to Beki for taking these shots!
Power Data

Duration: 28:59
Work: 408 kJ
TSS: 53.5 (intensity factor 1.052)
Norm Power: 300
VI: 1.28
Distance: 18.555 km
Elevation Gain: 376 m
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 973 234 watts
Cadence: 24 132 83 rpm
Speed: 1.3 98.4 38.3 kph
Crank Torque: 0 196.9 25.2 N-m

In other news, the STP is happening this Saturday. But instead of doing it like I've done for the last few years, I'm doing a race in Redmond instead. Looks like it's going to be a great weekend of riding!

1 comment:

Ian said...

well, as botto sayeth- there's winning, and there's winning with style and panache.

IMO you may as well try for the wins with style in Cat4/5 as you are highly unlikely to get them at any other level.

Mass starts count no matter how you finish- you don't even have to finish! If the opportunity looks right, give it a flyer.