Tour de Bloom: Stage 1 Race Review
I went into this race not knowing what to expect. I've never done such a hilly race (it wasn't even that hilly). I've never raced a field of cat 3s, I've never raced in the States, there was a lot of unknowns. Despite not knowing what was about to happen, I lined up this morning with a sort of ignorant bliss, ready to go have fun.
We had a neutral rollout controlled by a motorcycle which was a super chill 20ish kph, the flag dropped and we sped up marginally, nothing crazy though. I made my way forward in the group and sat on the pointy end of the race for a while, keeping pace at around 40kph for a minute or so before deciding to sit in as much as I can. The field was antsy to chase down anything given enough of a gap so I didn't need to do much work.
Lap 1 was fairly uneventful with the exception of one man up the road, and getting guttered on a road where every kilometre or so you'd lose a foot of shoulder (aka where I was riding) and you just had to be ready for it. Re-learning how to ride in close quarters: Trial by fire. I ended up getting shot to the back of the group, not where you want to be. Ever.
Coming back around for the second lap the group sat up a bit and I had a chance to talk to the owner of Hewdog Racing (my roommate races for him). It was cool being in a race where the group sits up and you can meet people while racing.
Lap 2 was a fairly similar ordeal. I rolled to the front on the first kicker of the lap (moved up 40 riders in under a minute) and continued to sit on the front in the same manner as lap one time, this time opting to pull off to the left as to not get guttered. It was fairly chill the entire last lap. A couple times when you're going above threshold in the draft, losing spots, gaining spots, learning how to navigate a field. This was also my first time riding in a large pack.
At the end of lap 2, we turn to go up a 2km hill. Not that bad right? Well, it's 2km at 7% so think again. I know my threshold for climbing so at the bottom of the hill I tried to stay with the lead group, looked down, and realized I wasn't going to make it up the hill like this, so I eased up a bit and rode at a pace I knew I could sustain. My average heart rate for the last 5 minutes was 180. Last time I had it that high that long was the provincial crit last year and I got dropped at almost exactly 5 minutes in.
I ended up losing 1 minute and a half on GC, and although that is fairly substantial, I'm still hopeful that I can do something in the TT tomorrow (and crit in the evening).
For those interested in the stats for the race (keep in mind I started recording about five minutes in), 80 km in 2hrs5mins (38.6kph), 827m climbing, average heart rate 158bpm, normalized power 301watts. I'll try to write a review for the TT and crit tomorrow, however, it's an evening crit so I might just do the three final races together on Sunday.
Stay cool internet ;)
We had a neutral rollout controlled by a motorcycle which was a super chill 20ish kph, the flag dropped and we sped up marginally, nothing crazy though. I made my way forward in the group and sat on the pointy end of the race for a while, keeping pace at around 40kph for a minute or so before deciding to sit in as much as I can. The field was antsy to chase down anything given enough of a gap so I didn't need to do much work.
Lap 1 was fairly uneventful with the exception of one man up the road, and getting guttered on a road where every kilometre or so you'd lose a foot of shoulder (aka where I was riding) and you just had to be ready for it. Re-learning how to ride in close quarters: Trial by fire. I ended up getting shot to the back of the group, not where you want to be. Ever.
Coming back around for the second lap the group sat up a bit and I had a chance to talk to the owner of Hewdog Racing (my roommate races for him). It was cool being in a race where the group sits up and you can meet people while racing.
Lap 2 was a fairly similar ordeal. I rolled to the front on the first kicker of the lap (moved up 40 riders in under a minute) and continued to sit on the front in the same manner as lap one time, this time opting to pull off to the left as to not get guttered. It was fairly chill the entire last lap. A couple times when you're going above threshold in the draft, losing spots, gaining spots, learning how to navigate a field. This was also my first time riding in a large pack.
At the end of lap 2, we turn to go up a 2km hill. Not that bad right? Well, it's 2km at 7% so think again. I know my threshold for climbing so at the bottom of the hill I tried to stay with the lead group, looked down, and realized I wasn't going to make it up the hill like this, so I eased up a bit and rode at a pace I knew I could sustain. My average heart rate for the last 5 minutes was 180. Last time I had it that high that long was the provincial crit last year and I got dropped at almost exactly 5 minutes in.
I ended up losing 1 minute and a half on GC, and although that is fairly substantial, I'm still hopeful that I can do something in the TT tomorrow (and crit in the evening).
For those interested in the stats for the race (keep in mind I started recording about five minutes in), 80 km in 2hrs5mins (38.6kph), 827m climbing, average heart rate 158bpm, normalized power 301watts. I'll try to write a review for the TT and crit tomorrow, however, it's an evening crit so I might just do the three final races together on Sunday.
Stay cool internet ;)
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