Last weekend, I completely fell apart 1/2 way through the crit. It was hot, muggy and the air quality was just plain poor. Today was no different! Hotter even. But I was better prepared.. I ate something in good time, carried two water bottles, didn't jump into any early breaks.. The highlight of my race was a prime lap with 28 to go.. I had resolved to attack just past the start/finish, just before the right hand corner. I'm moving up the left hand side, gathering speed, when the bell sounds! Perfect. By the time I am through the corner, I have a nice gap, so I continue to accelerate, into the wind. Cresting the part of the course where the tractor trailers are usually parked, I started to lose steam, but not speed.. At one point I thought for sure I was going to blow up. Looking back, I see no one. Head back down, drilling it up the long finish straight.. look back again, and one lone rider is in no man's land, impossibly far from catching me. I don't win primes too often, or even go for them, but this was a textbook case of doing the right thing at the right time. I juiced the watts all the way to the line. It wasn't until over 1/2 lap later (near the trailers) that I was consumed by the field. They let me go, I know this. But I don't believe that just anyone could have done it without falling apart. Those intervals I've been doing are bearing fruit.. Heart rate reached 189 towards the end.. Average speed for the two minutes pictured is 28.6 (46 km).. Mind you this is not a sprint. It's a vein popping two minute interval at 410 watts (443 watts if you look only at the duration of the attack, which was exactly on lap-see above) Won a large 40 oz sized banana flavored Shaklee drink mix. Banana? WTF?At the end with two to go I was setting up nicely when someone's front spoke popped and the field scattered like pigeons.. No one knew which way to swerve. This shook up the field a little, with only about one lap left to go. I chose the wrong wheel and thusly erased any hopes of a top three, then came to my senses, powered around said mistake and up the road, snagging 8th. Knowing that I had the legs to do much better, I guess I can live with that. Here's the final lap below. Average speed is 31 mph, and tops out at only 34. You can see my moment of hesitance (and cursing) before I just emptied the tank in the last 20 seconds, seated the whole way. That was my top 20 seconds of the race: 666 watts. Not quite a sprint, but enough that I picked off about ten guys, and no one came around me.
Forgive me for the arrogant chest beating.. Yeah 8th at Wells is nothing to write home about, neither is getting a prime.. but I'm getting fired up about what the rest of this season will bring. Modesty is never a good fuel for success..
A note about the Powertap. Today I expressed my love for the thing to a team mate as follows: "I'd give up my STI shifters and switch to down tube levers, before I ever gave up the Powertap." Said team mate was shocked. It's true. Knowing the power is No 1.. Heart rate monitors teach you nothing. My average HR today was 164. What does that tell you? Not much.
