Paying attention

I was shed off the back when things split up about 12 miles from the finish of Sunday's Bariani Road Race. I had been lingering near the back for a number of reasons. Mainly because it has been quite a while since I've raced in a pack that size (50 or more), but also because the course didn't look selective enough to break up the pelaton. I figured it would stay together till the end and then be decided with a mass sprint. I figured wrong. The penultimate time up the one significant hill on the course all hell broke loose. If I'd been anywhere near the front of the race I would have at least been in the second group instead of tailed off with the back half. As I looked up the road I could see a group of 12 all lined out single file. I probably wouldn't have made that selection. But not too far behind them was a group of 15 or so that I would likely have been able to hang with. This would have moved me up about 10-15 places overall with likely less energy expenditure than I used dragging myself and a handful of others the final few miles of the race. The next race that is running my age group is two weeks from now, and my plan is to get in the front at the start and to stay there.

More Testing

Conditions were correct for my second test TT of the year on Saturday - cool and calm. While my legs did not feel all that great as I launched after a 20 minute warm up, the results were encouraging. I took almost a full minute off the end of January time, completing the 7 mile course in 18:06 against the prior 19:01. This new time was slightly over 23 mph. Not too shabby considering it was done with standard wheels and kit. The time out was at 26mph, but obviously I was not able to sustain this sort of effort for long. This is approx a 5% increase in speed in one month, which is substantial. This effort however took a lot out of me as when I went out on the club ride on Sunday I did not have good legs and suffered the entire time.