The cyclo-sportif started out like a ball shot out of a cannon! I though I read or heard from someone that it was close to 60 km/hr out of the start on the gravel road. I think the front runners wanted to get to the newly cut watery, rutty fire road 9 kms in with the group strung out as much as possible.
I had an ok start. I think I could have been a bit more aggressive early on to try leap-frog forward to some bigger groups that started forming a couple minutes after the crazy start. A few times I was happy to be on a wheel only to see a big gap open up. Note to self, be more aggressive.
My actual plan was to try start out fairly hard and slowly drop back to smaller groups. I knew technically I would be fast threw the first rough section, and I was very happy with my pace through this first rough section. I think I clinked the rim lightly a couple times and kept waiting for the wobbly rear wheel that never came.
The plan seemed to be working well but once out of the rough cut road/trail the groups were all quite small with one bigger group quite far up the road. I could not get the smaller group I was with to work to catch them. I asked but a couple said they were happy at this pace so I had no choice but to sit in.
About 1 hr in this group broke up over a set of steep little gravel rollers. I ended up in a group of 4 with a the others slowly pulling ahead. Again no one wanted to try chase down with people content on their pace.
So I settled in with 3 other guys and we were pretty evenly matched. We all took turns pulling through. About 2/3rds into the race there is another fire road with a steep little S turn climb(photo). Usually this section and the km or so after is sloppy and mixed with some snow but this year we had a record low snow and record March temps so was as dry as it could be and pretty fast through here compared to normal. Still rough enough that you could pinch flat. It was shortly after this climb that I felt like I was having a sugar low. I also dropped my full water bottle here as I was grabbing for a gel I hit a good bumb with only the one hand on the bar and I guess it was a good jolt. I had no choice but to turn around and get it as I watched the other 3 guys roll away and it probably cost me 30 second gap.I probably should have stopped and took my sugar level but decided to keep rolling along and take my 2 gels and 1/2 bottle of gatorade. I tell you those gels tasted so good ! ! Was a Hammer Vanilla and a Apple /Cinnamon.
I was surprised it only took about 5 minutes and I felt like I was back up to full speed again. Must'a just caught the low or those gels and gatorade mix well :)
Now I was in a bit of no mans land. The 3 guys I was with were little specs off in the distance and I currently could not see anyone behind me. Looking at some photos time stamps at the S curve it looks like we were only 1-2 minutes from a larger group of about 10 people.
I figured I would just go along at a decently hard pace and see what happened. A group that was about 5 minutes behind me at the S finally picked me up. There were 3 riders. I jumped on. Their pace was right on my limit. I did a pull or two then I actually dropped 50 feet off the back for about 1 minute or so. I was hurting but decided that I would be hurting more on my own out there longer so managed to pull back up and skip a couple pulls to recover then started rotating through.
4 kms from the finish there is a section about 1 k of double track trail that is full of good old Canadian Shield rock. The other 3 guys really slowed down here so I decided to attack here as it is one of my strong points. One guys commented as I rode off ahead 'We know who the MTB'er of the group is ...' . I certainly had fun pulling a gap here but from last year I did the same thing and got caught.
I just couldn't help myself and decided to go for it. The first guy out of the woods behind me was probably 250 meters back (total guess:) ) and the second two came out at least that distance more.
The first guy out of the woods behind me was the one doing the strongest pulls and ended up catching me. He pulled a gap of maybe 30 seconds at one point and I ended up closing that back down to 7 seconds and the gap back to the other 2 was about 35 seconds.
Unfortunately something happened to my Garmin file and I have no info other than what I remember briefly looking down at.
So all in all it was a pretty good day. Looking at some of the numbers from the guys and gals I know I am definitely improving. I think with just a wee bit more power and a better starting spot I could hang with the bigger faster lead groups and make a big jump in my finishing time.
Looking forward to next seasons race :)
Some great photos by McKenna Photography.
http://pmckenna.zenfolio.com/p206737682
Cheers,
Paul
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