The first thing I noticed as I was riding was how high my heartrate was. It think it was because of the lack of sleep and the cold, because I wasn't feeling pressed and wasn't going all that fast, yet my HR was 170+ for the first ten miles or so. It seemed to settle down a bit after that. I rode well getting out there, averaging a very respectable 17.8 mph. It's a shame none of the Coppi's took me up on the offer to ride out there.
After registering, I started to freeze to death just as I did last week. All the built up sweat on my back with the wind blowing just kills my skinny little body. Fortunately, Jess showed up not long after and I got warm by blasting the heat in the car. Needless to say, I didn't do much of a warm-up other than to get out of the car and roll over to the start line and shiver next to Will. Will was all suited up in his new Whole Wheel Velo Club kit and was so excited that he forgot to pin on his number. That made for a quick dash to the car and back.
From the gun, both Will and I were intent on not repeating last week's Cat 5 like effort. We wanted to do as little work as possible. That caused a dude from Warrenton Cycling to take the lead and we all filed in behind. Eventually I started pedaling a bit on the front, but the pace was such that it made no difference. I was soft-pedaling down the hills and not going hard at all. The pace did pick up a bit after several laps and the race was split into two groups! At long last we had a break--big as it was. There were a few attacks here and there, but nothing that wasn't easy to hang with.
I ended up riding on the front probably more than I should have and definitely more than Will. But mostly it was because I couldn't fall back in line at all and was just content to hang out up front since the pace wasn't all that bad. With one lap to go, Eric Dempster, a triathlete, made an attack that had to be followed. Will and I jumped on it and from other folks' description, that was the definitive break to decide the race. Going up the hill just before the finish, I attacked hard, going for the win. I led up the hill and into the final turn when Will eased on by. I was spinning as quick as I could muster and my legs were burning from the attack on the hill. Mostly I was afraid to shift for fear of not being able to turn a bigger gear. Will ended up winning and I held off Eric for second. Brief results were posted.
As big and powerful as Will is, I think I need a bit of a longer race at a faster pace to separate myself. But we worked well together today. We didn't pull any counter-attackes, but we communicated well about others moving up and kept ourselves in a position to win the race. Noah pulled a bit today too, but I didn't see him except for that one go on the front. I was hoping to get a three-man crew working the front and pushing the pace. Maybe next week.
I cooled down with Will riding the course backwards and watching the 3/4 race after ours. It felt great to spin easy around the course and shake out the legs. I would have really looked forward to riding home too, but Jess was headed for Florida, so I drove her to the airport.
After I dropped her off, I spent the rest of the day working on building up her Surly CrossCheck. I went over to Pat's house and we cut the fork and installed the headset. Unfortunately, I don't think I have all the parts I need for the brakes and the cables they sent for the rear derailleur were too short. I'll get it straighted out soon enough though. I'm learning a lot.
Dist/Time/Avg/Max/Avg HR/Max HR/Odo/Z1/Z2/Z3
25.3/1:25:13/17.8/30.6/156/183/740/13:23/19:56/51:54
13.0/36:26/21.4/36.6/183/205/753 (Race and Cooldown)
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