Phoenix, AZ — Like yesterday, we headed out early to meet up with the Landis crew. On Sundays, they do the “Round the Mountain” ride. This ride heads south towards Maricopa. Then it turns right and heads to the west side of South Mountain. From the turn to the town on the other side, it’s pretty much a full-on race! Heather and I did this ride years ago in December when we’re both totally out of race-shape. The time we did it they stopped just after the right turn and broke into groups. Heather and I chose the fastest group. A few minutes later as I was struggling to hang on in the gutter, I felt the impact of my decision. I subsequently got dropped! This time I’ve been training a lot more so we won’t have a repeat of that!
There were more riders at the start than yesterday. Then as we rode out, people would join in from various places along the roll out. I think we had probably 70 riders by the time we hit Maricopa Highway. The pace picked up on the highway, but I felt pretty good, even in the wind. I was only mid-pack thinking that we’d stop after the turn. As we made the turn the pace didn’t ease up. Of course, Ted was already smartly at the front. The pace started picking up and the race was on! At this point there was a crosswind from the left so everyone was in the righthand gutter. I knew I had to really push it if I wanted any chance of making that lead group. I started moving up using a combination of passing on the leeward side and wind side. When I finally got to the front of the cluster of riders I was passing, I could see the lead group already had a gap of 200 meters. Time to really hammer!
I got as low as I could and started time trialing. I pushed it as hard as I could without blowing. I looked down at my PowerTap and was seeing numbers like 450 Watts. Since I was closing in on the group and didn’t feel my power fading I kicked it up a notch. It was tough. It felt like I was bridging for eternity, but I finally reached them. It felt like it took me 4 minutes to get up to them, which means maybe I will have broken my CP 3 minute power…we’ll see. I quickly found a draft and hung out there for a while to recover. That was definitely the hardest effort of the season to date. Finally I felt good enough to start rotating. There were eight riders in this lead group, including Ted and myself.
As we progressed, there was one rider who was obviously stronger than the rest of us. When he pulled he’d sometimes create gaps in the paceline. The pace was hard and it was tough to try and close those gaps. Finally a gap opened with four of the guys in front and Ted, myself and two other riders behind. Ted took a monster pull and got us closer, then I took a pull at the same speed, but not as long, I was hurting. When I pulled off, the other two riders with us didn’t pull through! Since this wasn’t a race, I didn’t want to go ballistic and try to catch so Ted and I just kept rotating the best we could. One of the riders would pull through, but the other just sat on.
When it came to the town, the other rider pushed the pace and tried to go off. Then, we actually got caught by a bigger group behind! I had no idea there was a group gaining on us. I wanted to have a go at the sprint, but again, I didn’t know where the line was. I sprinted for a sign before the four-way stop intersection that I thought would have been the line, and would have won it. But then a couple guys came around me and continued further. I later had to ask and learned that there is a painted school crosswalk that is the official line. Oh, well, maybe next time. Either way it was a good workout.
When I downloaded my ride, I realized that bridge I made was only 1 minute long! That felt like the longest minute ever! I did manage to get within 7% of my CP1 , which coincides with my current sprint power. Being that I’m only in my Base 2 phase of training, I think I’m on track.
Ted and I rode back to the bike shop mostly by ourselves and like Tuesday, had a nice tailwind. It was a good ride to end a great week of training.