It was a long, lonely road after getting dropped for good the third time up El Paso. Today Heather and I had the Idaho State Road Race Championships. The course was the same as last year; a mix of rolling flats with some jammers, then a good 1.5 KM climb up El Paso that Heather would do once and I would have to do three times.
Heather started way before I did, so I was able to run back home and get some bug spray. The parking area was a field in Emmett, next to a bunch of farms. Since they’re all irrigated, the mosquitos were out in force! When I returned, I offered the bug spray to everyone I knew — it was one hot commodity. Next year there could be a business here: providing insect repellent at 50¢ a spray!
Heather finally came in but I didn’t see any other women finish yet. I found out that Heather got a flat just after El Paso right before the feed-zone. Unfortunately, the women didn’t have any wheel support! But someone in the feed-zone had a spare tube and a pump and gave Heather a hand, but she decided that there was no way she could catch the other women, so she just rode back to start/finish. She said she got dropped on the hill before the flat, anyway. But since it was a slow leak, she hypothesized that it may have been low before El Paso and could be why she was dropped. I can support this theory as Heather usually doesn’t readily notice things about her bike. With Heather’s chance at defending her Idaho State Road Championship jersey gone, she was disappointed, but there’s still the criterium tomorrow.
My race started a little after 11 AM, and I hardly got much of a warm-up. I figured it would be a race of attrition as past years, plus I was really using this as a training ride, just trying to keep the volume up for the week. So my only goal was to finish the 91-mile race. We started fast with people attacking right off the line then up Little Freezeout. Things regrouped but then two riders went clear and got a good gap. The gap kept increasing as we hit El Paso for the first time. Other riders were dropping and I managed to stay with the group for a while. But as the grade increased, I just couldn’t hang on any longer and I got dropped. I pushed it on the downhill and chased by myself and caught the front group at the feed-zone. Although it felt like a 20-minute chase, it probably was more like 10 minutes. The front group was now down to about 8 riders with the same two still off the front.
After chasing so hard I made the decision that I wouldn’t work at all, at least not until the last climb. I knew I would have a hard time hanging on during the climbs so I wanted to save my energy for that. But after a few comments directed at me, I got “guilt-ed” into pulling through. Fortunately, I had my PowerTap which came in very handy as I used it to gauge my pulls. I always kept my pulls sub-threshold so I wouldn’t be spent for the hill. The next time up the hill, they decided to keep it together. But even the “keep it together” pace was pretty hard for me and I just barely made it over the top with the group.
The whole next loop, I pulled a bit more, seeing that the break up the road was falling apart. We had caught one of the breakaway riders and the gap was coming down on the other one. I was feeling good so at times I would take longer than usual pulls, but still keeping it sub-threshold. Then the last time up El Paso, the stronger riders attacked and splintered our group. I rode over the top with a Jackson Hole rider who also got dropped and we worked together for a while trying to catch TR who was alone, just ahead of us. But my partner started cramping at the feed-zone and dropped off my pace. Heather was holding out two bottles and asked me which one I wanted. But neither was the purple Gatorade bottle I really wanted so in the confusion I dropped the bottle and had to stop. Later Heather drove by and stopped to hand me the original bottle I wanted, but the botched feed lost me some time. It was probably my fault since I didn’t tell Heather that I had made that third Gatorade bottle.
So I was by myself for the entire last lap, but at least I didn’t have to go up El Paso again! I could see TR way off in the distance — so far off that, I didn’t think I could catch. But by the last few kilometers, I realized I was gaining, even though I was only cranking out ~250 watts. So I started to push it harder and was really making up ground, but it was a case of too little, too late. I was only 30 meters behind him at the line. Once he crossed he looked back and saw me and I think that surprised him. I don’t think he had any idea I was there! With the attrition at the front, I ended getting 6th! Not bad…for a training race! The solo breakaway rider totally bonked and dropped out. And I’ve rationalized that even if I caught TR before the line, he probably would have still out-sprinted me, he’s got a really good sprint.
After downloading my ride I was happy to see a TSS score of 330! So I guess it was a good thing that I started rolling through, as it made this one of the hardest 4-hour rides I’ve ever done. I usually don’t go above 300 TSS on my own unless it’s a super-long ride (5+ hours). It also showed that I’m able to handle a high training load. Including today’s ride, I’ve done 960 TSS in six days. Not a bad training week…and I still have a criterium to do tomorrow!