Today I did my typical pre-race ride which is a mostly tempo ride with a few “blow-out” efforts thrown in here and there. I had company as UTRider is in town and I wanted to meet this fellow cycling blogger. I told him what my plan was and that I was fine if he just wanted to hang on my wheel and get some free motor-pacing!

After a few minutes of chatting, I did my first LT push at a nice 320 watts for a couple minutes. Then I settled into high tempo range. Then I proceeded to do a few 1-minute and 30-second efforts, only recovering in high Level 3 in between. It was windy out and since UTRider is a tall guy, I felt sorry that he wasn’t getting such a good draft, but I was impressed that he was able to hold on most of the time.

I ended with short form sprint, then we moseyed back to town and chatted some more. My power was really good, and like yesterday, I was wondering if something was up with my PowerTap? But again, the data from the download looks good, so maybe I’m finally coming into form! We’ll see tomorrow as it will certainly be a race of attrition. With the hills and a high winds, only the strong will survive!