| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
3.43 miles
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Altitude Gain:
231 ft
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Avg Speed:
14.52 mph
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Route:
ShelterBox Ride
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 142 bpm
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Avg HR: 119 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: custom built Cipollini RB800 Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 68 F Wind SW @ 8 mph |
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Distance:
51.13 miles
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Altitude Gain:
1,858 ft
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Avg Speed:
21.70 mph
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Route:
ShelterBox Ride
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 165 bpm
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Avg HR: 144 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: custom built Cipollini RB800 Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 66 F SW wind @ 8 mph |
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Had to get up at four AM to make the journey north to Henderson Harbor on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario for a fifty-mile rolling race. There were around one hundred riders total for the two courses with only twenty-six riders starting the fifty miler. Only had one team mate this year, Bob, as Mighty Young Joe bailed and slept in this year. That left us as the second biggest team as there was one other team, I assume out of Watertown, that had orange jerseys and fielded three or four riders. As we lined up for the start the other guys were talking about an earlier race they did that started out at twenty-six miles an hour for the first five miles and over twenty-five for twenty miles. That is a bit faster than what I could handle and thought it might be a long day. Weather was the best it has ever been for this race with an eight mile an hour south wind. Last year it was a thirty mile an hour wind so no was complaining about the eight. Plan for the day was to try to stay with our climber, Bob, on the climbs and finish in the top five overall. Course starts with two climbs of around four or five percent in the first three miles followed by a gradual rolling upgrade for half the race. At the halfway point was the only real climb at eleven percent for a tenth of a mile or so then slacking off to five or six percent for a total of around a mile. Following the climb it is twenty-five miles of rolling downgrade. Guys in orange set the pace on the first climb out of the gate and I stayed near the front of the group and survived it without too much effort. On the second steeper climb one of the orange riders attacked the climb. I was out of the saddle and was able to stay with him with a strong effort. Once we cleared the top there were only four of us out of the twenty-six starters left. Bob and me, the orange guy and Mike a local that club races with the orange guys. Oddly enough three of the four of us were in our sixties with the orange guy in his early fifties. Went into draft mode to see if the orange guy was going to attack again and ride off and solo for the rest of the fifty miles. Instead, he glass pedaled and waited for one of his team mates to join us. Another large power rider in blue also joined up. We settled into a paceline and cranked off some miles. I got a little aggressive on some of the upgrades and out of the corners and would occasionally drop one or two guys. The group kept reforming until one of my attempts dropped the blue rider for good. We were nearing the halfway mark and the big climb of the day. I thought if I could get over that climb, I would be able to finish with the group as there wasn't any more big hills and it would be hard to drop anyone including me on the downgrades. Turned out that I was on the front of the line when we approached the climb and went out of the saddle and hammered away at the eleven percent section. Planned on staying out of the saddle until someone went buy at which point I would try to hang on and draft up the remaining lesser grade. Kept glancing back and saw someone on my left but they were shadowing me and didn't fly by me. A rider finally went by me once over the steepness and it turned out to be Bob who quickly started opening a gap. I thought about trying to stay with him but had one of the orange riders nearby. I got into his draft as he tried to real Bob in. I made one acceleration to see if he was at his limit, but he was able to respond so I shut down again. We were soon joined by the two riders that had been dropped on the steep section. Bob rode a mile or so and then relented as it was still over twenty miles to the finish, and he didn't think he could go it alone. We regrouped and I went into defensive mode as was getting a pre-cramp warning from one of my calf muscles. One of the orange riders would occasionally attack and open a gap that I was unable to match but Bob was on him, and so I didn't have to do any work closing the gap and poor Mike had to do it. We slowed way down for the last three or four miles as it was all over but the sprinting. There were a couple of late climbs, and I thought Bob would try for a late break as he isn't much of a sprinter. Bob didn't go though and the last couple of miles were fairly fast. I stayed near the front and one of the orange guys gave his teammate a lead out. When he pulled over, he kind of swerved toward me. In my younger days I would have given him a shoulder but changed my line instead. I saw it was too late to catch the rider that got the lead out and didn't bother to sprint. I was able to keep my speed up ready to sprint if anyone got close though and was able to claim second. I was happy to finish in the top five but a little disappointed I botched the sprint. I probably should have attacked on the last little climb instead of waiting for others to make the decision. Still, I did much better than last year where I was dropped in the first three miles and rode alone. Bob was able to take fourth spot and Mike took third.
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