| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
50.43 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,498 ft
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Avg Speed:
18.89 mph
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Route:
East Aurora
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 F west wind |
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After yesterday's trounching in Windsor I had an hour and a half drive home then packed and had a three hour drive to Buffalo for an early morning race in East Aurora. Still felt pretty low in the morning although I slept really well. Body still beat up and was painful to drag myself out of bed and really wasn't looking forward to riding much less racing. Talked myself into it since I was already there, I had already paid for it, how bad could it be, and headed off for another adventure on the bike. Course is forty-six miles long being made up of two twenty mile loops and a five mile ride out to the loop. Loop is a square with two fairly flat sides one long stepping climb and one rolling downhill section with three steep walls. Rode with the Cat IVs as for some reason there wasn't a master's race this year. Plan was to do as little work as possible and drop out after one lap if I didn't start feeling better. Race started out fairly relaxed and only had to respond to a couple of attacks on the down grade that were easily brought in. Hung on the the back of the pack on the long climb and found myself breathing way harder than I should be for the level of effort. Was pleased that I hung in for the first climb thought it wasn't very intense and was immediately dropped when I got gapped after a turn up a false flat around nienteen miles into the race. Couldn't seem to get enough oxygen in the system and then the tank ran dry. Struggled up the three walls on the downhill section and was losing a minute on each one. Got caught by two riders on the last wall and failed to stay with them. Rallied a little when the grade lessened and was able to catch back up to them. We worked a pace line fairly well back to the finish of the first lap though we weren't doing anywhere near the speed that would put us back in the race. Opted to do another lap rather than wimp out and head home. It was a very poor decision as soon found myself having to stand up and stretch my back after every pull I did in the rotation and was not recovering at all. We did catch another dropped rider and soon after that I gave it up and dropped down to tour speed and concentrated on just making the legs go round. Suffered horribly on the rest of the climbs and found myself being overtaken by a few riders and watched them spin away up the road. Finally got to the last kilometer and saw a rider coming charging hard behind me. Goal became not to finish last and I picked up the pace on the downgrade. Finish was on a slight rise around fifty yards long and the rider came alongside me on the rise but couldn't go by before the finish. It wasn't actually a sprint for last place but it was pretty close to that as I got 31st of 33 finishers. Pain wasn't over yet and had to still ride the five miles back to the start. Back was constantly screaming at me and just riding on the flats now was as painful as the climbs had been earlier. Did survive back to the truck and eventually got packed up and headed for home. Stopped and got a milkshake on the way and it made everything much better. Had made a mistake riding while feeling so bad but I did get fifty miles in and at least it didn't rain on us this year.
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