| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
35.61 miles
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Altitude Gain:
1,995 ft
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Avg Speed:
21.23 mph
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Route:
Tour de Tamarack
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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: Hills
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 78 F |
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Drove back out to Meadville yesterday for today's race in far west PA. Race course is a series of ten mile loops with a two lap easy, three lap intermediate, and four lap elite race. I entered the intermediate race with seventy four others. Had a few familiar faces in the race with Buffalo's Bill and Hollyloft's Cleo. Saw a few others that were down at Kinzua but don't know there names yet. The intermediate race starts with the first lap being a basic retangular lap. It starts right off with a mile and a half climb. First half mile is nine to ten percent with the final mile of the climb a gentler slope of around three percent. Course continues with a couple of miles of gradual descent than has some gentle rollers on the back stretch and a moderate climb and steep downhill on the final leg. Second lap repeats the first hill but adds a very steep hill in place of the moderate climb on the backstretch. Third lap is a repeat of the first basic lap. Finish is about a quarter mile up the first climb. Race is supposed to have a controlled start up the first climb but fell for that last year and started the race forty seconds down and gapped after getting through traffic to the 'start' of the race. This year lined up at the front and did the first part of the climb out of the saddle. One of the riders ahead of me had some kind of loud twanging mechanical and went off the side of the road that caused chaos in the peloton. Had a rider go down in front of me hard and found out later it was probably Bill who must have been taken out of race. Several of us veered around the crash and kept going and heard someone else go down a few rows behind me. Not a very good start as we had had two crashes and two casulties in the first half mile of a controlled start. Stayed with the group over the top of the climb but didn't feel well having more stomach distress and also had a running nose and sore throat. Didn't think I would last long today and hid in the pack on the downhill and on the backstretch. Thought about trying to take one of the $10 sprints on the backstretch and going out in a blaze of glory on the first lap, but as I tried to move up in the pack got bumped several times by a rider in a Toyota jersey. Had a few other riders making radical moves and decided I had had enough of that and dropped back to the rear of the peloton. This had to be the squirreliest bunch of riders I have ridden with this year. Just hung out in the back and kept contact with the peloton over the moderate climb on the last leg and had another scary encounter on the fifty mile an hour downhill. Seems that one rider that was in the front wanted to descend at twenty rather than fifty so ended up having forty riders swerving around and passing him at a wide difference of speed. Ended up finding myself gapped from the main peloton with a few other riders as we started the second lap. Climbed fairly well on the second time up and was able to stay with my small group yet losing some time on the main group. Once the hill was out of the way, three other riders and I traded pulls and started gaining ground on the fast guys. Got close just before turning to start the small climb to the backstretch and was able to bridge back up. Only one of the three others made it with me. Sat in until the steep climb on the second lap where I ran out of leg and fell off the back of the pack. Pack didn't have that great of a climb but my legs got toasted during the pursuit and failed to recover resulting in a horrible climb. Hill had taken its toll on a few other riders and a few were staggered ahead of me. Had two riders just ten seconds ahead of me and tried hard to catch them before starting the third lap. One of the pair blew up on a small climb and I was able to pick him off but the other one was riding as well as I was and gained nothing on him. Started the first climb on the third lap and it wasn't pretty as I just couldn't put anything together. The rider ahead began to creep away while another rider came from behind and passed me. Looked back and saw a good sized group gaining rapidly on me up the climb and pushed a little harder so as not to get passed on the climb by them. Was able to grab on the group of ten when it went by and rode the bus down the hill. Felt a little better on the small climb to the backstretch so took a long fast pull on the front and caught the rider that had passed me on the last climb as well as a couple of others. That was it for me though as the legs started to go dead. Struggled to hang onto the attacks of some younger riders up the final climb and surprised myself by hanging on. None of the attacks worked as far as breaking free but it had thinned out the herd leaving only six of us left. Decided against sprinting on the final climb as I was almost totally spent and coasted down the last downhill and decided to be satisfied with just finishing. Just stayed on the tailend of my group as we went over the line and it was just enough to stay barely ahead of the group that got separated on the last climb. Ended up in twenty-ninth overall and third in my age group that was good enough to get a medal that was made out of a cassette cog. Felt totally wasted at the finish but was happy with the result. Had started and finished the race fairly sick, had had two horrendous climbs but still finished only four minutes down. Cleo had finished a minute and a half ahead of me and scored second place in our age group. Talked with a few riders after the race and thay had also noticed lots of dangerous riding and suggested we all race the elite course next year as it might be harded but safer. Got a nice T-shirt and goody bag( candy) with registration and also had lots of soft drinks and one hundred dozen home made cookies were availible at the post race event. Fun course, great promoters and sponsers, but very dangerous peloton.
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