| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
37.02 miles
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Altitude Gain:
2,381 ft
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Avg Speed:
20.67 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 75 F |
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Had quite a bit of thunder, lightning and heavy rain throughout the night. Really wasn't looking forward to another race in the rain as I seldom ride well in the rain and it doesn't seem to be good for my general health. Rain let up though and stopped as we arrived at the park in Meadsville, PA for registration. Pretty nice swag for twenty dollars. It included the entry fee, a really nice long sleeve sweatshirt, fresh fruit, and 1200 freshly baked cookies. There were four races held today. A forty mile elite, thirty mile intermediate, twenty mile beginners and a children's race. Hadn't seen the course profile but rumour had it that it was a rolling course which would suit me but last year's results indicated that it would be tough as average speeds for the races were near twenty miles an hour. Course was pretty convoluted with three ten mile laps for the intermediate, which I planned on doing, and four ten mile laps for the elite which my teammate was going to ride. Problem was that not all the laps were the same. The second lap on the intermidiate race had a bonus hill loop added and the elite race had it an another longer fourth lap and additional climb. Course ran around Tamarack lake and we both figured even if we took a wrong turn we could probably find our ways back to the start. There was also a hill prime and a sprint prime on all the laps except but first. Chip timing was used instead of numbers which is rather nice but the only drawback is one doesn't know who is in what race. This caused my first error of the day as I lined up with the wrong group...sort of. The elites lined up on the road and half of the intermediates staged on the road with the elites and the other half in a driveway. I was in the wrong group and after the elites left and I got on the course to stage I was well back in the pack. The elite race had around thrity riders and the intermediate had around eighty. I guess this was a bad turnout for the race, but the bad forecast of percipitation may have kept participation down. Course starts right off with a lovely mile and a half climb with a good part of that being over ten percent grade. The climb was followed by a two to three mile fast descent. The backside of the 'flat' lap was mostly rollers with a long power climb then short steep descent back to the start. Second lap replaced the shallow power climb with a fifteen percent wall. Third lap was the 'flat' first lap with the finish being on a right hand turn after the base of the first climb. Promoter announced that the first climb would be controlled and to not knock yourself out right away. My first error of the day pretty much knocked me out of competition as I was trapped near the back of a large pack on a long steep climb. Pack split decisively right away even with the controlled pace. My climbing legs didn't make a showing all day so as we crested the hill I was still in the main pack but a group of twenty or so riders had opened up a huge gap on the rest of us. Once I got on the downhill I started my pursuit and was joined by three other riders and we pulled away from the main pack. Unfortunately only one of the other three riders would take a pull and the other two would just slow down and stay in the draft as the lead rider tried to pull off. Got tired of that real quick and the rider who was pulling hard and I accelerated away from the wheelsucks. We didn't have what it takes though and though and even though we were holding our position we weren't making up any time on the front pack. After two or three miles we were sucked up by the pack which had several young legs at the front. The other rider from my break, who appeared to be over sixty and I fell back into the pack. After a brief rest we went to the front again and tried to get a paceline going but there were two many wheelsucks to get an efficient rhythm going. Pace slowed way down on the back side of the course and the front group was nowhere in sight. There were two solo riders visible twenty or thirty seconds up the road but the pack seemed content to just roll along. My former chase partner said he would wait until the second lap before trying another effort and asked me if I wanted to go to the front with him and reel the two lone riders in. I went to the front and pretty much rolled away from the pack with no responce and soon bridged to the first lone rider on the power climb. I passed him though and he kept his head down and didn't even make and effort to get on my wheel. I bridged up to the next rider and he was a different story. He said that he couldn't stay with the front group that he assumed was by now ahead around two minutes but that he would work with me as best as he could. We traded pulls and stayed away until the middle of the big climb on the second lap where we were caught by the pack. The downhill was a repeat of the first lap with several riders who would refuse to spend any time at the front yet stay near the front rather than tucked in the back. I considered that the riders might be blocking but was convinced they just weren't interested in sharing the work but didn't want to miss an opportunity to wheelsuck thier way into a break. Either way though I started attacking every time a rider wouldn't pull through. I couldn't stay away very long though as other riders would soon group together and catch me. After several miles of attacks the second pack was wittled down from forty to around fifteen riders with the wheelsucks absent. The fifteen of us went into the second lap wall and I got dropped as either a result of my poor climbing or the effort I made with several attacks. I was able to catch up though on a false flat after the wall with a much smaller group now of around eight riders. We stayed away until the big lap on the third climb where we were briefly back to around fifteen. The hill took its toll though and the pack broke up with a group of three or four off the front and the rest of us strung out in ones and twos. I was able to get back up to the front group by pulling hard on the downhill and sucked an additional two riders back up in my draft. Tried to get away one last time on the last power climb of the day and failed though I did catch a couple of riders who had dropped off from the front pack. Lead out the small group on the last descent and was hoping to power my way up the base of the climb to the sprint but had little hope as I had got dropped on the climb on every lap. Finished third in the sprint as two riders came out of my draft and gapped me on the final climb. Ended up finishing in twentyth position and fourth in my age group which unfortunately only paid three spots. I would have been happy with third as it would have gotten me a stuffed lion like those given out in the Tour de France. Alas I was three seconds two slow. The front pack had finished six minutes earlier. Pretty nice course and friendly people but the distance to the event may keep me from repeating it. Had all kind of acceleration and top speed today but was really disappointed by my lack of climbing. My teammate finished seventh overall in the elite race and got forty dollars for winning his age group.
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