Friday, October 25, 2024

10/20 Bubba 3 @ Bella Fontaine, Masters, 1st.

 


Wasn't going to race as I am trying to get a few good weeks of training in, but changed my mind and got my cornerstone workout in on Sat and figured I'd take some licks on Sunday. My Hamburg workout is usually less than 150 TSS but I was feeling great and went deep on Sat and it was a 200. Felt pretty good on Saturday afternoon but warming up Sunday I was definitely tired with heavy legs. I only got a 30 min warm up in which should have been longer to loosen up.

There were only five of us and a few I didn't know but my general plan was to sit in a bit if possible and try to make a move with a few laps to go. We started and it was immediately apparent how hard this was going to be. I sat in the first few laps but found I was scrubbing momentum in every turn riding wheels so I went to the front. Lap cards went at 5 which seemed like it was going to be a short race. I opened a few gaps on lap three and was a little surprised when each one was closed down, but sometime shortly after that it stuck and I was able to open things up. I was definitely loosening up a bit and able to go harder. In retrospect, ever lap was faster and my last lap was considerably faster. 

I was dangling 10s behind the leader of the SS race who was aware I was coming and going hard. I continued to close in on him and by the last lap decided I wanted to try to close it down. I caught him with a full head of steam the jog before the tricky pine section but there wasn't room to pass and right when we got into the pines we came upon a lapped rider and there was a little Nascar rubbing as I scrubbed all my speed trying not to crash into them from behind. I came unclipped, dabbed, and wasn't able to clip back in right away and the gap opened up. I made the effort to get back up to him but my legs were torched and gave out and I called it a day. Good racing on the last lap. The first few laps were close to 40 seconds slower than the last lap, which was a scorcher and I'm pretty happy about the effort. 

Going to train through a Vlasis and then get some rest!

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