A cold and showery day today, so much so that it was freezing in the shade and I was quite chilly until around 30kms of the race had been completed
The plan…
Today the plan was to ride tactically and be there for the sprint.
How things unfolded
For the first 10kms, I was sitting near or on the back trying to eek out some warmth from the riders in front of me. I’d only packed one fluffy arm warmer, so was wearing my summer weight ones along with a wind stopper vest and 3/4 length nicks.
Down the first two hills, I was c c c cold!
Once I adjusted my rear brake a little due to another rider reporting it was rubbing, I wound up on the front end of the bunch for the next lap and a half.
Heading towards the hill at the end of lap 2, one of the A grade MMAS123 riders was trying to get away so I was playing lamprey. He attacked at the base of the climb and I went with him. He sat up for a little then went again, taking another A grader with him. This created a gap, with myself and the remaining A grader in my age group. We took the hill at a decent pace and went into chase mode.
A catch was looking likely, but then I broke a spoke (at the bit where it buts), and that was the end of my race. My wheel was rubbing on the breaks badly. I stopped to inspect things and by the time I’d ensured the wheel was not rubbing against the frame (carbon on carbon, ye har), and adjusted the breaks, the bunch had 250-300m on me.
I chased and was pulling the bunch back along Sthurs, but along the Darnum Shady Creek Road, they started to pull away. With 3km to go, I started to gain again and I increased my chase.
With 50m to go, I passed on of the A graders to claim third in my age group. Not bad for a day where I started off feeling very cold, my legs were heavy and my rear wheel was playing up.
To sum up
The power was down, but I rode strongly overall, so that was good.
Looking at my rear wheel post race, it’s rubbed against my seat and chain stay for the last 10km of the race. There are now places where the dimpled have been rubbed off. Crap!
Thanks to my sponsor – my company, Yeatman.
Stats for the day
Power Stats
Average pwr: 238W
Normalised Power: 283W
Critical power (CP): 258W (83% FTP).
Intensity Factor: 0.91
TSS: 123.0
TRiMP: 162.6