Wow. 136 racers, 84 miles, almost 8000ft of climbing and a 32mph 'neutral' rollout. Talk about baptism by fire. I always knew this day would be harder than I anticipated but I never really expected it to be that hard.
Here's how it all went down. Mile 8, first climb of the day, we go tearing up it like we were running from the rapture. I'm already cross eyed and am slowly losing wheels and it's 8 miles into the race! I hate to say it but I came unglued. Part of it was poor positioning and part of it was too much testosterone on the front of the race. Still, I came off and spent the next 76 miles chasing. Great, it's San Dimas all over again. Then again, the time cut was a little less merciless this time around so I didn't have to worry about making the 105% of the winner's time, instead just a cushy 130%. That I can do. I don't really know what else to say so I'll just let the numbers do the talking. Normally I wouldn't share power data but at this point there's not a whole lot for anyone to gain from it.
Final results on the day: finished in 4:01:58, good for 124th on the day, moving me into 128th overall. Like I said, quite the change of scenery.
Oh, the one condolence for the day came upon my arrival back at the team car where the entire Peanut Butter & Co. Cycling Team was lined up having a team meeting right behind us. Hey, it's life's little victories, right?
Oh, one last note: today's course was awesome! Besides the fact it was ball-bustingly hard all the climbs were longs, steady and hard, the descents were fast, twisty and never ending and the combination of sunshine and Gorge scenery was absolutely breathtaking today. Overall, not a whole lot to complain about today.
Survived another day, TT tomorrow morning and crit in the evening.
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Alex! Great job. One wheel at a time. I'm proud of you. Racing with no regrets. Good luck today. TT: racing the clock / Crit: minipulating the clock.
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