Another good workout at Wompatuck last night. There was a bigger than usual field, around 50 riders, including some new faces like the Ace and Ward. Big fields sometimes mean slow races at Wompatuck though, and for several laps we just weren't rolling too quickly. I tried to pace it up by going to the front for my intervals. I'd try to go for an entire lap, but usually someone would come around me after about two minutes.
After a while I got mired way in the back. That sucked and nothing was happening up front so at ten to go I made my way up and jumped hard to try for another interval. My speedo was not working but I felt like I was flying and at the top of the rise I heard a voice from behind say "Dave, are you doing an interval?" to which I replied "yes" and thus I was allowed to finish my lap, which took 2:44, so I know that's around 48 kph. Cool. I sat up and found it was Tom Francis (BRC). Now there are two Tom Francis on BRC but I think this one is the older of the two. He said he did not feel that strong, but we were way ahead of the field, so he pulled through. I recovered and started pulling again, figuring we'd be reeled in with a lap or two.
Well, I guess in our absence there was a crash back in the field. This kind of neutralized things for a bit and allowed us to pad our lead. Adding to our fortune, I don't think too many riders in the group even knew there was a break up the road. So we keep going, not super fast (turned out to be about a 41.5 kph average for 28 minutes). I was doing 75-80% of the work, but Tom was cool and took his turns which gave me recovery time. With a few laps to go I can't believe we're not caught yet, and was fully expecting a cavalry of Markie, Sammy, and the others to come flying by in a counter. Nope. Two to go, nobody back there. One to go, still nobody. Wow. Tom acknowledges that I've been driving this thing and says he won't sprint so I motor hard the last lap and we cross 25 seconds ahead of the field. The guy doing the lap cards said he was calling out splits to the field, and Curley said he knew we were up there, so at least a few guys had to know. Weird, but I'll take it. Thanks for reading.
Nicely done! now, what was your average power?
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between "enough" and "a lot." Really though, it was not too hard. There could not have been much of a chase going on back there. I'm glad that I did not have to dig too deep because I'd rather have something for Concord. I've left my best efforts out on the road at training races far too many times in the past.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I did focus on was keeping my friggin' head down, trying to go faster without more power. At one point I nearly missed a curve and rode us into the woods...
now that would have been a GREAT story...
ReplyDeletethe race Foley sailed off into the trees... trying to make the most of his power...
continuing on gewilli...
ReplyDeletethe race Foley sailed off into the trees... trying to make the most of his power... while keeping his head down watching his imaginary power meter's display...
Congratulations.
ReplyDelete