In the land of open roads and windswept farms lies the first road race of the 2009 season. I’ve done this race the last 3 years and every time it becomes epic at some point. This year’s edition did not disappoint and sure enough, I was brutally reminded that Wii Fit does not get you ready for road racing.
Bill Stolte got away in the early break, again, and got 2nd which was his worst placing ever at Walburg. I’m hopeful that next year he’ll focus and try to return to his historic Walburg form. As for the rest of us (me), it was, uh, fun.
65 and muggy became 50 and sunny but not before some rain and lots of wind. Wind so strong it could take the paint off your bike. Wind like that of the Wizard of Oz. I made the front group when it all went down (Blackgrove and Travis Burant did their motorcycle impression). Got punched out of that group and sat up to wait for the next group. Here comes 5 guys from TX Tough and a couple others. They had me in the gutter too and I’m not strong enough to sit in that wind for more than 25 seconds. Pow! Out the back of that group I go! I sit up and look behind me thinking, “Okay, who’s gonna drop me now?! I’m ready. Bring it on!”
The third group caught me and I was actually able to rotate and ride. Woo Hoo! We rotated and ended up doing the full distance. I counted that our posse was sprinting for 16th, which is out of the paying places which is a bit demoralizing, but I figured why not? I jumped the group a couple of times for fun and wound up 17th in the sprint. It was fun, and epic. It’s so much fun riding flat out at 11mph on a flat road. Crazy!
Numbers for all the nerds:
Work completed the first hour: 821 kj
Windspeed: not much, drafting possible.
Work completed the second hour: 1026kj
Windspeed: high- could have taken the paint off my bike.
Work completed the third hour: 921 kj
Winspeed: I should have brought my cross bike so I could draft in the gutter.
Normalized power for the entire race: 293 W
This race was my undoing last year when I ended up crash landing at 40mph. Even still, it was so much fun! Uphill, rollercoaster, downhill, swerves, uphill, repeat. I sat in most of the day, basically all day as the small groups got away and were reabsorbed. In the end, I just rode in at the back of the field. One thing is for sure, that was the exact opposite of the day before.
Actually, it resembles a Superweek race. Fast, flowing, not technical, easy to sit in, hard to get away and a fun atmosphere.
Both promoters did a fantastic job with the events and I’m planning on returning next year.
For the number crunchers out there:
SRM was only working for the first hour of the race so.....
work completed for hour 1: 821kj
Amount of coasting: 24%
