This weekend I did my first stage race. It consisted of a 13 mile TT Friday night, 30 minute crit Saturday, and a 46 mile road race Sunday. I was the most excited for the TT. I hadn't ridden my TT bike since 2011 and I am trying to justify its existence in my basement.
The TT started off OK. Adam Mcintyre was my minute man. During the first half of the race it was windy and there was a good sized climbed. Adam caught me and started to put some time on me. On the way back to the finish, I started to catch Adam back. I had just made the pass on him and we were coming into what I thought was a right turn. I thought this because the flagger was pointing the flag to the right. When your full out and seeing stars literally, you hope the flaggers know what they're doing. Well I blew past her and a left hand turn around. Whoops. Adam passed me back and I couldn't catch back up. I ended up 7th.
Saturday was the crit. Right from the gun it was an instant hammer fest. I was a bit tired from the TT the night before and didn't have anything for it. I think I was 27th. Huge thank you to Dave and Ellen for surprising me at the race. It was great to hear you cheering me on.
Today was the road race. The race started off pretty good. The course is really hilly but I didn't get a chance to drive it first so I didn't know when to expect what. I was on the front pulling coming into the end of the first lap. We hit a huge climb and I had nothing for it. I ended up falling off the back and not being able to get back on. I ended up just taking it easy and using the 2nd lap as base miles. I wish I would have driven the course the day before but it was 75 miles from where we were staying in Grayling. This course is awesome. Great roads and the terrain is fantastic. There is a lot of climbing. About 1400 ft a lap which is a lot for Michigan.
The biggest thing I learned this weekend was that I didn't do enough base miles early on in the season. I was too busy doing intervals thinking that was OK and it did up my FTP a bit but I have no base which is hurting me badly. I have been very busy with work so time hasn't been on my side. I was sort of doing the time crunched athlete thing. Didn't work obviously. So now I'm going to start working on that base and I should have a solid one by cross season. The season is still early so I should be able to catch up.
Fun racing with Adam, Cody, Mark, and Mike. See you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment