Well… boy howdy, I am absolutely smashed. I mean, seven stages in, one left to go, my body hurts from the waist down.
However, I am absolutely hitting new heights when it comes to personal performance, so on that front it’s massively, massively worthwhile. And I really do like that.
All that said, today I feel like I badly managed this one.
Generally things started better than usual. Aiming for the 12 noon start, I was on the bike with a few minutes to spare, had all the stuff I needed close to hand, tunes on, good to go.
Out of the blocks I wasn’t with the front runners, and rightly so. I was back around the ~150 spot or so, and figured I’d probably make up 20-30 spots as is often the case from people who completely gun the start and fade off shortly there after.
Unusually, after ~10km I found myself not hovering around the 100th spot which is where I expected, but rather down around 75th.
Now, I couldn’t figure out if this was correct, percentage wise, or not.
In larger rides would I be at 100th where on a small ride (450 riders or so) I’d be down in 75th?
Well… I don’t think so. I think I was with a faster group. The reasoning being that they were all pushing around 3.5-4.0w/kg, and obviously higher still on the climbs.
As routes go, Yorkshire’s Royal Pump Room 8 is basically constantly rolling. Climbs a-plenty.
Mentally I resolved to stick with that pack as long as I could… but perhaps this was to be my undoing.
I must have completed the Royal Pump Room 8 circuit before, not only because I didn’t get the route badge at the end of this one, but because I knew that somewhere along the route there is an absolute beast of a climb to do.
It’s about 15%+ and it lasts a while.
Fortunately I did drop a feather ahead of that… but I misjudged where that climb is and popped it too early. Arggghh.
So prior to the beast climb I had managed to stick with the pack. Only just, twice requiring an aero power up to get back on.
Each short climb split the bunch, but somehow they kept bunching back together. I felt it was important to stay with them, mainly for the descents. I’d found myself leading their pack a couple of times, but this was down to my ride mismanagement. Going too hard on some flat sections, then not having fully recovered ahead of the next climb I’d go too hard, then fall back… and so on.
During one of the final few climbs, I couldn’t tell you which one, I had a power drop out for maybe 3 seconds. It was short, but long enough for me to fall off the back of the bunch. And that was the end of that.
A technical mechanical 😀
Disappointed, and now isolated barring a pair of other riders who equally fell off the back after that first climb, I found myself heading towards the brutal switch back, the hardest climb on the course.
I gave whatever I had left on that climb, knowing it wouldn’t last too long (it’s 0.76km at 7.7%), but by the time I reached the top I was in such bad shape that I struggled for at least 10 seconds just trying to get back into the big ring.
The damage was long done by this point, and the only concern of mine became getting home without losing the places I’d kept throughout. Hey, I know this isn’t a race, but it never feels like that 40+ minutes into a Tour stage.
I limped home, giving whatever I had left as a ‘sprint’ finish just to stop myself from losing a place to the bunch who had almost swallowed me up – along with the ~15 second gap – behind me.
It’s so much harder riding solo.
Anyway, I made it over the line in 43 minutes 21 seconds,
And along the way I set myself a new 20 minute power record.
One extra watt. I’ll take it.
The previous record was set last Tour de Zwift… what a nice little way to round this ride off.
As knackered as I am after that, I was amazed to see it come out at just ~600 calories. I feel more spent today than I have after several other longer rides. Not sure why that might be, other than accumulated fatigue.
Anyway, I am most certainly going to enjoy myself an outdoor ride to recover tomorrow. Weather permitting, of course. The nights are very gradually starting to get lighter now, too. All we need is a bit of sun and I can don my short sleeves once again.
Huzzah.
