Heads up: I know these races do not come under the Tour of Makuri Islands. These are from the Race Makuri series. I covered this here. Whoops!
Hate is a strong word, so let’s just say that at the moment I really, really dislike my job.
Fortunately I am a contractor, so it’s only a matter of time before this one ends and a new one begins. Fingers crossed that will be sooner rather than later.
Why is this important?
Because right now this job is making me super anxious, and as a result this morning I forgot to eat. Or to put it another way, I had no appetite when I was making my kids breakfast, and by the time I then remembered I’d not eaten I was already sat on the bike and warming up for the 12:10 start time.
In short, I did this one on an empty stomach.
Now, I’ve heard that some events should be done in a fasted state. I’m not sure what those events are, frankly I can’t remember right now, but I’ve definitely read or seen that somewhere. I actually remembered this as I was warming up – shortly after realising I’d not eaten – so I had some hope that maybe, just maybe, this might be a “good thing”?
The last thing to say before getting into the race is that I never intended to race today. That was supposed to be tomorrow. However, yet again I had issues getting into the Tour of Makuri Islands 12:00 ride. I was on early, selected the event from the main menu, but when the game loaded it dumped me into Makuri – on the right route – but I wasn’t in the start pens.
No idea what went wrong. My options were either:
- Wait an hour (nope)
- Do the route by myself (meh)
- Or, jump into the race starting in ~10 minutes
Today’s race was over a new route to me – Fine and Sandy, on Makuri Islands of course.
This route is only 10.6km, so we got to do it twice. Which was nice.
Each lap has two climbs. There’s only ~70m of climb per lap, of which the two climbs account for 42m total or 21m each. Each climb is 0.7km. How can that be?
Well… it’s the same climb, four times. And it’s fairly easy to identify when it’s coming up as it’s a loopback on the mini-map. On Strava the climb is named “Mech Isle Climb (CW)“.
Even so, it’s helpful to know that the climbs come at ~1.6km, and ~8km into the lap.
Beyond the climbs, this one is mostly flat and therefore fast.
It’s super important to make it over the top of the climbs with at least some achievable distance to the group in front, or you will get dropped on the fast, fast descent.
I knew the race would be won or lost on the climbs today. That much was obvious. What wasn’t clear ahead of time (zero recon) was how hard the climbing might be.
I figured if I was over the first climb with the pack and still feeling decent, I’d likely be able to hang on until at least the third climb, and hopefully be in contention for the fourth.
But no.
After the first climb I was almost dropped. It took a concerted effort to get back on, which thanks to fresh legs was achievable. Mercifully I was able to sit in from that point and really get in some solid tempo tier recovery ahead of the second climb.
I thought I was fine going into the second stab of Mech Isle, largely keeping with the pack for two thirds of the effort… but then I began to drop off just as we had almost crested the climb. Slowly… and then quite a bit faster than I was capable of going, the bunch tore away leaving me coughing in the dust.
So much for staying in contention until the third climb.
At this point I was disappointed, but let’s be real, I wasn’t shocked.
I was fortunate enough to find another rider to work with in the transition to the end of lap one, and then it was pretty much straight into attempt #3 of Mech Isle Climb CW.
This time I struggled, peaking too early and falling off the wheel of the rider I’d been with to that point.
And yet fortunately again, another rider picked me up and the three of us formed up, sticking together to transition around the island in to attempt #4.
The interesting thing here, from my point of view, wasn’t so much the position I was in – between 31st and 33rd – but rather the gap between we three and the group behind.
My goal was to hit the finish line without being caught. A 20 second gap sounds decent but over ~8km at race pace when there’s a good more of them than there is of you, it’s barely anything.
Yet even so we had lost only 5 seconds, or 1 second per kilometre up to the fourth and final attempt at Mech Isle Climb.
Immediately the two I’d been with left me for dead. I bodged hard here and got out of the saddle. This is something I very rarely do (barring what passes in my world for a sprint), and almost always kills me faster than if I’d stayed seated for the same power.
Sure enough, I got eaten.
Once more I reach the crest of the climb having peaked far too early, watching the two ahead already ~5 seconds further up the road, and the guys behind me less than 5 seconds behind and catching, fast.
Caught on the descent I was convinced I was going to be passed and spat out, but I clung on. I think they were wanting the rest, too.
The last kilometre was, for me, the hardest of the lot. I was absolutely flat. There would be no sprint finish, no attempt to keep with the three as they went.
Definitely glad to get this one over with. That wasn’t a fault of the course, but rather very poor prep on my part.
Don’t race on an empty stomach, it’s a stupid idea.
Glad to get this one in the bag though as I really wanted to ride yesterday but aside from feeling exhausted from a long day on Monday, I wasn’t feeling good mentally or physically yesterday. Getting in a Zwift session has helped blow out the bad vibes… for now.
Tomorrow has to be Stage 6 of the Tour of Makuri Islands as it’s the last day for that one. So come what may, I need to be on and ready for noon.
