Another day, another intensive ride. This time on the sixth and final stage of this years(?) Tour of Makuri Islands.
For this one we would be hitting up a new route: Country to Coastal, a 33.5km route with 286m of climbing.
There are three climbs in this route that make up the majority of those 286m and each feels fairly distinct. I’ll cover them all below.
Whilst billed as a group ride – which to me says that the pacing should be fairly relaxed – I opted to take this one as a high intensity effort.
Not a race, but race pace.
The reasoning for this is two fold:
- I need to push myself to improve my race pace (see the other races in this series for why)
- I only have 60 minutes to get on the bike, do the ride, get off, shower, and eat my dinner
Fresh out of the pens I wasn’t expecting to be with the front runners on a ~180 rider event. And sure enough I wasn’t. They were at a pace faster than I could sustain and I knew a climb would be upon us immediately.
It’s pretty much uphill from the off on this one – identical in terms of start position and effort as per Makuri 40.
There’s a ~1.5km / ~50m climb up to the Castle area which in my case today I came out alone at the top sitting in 22nd place. The guys ahead had already bolted and I’d probably gone off a little too eager for my ability.
Fortunately after that first 1.5km it’s largely downhill at a fairly gradual incline for the next ~25km.
With 2 other riders it was something of a sweet spot effort for a few kilometres before a large blob of 10+ riders swallowed us up, and our pace was then really zippy.
I’ve been dropped off the back of groups like this before and it’s almost impossible to get back on once you’re several seconds out of the draft. But there was no real let up. I had to pedal and keep a high level of effort to stick with them, particularly on the descents where Zwift loves to flush me to the back.
During this time I was doing some recon on the route via Zwift Insider, though I misjudged the distances to think that the next two climbs were coming at ~17km and ~26km.
The second climb comes in at ~18.5km, but the third one is deceptive, starting at ~27km.
In the transition between the first and second climbs there seemed to be a bit of a chase on to a small pack ahead.
With our group pushing that bit harder to close the gap I was concerned I was already at threshold just keeping up, yet we had a climb looming.
The only saving grace was that I’d collected a feather power up during one of the several sprint arches passed along the way. Would it be of any use?
At somewhere around the 18km mark we hit the second and most prominent climb of the day.
This is the Festival Harbor Climb CCW.
Fairly easy to identify on the mini map by way of the crossover, this climb is 53m over 2km, averaging 2.6%.
It doesn’t sound like much, but coming into it I was tiring and reaching the top I was very much in danger of being dropped. It’s so obvious to me at points like this that the people I’m with have way more in reserve.
The downside to that realisation is that I don’t really know what more I can do to improve, beyond keep pushing and keep trying. I mean, I know I’ll never be a pro, but I’m not even close to competitive.
Mercifully the pack I was with regrouped over the top and whilst I was taunted with a feather power up going over the top, I was able to do my recovering by sitting in.
Again it’s a long and gradual descent from the top giving something close to 7km of recovery opportunities.
The last climb of the day is easily the longest, but it comes in fits and starts.
Called the Connector Canyon Climb, this one is 4.21km for 64m at 1.5%.
Most of the action comes on the corners before levelling out on the straights. Over and over this repeats before finally truly levelling out at around 31km.
From there it’s a couple of km’s of flats before that final 20m of push to the line.
And boy, is this one deceptive. I truly got trolled here… by myself.
If you’re paying attention to the mini map then you will see the orange arch… but wait, there’s still 600m or so to go, so how can that be the finish line?
Well… it can be, but only in your dreams.
I was out of the saddle stamping on it with whatever was left to reach that arch, only to realise my error as I rounded the corner and saw that… no, it’s not the finish line.
At that point my heart sank, as did I, back down on the seat and just grin and bare it to the line.
It wasn’t pretty, but I got there… and immediately pulled a u-turn and coasted my recovery for a few minutes, panting like a hot dog.
So that was that. The end of the Tour of Makuri Islands, albeit with me needing to properly complete Stage 2, which I shall do in the make up days.
Tiring, for sure, but very enjoyable.
Have you taken part in the Tour of Makuri Islands? Have you been doing the Race Makuri series? Which have you preferred? Leave a comment below and let me know.
