Bishop's Orchard

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eboos
Peloton
Posts: 436
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:38 am

Bishop's Orchard

Post by eboos »

Cat 3/4 (scored separate)

Saturday was a great day. Fairly warm, sunny and dry. I, on the other hand, raced on Sunday after a whole night's worth of pretty heavy rain. The rain had stopped before Sunday's races, but the ground was saturated. I did a preview lap, and found that while the course was muddy, it was still rideable. Based on my previous experience, I knew that was about to change after the first couple races. One thing that wasn't going to change is the bottom bracket deep, 50 yard long lake that we had to cross.

Lined up 4th row and got a great start. Down a steep hill and back up, half way up the hill the guy ahead of me and to my right runs out of gas, veers left and chops my front wheel forcing me to dismount. Then at the top I realize how bad the course had gotten in the 1.5 hours since my preview. Think Night Weasels, but not quite as much running/walking. In a similar vain to Night Weasels, this course was all hill. Not even any barriers or run ups, just hills. I stick with a group for the first lap and make some passes when I can, but at the climb at the end of the lap I ran out of gas. A guy who I was racing against got ahead and I wasn't able to catch him after.

So I spend the rest of the race in an Individual Time Trial climbing muddy hills, fording through rivers, feeling the need to vomit from the sickly sweet smell of the rotting apples and packing as much mud as my bike can possibly carry in the most inconvenient locations. I knew there were people behind me, but it was hard to gauge where and if they could possibly pass me, so I kept a hard effort the whole way. At one point after going down hill on a flat rock into some soft mud I went OTB. I yelled a few expletives and go back on. Last lap I dropped my chain, fixed it and got back on. Finally sprinted for all I had left in me for the uphill finish, and it is a good thing I did because I did have another rider right on my tail. 15/18.

The points were not as good as I was hoping, but I don't know what I could have done differently in this race. 43% of the race was spent at threshold power or higher. The mud is just killing me.
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