Welcome back all you crazy cyclists!
This morning the Pick N Pay The Star The Fast One - the first real road race for the year - took place up here in Gauteng. The weather was kind and mild, slightly overcast, light breeze and not too hot.
Things got underway for me as my B-bunch took off from the start at 6:50AM. Immediately the guys pushed a decent pace – as is usual for this “downhill” race – and we averaged around 45 km/h over the first 25km.
Things went really well and my legs felt really good (that mountain bike cross training seems to pay dividends already) and our average speed was hovering at around 43 km/h at the halfway mark.
Then things went a bit wrong. I was sitting in 7th (in our bunch of over 100 riders), in the sweet spot, when I suddenly got a puncture at the 56km mark. Nothing one can do but pull over and fix that darn flat!
About 3 minutes later – and with the B-bunch gone and out of site – I had the flat fixed and got back onto the road. A small group of about 5 riders came past and I merged with them, helping a bit in the front to keep the pace high.
Then, the impossible happened. Another flat at around the 68km mark! I was infuriated, but pulled over and got it fixed in also about 3 minutes.
Back onto the road and again merging with a smallish bunch, we kept the pace fairly decent, but at this stage the wind started picking up and caused the pace to drop quite a bit.
Luckily a tandem came to our rescue – tandems as you know are VERY quick on the flats – and we formed a very long paceline behind the tandem, hanging on in the wind and keeping the paceline from snapping.
This “formation” carried us to about 10km from the finish line, when we caught up with a big bunch in front of us and merged with them. This came as a relief, because for the previous 15kms or so, my heart rate was hovering at around the 170 bpm just to keep myself in the paceline! After merging with the bigger bunch, the pace dropped off very slightly (2-3 km/h) but the bigger formation gave a lot more shielding against the wind, which gave my heart-rate the opportunity to drop down to a more sustainable 165 bpm. Still high, but a lot less painful than 170!
With the two flats – and in the process being left behind by two fast-moving bunches – I still managed a decent time of 2h43 at a pace of around 38 km/h over the course distance of 103km. My previous best was last year’s 2h40, so taking the two punctures into account, I definitely performed better this year than last. I also felt a lot stronger at the finish and after the race, so this is a good sign that I’m starting this year in better shape than last year.
Hopefully this spells for good results for the upcoming races! If I can just find a puncture-proof solution to my rear tyre….
Next weekend is the Dirt Festival, a 40km mountain bike race. This will be my first official MTB race, so cross your fingers that all goes well.
Happy cycling and keep up the training!
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