The last Sunday of every month, the club/team I ride with holds a little race, usually around 40 miles.  Today was the February race and there was a nice turnout of about 45 people since the temperature was in the low 60’s at race time (1 pm).

Despite some nasty saddle sores (it comes with the territory when you’re riding 25 hours per week) and a very hilly course (we rotate among 5 courses), I felt like I had a decent shot today.

Due to the size of the field, we took off from the very start and the final selection was made within the first six miles.  We had a slight headwind coming from the north and the speed was such that if you permitted a gap of more than 5 feet from your front wheel to the rider in front of you, you were dropped.  I stayed at the front and kept the pace high in preparation for being dropped myself and soon as we hit the steeper pitches of Dublin Rd.

We had a nice but slight tailwind assisting us up Dublin and as I expected, I was dropped from the leaders and was the last one from our group to summit.  Midway through the climb, some dude in a VERY old bike, no cleats and a huge backpack passed me like he was a motorcycle.  I was alarmed but thought he had just come from a side street and hadn’t already been climbing for a mile.  He looked young and was incredibly strong.  I found out later that he’s only 14 and has only been riding since January.  His bike later broke down (snapped chain) but if that hadn’t happened, he would have killed us all.

Immediately upon cresting Dublin Rd, the wind began to really blow from the West.  I’m talking 25 mph sustained with 50 mph gusts.  One guy who was pretty tiny, was blown down and landed in the middle of the sidewalk.  As we headed east and straight into the wind, we all decided to sit up as the wind was just too dangerous.  There were tree branches coming off trees and aluminum cans flying all over the street.  We also decided to cut about 15 miles off the course.  Though we chose to "sit up", we all had to work incredibly hard just to maintain 10 mph in the wind, even with drafting (60 seconds each pull). 

When we got to downtown, it was like a dust storm had swallowed the city and there was very little visibility.  We could hardly hear each other talk and didn’t want to ride to close in case we were blown suddenly to one side.

Course profile:

RIde data:
Course on Google Maps:
 
Time:  1 hour 38 minutes, 16 seconds
Distance:  26.32
Average speed:  16.1 mph (whoa!)
Elevation gain:  2,187 feet
Average heart rate:  154, max 179
Motionbased GPS data link:  http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5039619