Cherry Pie 2010

Opened the season for real with the Cherry Pie crit in the Masters 35+ 123 race as well as the P12. Check that link for a P12 helmet cam shot, really captures the feel - at least from the back - nice!

The one thing I wanted out of this race (other than not crashing) was simply to see how I felt relative to others in the field. I think I am in pretty good shape on relative to myself from the past, but that doesn't mean squat relative to everyone else right? I also wanted to see what two top-level crits in the same day feels like.

Now that I've done it, I have to say, it felt pretty good.

There were early breaks in both races, and I wasn't in either of them (I specifically was avoiding them, actually) which meant the rest of the race was basically a formality for me and everyone else in the pack - trying to ride steady and set up for the sprint.

In the Masters 35+ 123 race the pack got sketchier and sketchier as the laps wound down, resulting in two crashes which seemed completely avoidable from my perspective. Knowing we were sprinting for 7th or something ("who cares?" in other words), and that I had a race to go I decided to get a full sprint effort in cleanly and go for the last lap flyer to see if it would stick, and at least avoid the real sprint either way. I got a massive gap (maybe 15 seconds? 20?) immediately, almost recovered, but finally blew up completely on the finish straight and was swamped on the final climb. That's all predictable, but hey, it beats a crash and shows me the sprint I can do at the end of one of these races.

The P12 was nearly as sketchy but the difference between it an Masters racing is that the P12 field doesn't crash after bumping a lot, it just weaves around and people apologize (for the most part). Sort of a civilized aggression if that makes sense. The break had 8 or 10 people (who knows - more than 5 really and it doesn't much matter), I had little cramp twinges (not full cramps) the final couple laps, and in the field sprint so I didn't get any sort of result.

I was able to stay near the front relatively easily in both races, so the fitness is there which is satisfying at minimum after all the work this winter

Lessons learned -

* in the top-level fields if you're not in the break, you're probably not in luck
* the breaks go pretty early - first lap or third lap, not much waiting around
* the last lap flyer never works but it is fun
* I've got the endurance to hang in these races and probably work in a break, but the high-end efforts need work or I wouldn't have had twinges. I expected that though as I haven't really done any high-end work

Some data -

* M35+ 123 - 26mph average, 20 miles, first three laps (break getting established) 27mph in the pack
* P12 - 26.5mph average, 27.5 miles, 27mph in the pack while the break was getting off the front there too, whole last lap for field sprint was 30+mph with stretches of 33 and 34 on the flat.
* Max speed on downhill corner was around 37mph
* Peak 5s 10s and 20s for me were 1096W, 1056W and 949W. I've seen bigger fallofs from 10-20 over the last couple weeks, so that means my initial sprint workouts paid off a bit. I won 2008 Timpani E3 cleanly with a 760W 16second effort, for reference, so we're making progress
* Average power in both races was hovering around 225W, which is semi-comfortably below threshold (255-260W) for me
* Climbing the 30-second hill took around 300-330W each lap though, for a "staying at the front" or "maybe passing a few people" climb speed, on 66Kg of weight
* Heart rate was bouncing between 168bpm and 181bpm around the lap
* If you still want more data than that, you're a serious junkie
* Seriously, there's no more data

So, things to do for me:

* Interval and sprint training for real (started two weeks ago, 1.5 months more to build)
* Take chance on breakaways - stay up front and go deeper to get in them. Go down swinging at least, right?