May 18, 04:13 PM by Steve | Ventura Stage Race Report
Posted in Cycling & Race-Report
Stage 1: City Hall Prologue
They say “The 1.7 mi prologue is a mostly flat fast course”.
I say it was a fairly hilly and technical course given it’s length.
I put up a 4:15. Good for 39 of 57. The fastest cat 3 time was 3:56. There was Good representation of road and TT bikes. The fastest times were TT bikes, but many guys who used them said they would use road bikes next time. It probably comes down to riding it a lot and being able to handle it smoothly in those corners. No matter, as I don’t have a TT bike…
Because of the length of the course a good warmup was critical. I hate warming up and usually do a horrible job of it, so I left myself plenty of time and forced myself to do it. I got about half an hour on the rollers and probably another 15-20 minutes of rolling around before the rollers and while waiting for my start.
I got my HR up pretty quick and prepared myself mentally for the climb up to city hall; 15 seconds and 791W later I was at the top and drilling it in my invisible aerobars down the straight to the sweeping corner and then down the hill to the turnaround. I let myself rest a little down the hill, maybe a bit too much, then hit a bump going into the corner and my back wheel skipped out. I thought I was going to go into the barrier but didn’t. I was a bit shaken up so I took the turnaround, regrouped mentally and then hit it hard after the next corner back up the hill. Maybe a bit too hard because I started running out of gas toward the top and had to rest a little down a dip instead of pushing through. I recovered and then pushed hard down the straight again but the hard efforts were taking their toll and I started easing up again approaching and into the big descent. It was probably the rest I needed though because I hit the bottom corner at 30mph and powered the final 1000 feet to the line at 540W for 24 seconds. Also possibly interesting to power people are the various distribution graph, which show that I stayed pretty consistently in a narrow speed, cadence, and HR range, but my power was all over the map. 360W average, with IF of 1.3. WKO doesn’t do NP for less than 5 minutes but IF = NP / FTP, so NP = FTP * IF [377 = 290 * 1.3].
Ouch
Stage 2: Downtown Criterium
They say “criterium is a fast 0.7 mi downtown circuit on new roads”
I say it was a very hilly criterium with 80 feet of climbing per lap.
The lap starts on an uphill… about 5% for 500 feet to the first corner, 10% for 400 feet to the second corner, a gradual descent for a quarter mile to the third corner then a 10% descent into the last corner into about a 1000 foot run at 3% to the start/finish. The same downhill corner and final straight to the finish as the prologue.
This seemed like a course that I would be well suited to, and I actually did fairly well except for:
1) a crash 10 minutes in, the race leader (winner of the prologue) crossed up with someone else and he and a few guys went down right in front of me, and I plowed into them at 27mph. I went over my bars and landed on my face on top of a bunch of guys. My bike was in a pile and a wheel that looked like mine was detached. It took a moment to find it and fortunately the wheel wasn’t mine. I was a little scratched up but al my limbs worked and there wasn’t much blood. My bike didn’t have a scratch but the chain was off. This was right after the start/finish line and the officials sent us to the pit and some of us got back in.
2) My calf was cramping with about 4 laps to go. Inconveniently coinciding with the KOM lap. My calf twinged and I had to back off on the climb and that was that. I tried to work with another guy just off but my calf twinged again and I wasn’t able to do anything but sit behind him. Coming into the climb again I dropped my chain and couldn’t get it back up before I lost all my momentum and had to stop and put it back on. At that point it didn’t even really matter but they were pulling people and I wanted to finish ahead of the pack for tomorrow’s stage. I started my last lap just as the field was starting their sprint out of the final corner. My calf completely cramped up at the top of the climb on my last lap and I pretty much coasted the rest of the lap to the finish.
I finished 25th of 57 and improved my position in the GC to 27th.
You can see how variable the race was. Nearly every lap I hit 700W on the climb and again at the bottom corner. There was usually a bit of a lul near the start/finish line so it ended up being a sequence of 400W 1 minute on/off intervals. 305NP (1.05 IF) for first 40 minutes of crit before my calf cramped. 298NP (1.03 IF) for entire 50 minutes.
Detail of each lap. Click image to see larger stacked view.
Entire race. Click image to see larger horizontal view.
Ouch
Stage 3: Michelob Circuit Race
They say “Sunday Circuit Race is a 5.7 mi scenic course which will test your endurance.”
I say 8 laps, 46 miles with one major climb and a false flat leading up to it. Sprint bonuses on even laps and KOM’s on odd laps.
It sucked.
The KOM climb on the third lap really hurt. But I made it over the top with the group and lived for another lap. Just. The fourth time up I had nothing left and despite climbing at threshold they just rode away. I rode by myself for a lap and then was joined by several guys that I knew, who had been dropped earlier, and we worked together for two laps but then they dropped me, and I rode by myself to the end, cramping and light-headed. It was fricken’ hot and I’m sure I didn’t drink enough and I was crusty-white which is unusual for me . I had only had one bottle during the first 4 laps, but took on a bottle each lap following. It was basically an hour of 4×4 VO2max intervals followed by an hour of tempo, followed by 15 minutes of looking for someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery.
I finished 25th.
Not sure how many started but they only put 30 as finishing. There were 47 listed as finishing the crit and eligible to start today although I’m pretty sure that one of them was out with a broken collarbone from a crash in the finishing sprint (not the crash I was in). 40 would probably be a good estimate.
I would show the power data but it’s too embarassing.
Ok, just a peek. This is the third lap.
Ouch
Echelon Valley Ride Pictures >>
