baker3 said:Also eat/hydrate well in the days leading up to the race and avoid alcohol.
i did 30sec/30sec hard x 12 early in the week then a long L-3 then an easy spin the day before.
i drank and drank and drank the 3 days before and was surprised how chronically dehydrated i must be.
i paced myself well (thanks to advice from wyoming dave and rdo) not getting caught in the slinky peloton action and saving my matches for later.
i was surprised at staying with the second group easily and helped bridge to the main peloton at mile 15! that was an error cause i got deep into anerobic and the next hill was murder. but i just couldn't help myself!
we built a paceline and i worked with the 6-7 people to get to the big hills quickly. what a blast to cooperate with people you don't know but all working together for the good of all!
there was a 4 person crash (no bad injuries) that brought everyone together but the stronger ones quickly rode away on the 6-8 % hill.
there was a long 2-3 mile continous ascent to cap the 2100 of vertical ascent for the race that strung everyone out and i spun in circles to ride away from most of the group. then a 30mph solo descent with several tight curves until 5 of us (4 guys and a women who provided great encouragement) formed up for the last 10 miles.
there are 3 short but about 10% grade hills leading to the finish. i had enough left to sprint to the line after the last one.
despite being dead tired i had enough snap to pass 3 of the 5! i might have done more but i had no clue when my legs would have frozen up so i started sprinting later.
the race and numbers were a breakthrough for me, 20.9 mph average for 38 miles, about 2300 vertical. out of 300+ riders i finished 107 , don't know how i did in my age group (sadly the 55+ now) but who really cares.
thanks for the advice from all of you.
dave
