Hundreds of cyclist decended upon the Tooele army depot this weekend to fight for bragging rights and suffer with fellow soldiers. There were 3 major battles. The first one was "The battle of TRUTH." 8.7 miles of solo sufferfest up and down the outskirts of Tooele. The troops from BCC Racing gave it their best shot. Eric, Liam, and Rogers finished with identical times of about 24:08. Don't be fooled by Liams time on the results page. He missed his start by about a minute. We teased him a little for that. Higgins was very nervous for some bet he had going with Todd. Mason, John Ward, and Higgins all finished well. The cat 5 winners time would have beat all the cat 4's and put him in 6th place in the cat 3's. We all gathered together in Eric's military baracks after the race to lick our wounds and tell battle stories.The second battle was a 20 mile curcuit race for the cat. 5's and 25 for the cat 4's. Each lap was 5 miles long, with 3 miles up hill and only 2 down. Something is wrong with that math. Our troops all survived the first lap and second laps. On the third lap the enemy injured John on the climb. On the last lap it was "NO GUTS, NO GLORY TIME". Rogers and Liam attacked to try and bridge up the Pro Mt. Biker who had a lead on the peloton. They made the gap. Higgins fell a little short in his attempt. Liam and Rogers were both red lining at that point and only were able to do a couple rotations with the fast guy and then they fell victim and were swallowed up by the peloton and spit out the back, high fiving each other for at least trying. Eric did a fantastic job in the cat. 4's were he finished with the peloton at a higher average pace then the cat. 5's. Go Eric.
The Easter battle was a 49 mile loop of the Tooele valley. After the 2 mile neutral start the battle heated up. John made a valient effort for about 16 miles before being being dropped. Mr. Higgins or Mr. I need to adjust my caveman nuts got spit out a couple of miles later. John and Higgins later hooked up where they worked together. They tried to come to an agreement of who would finish first, but in the end John out sprinted the svelt Higgins to the line. Liam and Rogers managed to hang with the main group for the full distance, which was a goal accomplished for both of them. They both almost got dropped a few times, but hung in there. Eric is the Most Valuable Sufferer of the War. He managed to hang onto the peloton in the cat. 4 group who rode the course 7 minutes faster then the cat. 5 group. And thanks for the trailer hang out too. It's nice to have a place to hang at the race. Congrats to all, and to all a good Easter.
Erics stage one
My first stage race ever starts with a nine mile individual time trial. I was excited due to my desire to get into stage racing and time trialing.The excitement had me at heart rate zone 2 - 2.5 as I was waiting to start my time trial. The start box was way cool; it is a great help to start down that ramp and get going immediately. Power output at the start: 597 watts.The excitement ended at approximately 1.3 miles when I got passed by the 30 second person behind me. I hadn't reached the F@#$# climb yet, damn. That's ok, maybe that one guy is just ridiculously strong. I still see my 30 second guy, maybe I can catch him. I didn't.I got passed by 3 or 4 people before it was over. I averaged 21.6 mph, 218 watts for 24 minutes. That yielded me nearly last place, 4 minutes behind the leader. Ouch.
Erics stage twoThe second part of the day includes a 25 mile circuit race over a 5 mile circuit. One word: Brutal.Of course the first lap everyone is just trying to get rid of the weaker riders. It worked; I believe approximately 1/3 of the group went away. Second lap and third laps are just as tough, with the fourth and fifth laps turning out to be a bit more relaxed. What that means in power is the first three laps I hit 335-355 watts to stick to the group, where the last two I got away with under 233-282. Heart rate wise that translates to hitting the 190s vs staying under 184. See pretty graphs at Garmin Connect.The finish was nuts. I reached 41.7 miles per hour which earned me a 13th place. Yeah, I can see why so many people like sprinting, what a rush!I still don't know the difference between a circuit and a criterium, but I'm about to look it up. Effort wise there is simply no difference.
Erics stage three
Stage 3 - 49 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes with 24 of my newest friends. Average speed 23.5 miles per hour, and yes, a sufferfest for me. After the race I talked to one of the Ski Utah guys that has been Cat 4 for a year, and he said this was a pretty relaxed pace.I like neutral racing. We spent two miles in town going through a few traffic signals at a nice friendly pace. I really wanted to stick to that pace for much longer but my new buddies didn't agree. As soon as the flag person passed by at the end of the neutral zone the pack took off like a bullet. The stats show a jump from 12 to 22 mph right at the 2 mile point. Soon after we averaged over 30 mph for over 5 miles as we were racing a train. Fun. This portion of the race was interesting. As I was moving up the pack to avoid getting dropped I ended up right up front and did a pull at ridiculous speeds. I pulled for 30 seconds or so and moved off, which started an actual structured rotation with the 5-10 front guys. We did a few minutes of this and it broke down because the majority of the group wasn't participating.I had over 8 "match burning" events just trying to stick to the group including hitting over 40 miles per hour twice. End result: the whole group, I mean everyone, together at the end for a 40 mph bunch sprint. Serious fun.
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