Comments on: 2008 River Gorge Road Race P/1/2/3 Report

By: kartoone

kartoone — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:42:25 +0000

I went really hard early in the race with the initial breakaway so I was cooked on Sand Mountain and only averaged 280 watts for the 15 minute climb. For Raccoon Mountain, I had recovered enough to ride a much better climb averaging 320 watts (including the one downhill with low wattage) for the 16:40 climb (avg speed 12.1 mph). On Raccoon Mountain, there were a few guys who hit it real hard at the bottom of the climb and I knew I couldn’t sustain that pace so I watched my wattage at the bottom to try to keep it near 350 watts and then later in the climb focused more on catching riders ahead of me rather than looking at my wattage. Thanks for writing!

By: dgearhart678

dgearhart678 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Great race report. I did the Cat 4 race earlier. Question: What kind of power did you average on the final Raccoon Mountain section. I misjudged the distance of the 4 race and was expecting the climb to continue another couple miles (37.5 actual vs. 40 mi in flier), so I wasn’t pushing hard until I saw 1k to go which was too late. Obviously, you were on the long course, but I was curious if you were riding based on your power and known limits or just racing with the lead group. Sounds like you were racing which was a smarter strategy than looking at numbers and leaving too much in the tank like me… Great job. BTW, Doug moved to ATL and I rode with him last week. Great rider!