Epic Skyway Epic

Quick summary – 2nd place behind Adam Gaubert from Texas although I did snag the $100 bill for the KOM at the top of one of only eleven Cat 2 climbs (currently) in Alabama. Sometimes the stats don’t do a race justice, but here they are: 60ish miles in just under 4 hours, 8 minutes. I didn’t have a wheel speed sensor so I’m guessing I must have lost satellite a few times to come up under 60 miles. It felt like 100+ miles, though.

Heartrate summary for the skyway epic

2012 Skyway Epic annotated heartrate data

The details – what an amazing job Brent did start to finish with this race. The mass start was creative with all 60+ riders lined up at the end of the boat dock area giving us plenty of room to charge all the way up the entrance area to a grassy cordoned off chute which led into the single track. Adam Gaubert, Jeff Clayton, and Lennie Moon (Team Momentum) entered in the single track in that order. Behind them I believe it was David Darden (BiciCoop), maybe one or two other riders, Ed Merritt (BiciCoop), and then me (Tria Cycling p/b DonohooAuto.com and Infinty Med-i-spa). I was able to keep up no problem through the single track, but Adam and Jeff were destroying the singletrack and had quite a lead by the end.

As soon as we made it out of the singletrack onto the dam, I attacked hard to start to close the gap to the leaders. I passed Lennie and David on the climb after the dam and continued to drive it hard onto Wiregrass Rd (dirt/gravel forest road). After a mile or two, I could see the leaders up ahead and I was closing pretty fast. Once I caught onto the back of them, we entered into a pretty good 3-way rotation going into the bottom of the climb. I took a hard pull and got a gap about 1/3rd of the way up the climb so I drilled it. The climb was long, though, and once we hit the skyway portion of the climb, the road was much rougher and I had problems finding a good line so Adam was closing in on me. Thankfully, the climb leveled out a bit and got smoother shortly before the top so I was able to lock out the front suspension, stand up and give it one more burst to reach the KOM first and grab the $100 bill.

The effort for the KOM really cost me, though, as I was cooked. I stopped to stuff the $100 deep down in my jersey pocket, and Adam flew by me while I was stopped. I got started again and went through the most challenging part of the course at maybe twice the speed that I had gone when I pre-rode the course in February. But Adam continued to put time on me all the way to the turnaround. It looked like he was 30 seconds or so ahead of me by the turnaround. I still had a bottle and a half of gatorade so I just stopped briefly to grab the proof necklace before setting off in pursuit of Adam. I was hoping that I could catch him on the climb so I could follow his line through all the rough sections – but it wasn’t to be. It was awesome as all the outbound racers were shouting encouragement and giving me time splits to Adam. It started out as 30 second time splits, but eventually it went up into the minute or 2 minute range. I believe he had 3 minutes by the bottom of the
descent back down the KOM climb.

I think I kept the gap there until close to the end where he still had 3 minutes at the last aid station. I stopped there to get some cold coke, banana, and water. This was a very important stop because I really couldn’t figure out how to eat or drink during the singletrack sections so I did that last 10 miles with only one or two sips of water. It was in this last singletrack section that Jeff Clayton (Georgia Neurological Institute) came flying up to me out of nowhere. I immediately let him by thinking that I could hop on his wheel and follow his lines. This lasted for LESS THAN 5 SECONDS as I lost it on the very first turn crashing hard. My bars were stuck on the wrong side of the top tube and it took a few seconds to yank them back across the top tube (I’m glad I went with aluminum instead of carbon fiber).

I had already resigned myself to riding as hard as possible to try to finish on the last step of the podium when on the next hill I started to come up on Jeff pretty fast … my first thought was that he must have popped himself trying to distance me, but then I realized that he had a completely flat rear tire. I came around him thinking that he would have no problem stopping to change the tire and then catching back up to me again. So I could never really let up off the pace … but as it turns out, Jeff couldn’t get the tire to hold air so he had to ride in the last several miles on the flat – and yet he still held on for third!

Kristine snagged a few videos … one of me coming out of the final singletrack and another of me finishing a minute or two later and one of Josiah asking if I was in this race … good stuff!

Highland Rim Classic – Day 2

Race summary – 2nd place in the race today to take 2nd place in the omnium. Chris Brown (Litespeed – BMW) took the win again today after emerging together with me in a late 2-man move when the fireworks of the end game began at mile 103 in the first of NINE attacks made over a span of five miles from mile 103 to mile 108. I was lucky to be able to grab and hold Chris’s wheel to the end of the race at mile 113 where he easily took the sprint … this race is officially the longest race I have ever done.

The details – I was sitting 3rd in the omnium behind Stephen Bassett (Texas Roadhouse) and Chris. I knew that the race would be long so I wanted to make it a race of survival. Unfortunately, I did a lot of work on the first of two long laps that probably wore me out more than it did anyone else. I got into an early two man move when I jumped with Jon Hart (Friends of the Great Smokies) a mile or two after the neutral zone. We worked hard drilling it at just below threshold all the way to climb. John came off on the climb, and I knew that I couldn’t hold an 80 mile solo break so I eased up the climb waiting for what was left of the field to catch up.

At this point, our pace really dropped and I was worried of two things: 1) the race taking so long that we would all die of dehydration 2) people getting an easy ride to the finish and then outsprinting me at the end. The first concern was no problem because there was good neutral water support in the feedzone and I was able to get 3 bottles on one lap and 2 bottles on another lap – combined with the 3 bottles I started with made for 8 bottles completely drained by the end. Regarding concern #2, I attacked a couple times hoping to get somebody to go with me to share the work, but ended up riding off the front both times.

The chase – A mile or two after the feedzone, Jon Hart rode off the front again and would eventually amass a maximum lead of 3’30″. Behind him, Chris Brown and I did a lot of the work for the first 15-20 miles of the chase, with Bradley Spears (Sonic) also contributing and the Texas Roadhouse duo making some contributions as well. Two of John’s teammates were able to sit in and rest since they had their teammate up the road. Eventually, once the gap reached 3’30″, the Texas Roadhouse duo started working harder and more frequently — particularly Stephen’s teammate Andrew Dillman who stepped up to do more work while Stephen waited for the climb.

The climb – Chris was on the front leading into the climb and when we turned to go up the steep part, he lifted the pace substantially. We reached the first step of the stair-stepper climb and the pace eased off a bit, but when we reached the next steep part Stephen put in a very hard attack. Chris countered this move lifting the pace again, but by this point we were going fast enough that we were near the top of the Cat 3 climb. I held on, but was really spent by the top of the climb. We ended up losing 1 or 2 from our group and Chris pushed the pace hard across the top to make sure that we stayed away.

The chase, part 2, and the fireworks of the end game – A mile or two after we reached the top, John’s teammate Jeff McGrane attacked and got away solo. Chris, Andrew, Stephen, and I got into a good rotation and after 20 miles of chasing finally caught Jeff. Chris put in a strong attack immediately and then when he was caught, somebody else (it may have been Chris again) attacked again. This ended up shelling Stephen’s teammate Andrew. Five attacks later (it could have been by aliens for all I know considering how delirious I was at the time — but the attacks are clearly visible in the power data), and we had lost Stephen. Then Jeff put in another attack, which Chris countered and that is when we lost Jeff leaving just Chris and me for the 3 mile descent and 2 mile gradual rise to the finish. We traded pace on the descent and stayed away to the finish where Chris took the sprint.

With the ride back to the start at Cumberland Caverns, I ended up with nearly 200K of racing and riding today to cap off a 466 mile week. Tired. Here is all the data!

Heartrate summary

Annotated attacks that comprised the end-game from today’s race … doesn’t include the finishing sprint. Click to enlarge

Annotated plot of heartrate and power (30sec smoothing) – click to enlarge.

We could call this pedal force vs pedal velocity graph “the blob” – click to enlarge

New power records from the road race

Athens Twilight 2012 vs Sunny King 2012 power and heartrate data

Well, the results are in, and below is this year’s side-by-side comparison of two very popular pro criteriums (Sunny King and Athens Terrapin Twilight). I still don’t know how to decide which race is harder … so y’all look at the data and make some comments about how you interpret it. Thanks! This year’s races were held on back-to-back weekends with Sunny King held in Anniston, Alabama on Saturday, April 21st at 7:30PM and Athens Twilight held in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, April 28th at 9:00PM.

Summary Data

		Sunny King	Athens Twilight
Time		1:30:14		1:41:19
Distance	41.6 mi.	47.6 mi.
Avg Speed	27.7 mph	28.2 mph
Max Speed	36 mph		36 mph
Avg HR		176		174
Max HR		187		189
Avg Power	269		245
Max Power	1013		1088
Placing		26th		20th

Heartrate Zones

		Sunny King	Athens Twilight
Zone 5 (175+)	0:58:45		0:54:04
Zone 4 (155+)	0:31:15		0:46:50

Some notes about the data … first, it was really windy for this year’s Sunny King criterium, which partially explains the higher power / lower average speed. But a bigger factor in the Watts vs Speed differences between the races is that in Athens you have a long stretch of the course where you rest … from the downhill going into Turn 3 all the way through Turn 4. The only place to rest on the Sunny King course is about 3 or 4 seconds as you brake hard into Turn #3.

Here are the power maps … note that for the Sunny King race there is a lot more time to warm up on the course so a lot of the purple lines are from my warm-up laps.

2012 Sunny King Criterium – Pro men power map (click to enlarge)

2012 Athens Terrapin Twilight Criterium – Pro men power map (click to enlarge)

Here is a side-by-side on the lap data for the two races showing avg power, max power, and avg heartrate. Sunny King is on a slightly longer course so there is only 60 laps as compared to 80 laps for the Athens Twilight race.

	Avg power	Max power	Avg heartrate	
Lap	Sunny	Athens	Sunny	Athens	Sunny	Athens
1	367	330	897	820	159	168
2	317	267	948	827	173	172
3	279	270	839	975	173	173
4	236	305	767	851	172	177
5	282	257	970	895	174	178
6	316	256	900	845	177	176
7	272	234	855	890	179	173
8	303	243	1013	919	180	173
9	238	258	934	891	179	174
10	268	231	822	860	175	176
11	253	272	917	873	176	178
12	260	271	804	918	176	179
13	271	284	820	931	177	179
14	282	250	928	821	180	182
15	265	249	814	973	177	179
16	289	280	853	917	177	180
17	246	234	780	901	179	179
18	276	268	879	876	175	179
19	256	261	874	884	174	179
20	326	236	935	934	180	179
21	260	249	884	903	180	179
22	252	262	945	864	176	178
23	251	234	717	897	175	177
24	256	262	807	896	177	179
25	246	244	852	920	177	178
26	289	256	916	976	178	178
27	291	238	872	903	179	177
28	295	226	827	790	179	175
29	250	216	870	794	178	175
30	272	235	882	706	174	175
31	274	239	898	885	175	176
32	249	253	910	875	176	177
33	250	260	679	900	176	178
34	252	247	735	933	172	177
35	233	218	821	885	170	176
36	265	257	897	883	175	172
37	240	232	869	842	169	178
38	247	232	855	881	171	172
39	274	222	896	832	174	173
40	260	241	657	856	175	172
41	258	262	789	930	171	176
42	261	228	893	820	175	176
43	276	224	900	800	176	171
44	259	215	812	862	174	169
45	242	267	900	775	174	172
46	251	244	825	755	174	174
47	242	229	793	817	175	169
48	247	214	744	851	171	169
49	266	191	720	813	176	171
50	276	246	880	821	176	166
51	238	225	744	775	178	170
52	294	251	873	868	179	171
53	269	240	819	844	178	170
54	253	259	825	802	178	172
55	246	214	788	816	174	171
56	277	280	791	842	177	171
57	278	325	886	971	179	181
58	264	202	965	783	177	174
59	322	243	867	701	181	169
60	330	212	744	743	185	170
61		224		852		167
62		232		816		169
63		244		832		173
64		245		885		173
65		261		731		172
66		232		827		172
67		238		876		173
68		244		846		173
69		239		854		174
70		212		817		173
71		236		879		172
72		253		875		174
73		243		812		176
74		261		782		174
75		280		865		175
76		254		919		178
77		226		827		176
78		284		850		176
79		276		922		180
80		363		1088		184

Athens Twilight 2012

Race summary
If last weekend’s Sunny King criterium was dominated by Kenda, then this weekend’s Athens Twilight Pro Race was quite a show of strength by Team Mountain Khakis. They had riders in just about every move. And then they were still able to set things up in the end for their sprinter Luke Keough, who edged John Murphy (Kenda) on the line with Emile Abraham (Rosetti Devo) rounding out the podium in third. Even the announcers were getting in on the action. I remember rounding turn 2 maybe 30 laps or so into the 80 lap race and Jeff Hopkins (announcing from the back-side of the course) was already saying that Team Mountain Khakis deserved most aggressive team. Kudos to the whole team for quite a performance and the huge win!

I did not do the grid qualifiers so I started at the back of the 130 rider field. A minute or two before they said go, I realized that I should be on the left side of the group so I turned around and rode around to the left side to be ready to take the outside line in Turns 1 and 2. This worked out really well because the guys in front of me clipped in well and we were able to pass a few people within the first few seconds of the race. On the second lap I was still on the outside and was able to shoot up the hill coming out of Turn 2 passing 10-20 riders. I had tons of momentum across the top of the hill, and the group was still going fast enough not to bunch up on the approach to turn 3 – so I was able to carry my momentum all the way down the hill passing another 10-20 riders. I went from the very back of a large field to mid-pack by the end of the 2nd lap. I continued to fight for position moving up every time the pace slowed down even a tiny bit. The extra energy burned to move up was well worth it for the faster lines you could take through the corners.

By the midway point of the race, I had worked my way to nearly the front of the field with a two-man break a few seconds up the road. The front of the field slowed down coming up the hill out of turn 2, and I decided this was my moment to do something in the race whether it worked or not. I attacked hard up the left side with Jeff Hopkins calling out my name over the PA – something along the lines of “and there goes a move from Brian Toone”. Coming across the top of the hill, I could hear Chad Andrews (who was announcing the start/finish line) mention something about “rider from Alabama”. Then going into Turns 3 and 4, I could hear him mention “Toonesfanclub”, which is the twitter handle my wife uses to announce updates during races (see sidebar of tweets to the right). So by the start/finish line I was caught, but I was elated to have at least done something in the race. That is always a goal for this race – not only to finish well, but also to do something in the race. Last year I was able to win a prime. Three years ago I was in a late race break of 10 riders that eventually produced a smaller break (unfortunately without me in it) with the winner Heath Blackgrove.

After getting caught, I fought hard to maintain my position but had slid back to maybe the top 40 riders with 5 laps to go. This worked out well, though, because with 5 laps to go and again with 4 laps to go there was a bunch-up on the hill as the front riders slowed down which meant that those of us a little farther back were able to shoot up the sides. By the final lap I had moved up into the top 20 and maintained that position all the way to the line taking 20th – my best Athens Twilight finish yet … DNF in 1997 and 1998, 48th in 2007, DNF in 2008, 27th in 2009, DNF in 2010, 26th in 2011, and 20th in 2012.

Here is all my data and graphs from this year’s race.

2012 Athens Twilight Lap Data
		    POWER (watts)
Lap	Time	Avg	xPow	Max	HR	Spd
1	01:19	330	292	820	168	27.2
2	01:12	267	228	827	172	29.2
3	01:14	270	236	975	173	28.8
4	01:11	305	261	851	177	30.1
5	01:13	257	228	895	178	29.5
6	01:12	256	226	845	176	30.3
7	01:16	234	212	890	173	27.5
8	01:15	243	219	919	173	28
9	01:18	258	223	891	174	27.2
10	01:18	231	211	860	176	27.6
11	01:18	272	238	873	178	27.3
12	01:13	271	235	918	179	28.6
13	01:11	284	239	931	179	29.8
14	01:10	250	212	821	182	29.6
15	01:14	249	223	973	179	28.7
16	01:10	280	235	917	180	30.1
17	01:13	234	203	901	179	28.8
18	01:11	268	229	876	179	29.3
19	01:15	261	232	884	179	28
20	01:12	236	210	934	179	29
21	01:13	249	216	903	179	28.7
22	01:10	262	230	864	178	29.5
23	01:18	234	214	897	177	27.1
24	01:17	262	238	896	179	27.6
25	01:17	244	215	920	178	27.4
26	01:15	256	224	976	178	27.6
27	01:18	238	218	903	177	27.2
28	01:16	226	203	790	175	27.7
29	01:16	216	190	794	175	27.7
30	01:14	235	199	706	175	28.5
31	01:13	239	209	885	176	28.8
32	01:13	253	220	875	177	28.6
33	01:18	260	235	900	178	27.5
34	01:13	247	223	933	177	29.3
35	01:13	218	198	885	176	28.7
36	01:19	257	234	883	172	27.1
37	01:16	232	205	842	178	27.4
38	01:16	232	200	881	172	27.5
39	01:14	222	195	832	173	29.3
40	01:16	241	210	856	172	27.8
41	01:13	262	223	930	176	28.9
42	01:12	228	200	820	176	30
43	01:19	224	202	800	171	26.9
44	01:21	215	193	862	169	25.8
45	01:14	267	232	775	172	28.3
46	01:15	244	214	755	174	28
47	01:19	229	206	817	169	26.9
48	01:19	214	191	851	169	26.6
49	01:20	191	186	813	171	26.3
50	01:17	246	222	821	166	26.7
51	01:12	225	199	775	170	28.8
52	01:13	251	218	868	171	29.1
53	01:14	240	213	844	170	29.2
54	01:12	259	225	802	172	29.8
55	01:15	214	186	816	171	28
56	01:16	280	228	842	171	27.3
57	01:13	325	280	971	181	28.9
58	01:21	202	170	783	174	25.1
59	01:17	243	213	701	169	27.5
60	01:14	212	190	743	170	27
61	01:19	224	199	852	167	26.8
62	01:14	232	201	816	169	28.6
63	01:12	244	215	832	173	28.8
64	01:15	245	225	885	173	28.4
65	01:14	261	229	731	172	27.7
66	01:14	232	203	827	172	28.2
67	01:11	238	211	876	173	29.6
68	01:16	244	216	846	173	27.8
69	01:17	239	211	854	174	28.1
70	01:14	212	189	817	173	28.9
71	01:15	236	206	879	172	28
72	01:12	253	217	875	174	28.6
73	01:16	243	218	812	176	27.6
74	01:19	261	214	782	174	26.5
75	01:16	280	233	865	175	28.3
76	01:12	254	221	919	178	29.1
77	01:13	226	190	827	176	29
78	01:13	284	236	850	176	29.4
79	01:10	276	233	922	180	29.5
80	01:07	363	304	1088	184	31.5

Heartrate zone summary. 47.6 miles is a long way to race in a crit!

2012 athens twilight heartrate power data (30sec smoothing on power data) – click to enlarge

This was what a pedal force / pedal velocity graph looks like the more “bursts” of power you have. The black dots are from my long-warmup. The red dots are from the race. Click to enlarge.

Sunny King Criterium and Foothills Road Race reports

Josiah ready to race the kids race and me ready to warm-up for the pro race
Sunny King Criterium
This is a tough criterium for smaller guys like me – the hill on the course isn’t steep enough to take advantage of power to weight ratio. Similarly, the downhill is shallow enough that you have to work to keep the wheel in front of you. Making it even worse this year was a stiff headwind on the downhill and strong tailwind on the uphill. Still, this is one of my favorite crits because it is practically a home race (Anniston is about an hour away from my home in Birmingham). Chad Andrews (totalcyclist) does a great job of announcing the crit and getting the crowd pumped up so the energy in the air is palpable.

Kenda Pro Cycling dominated this third stop on the National Criterium Calendar pretty much from start to finish. Phil Gaimon (Kenda) got away on the first or second lap with an Exergy rider. Eventually Phil dropped the Exergy rider and solidered on alone. He swept up three primes in the process and was away for a lot of laps. Mountain Khakis did a lot of the chasing, and the pace was steadier and a bit easier than previous years. Still, I was struggling a bit because I was too far back in the field and the slingshot effect of this course was particularly bad coming out of turn 4 with a bit of a crosswind before the tailwind up the hill. So basically the guys at the front of the pack were flying up the hill with a tailwind while those at the back were still trying to accelerate out of the corner with a nasty crosswind.

My wife observed that the back of the race was getting closer and closer to me – i.e., I was maintaining my position but more and more people behind me were getting gapped off or dropping out. Eventually, though, I was able to move up to maybe the front third of what was left of the field. With 10 laps to go, I worked hard to maintain my position. With two or three laps to go (I lost count) I noticed that I was maybe in the top 40. Kenda, Mountain Khakis, and Exergy were all battling with their leadout trains. I knew that riders from the train would be peeling off when their turn was done so I figured I was pretty good to move up into the top 30 by the end. Our field was strung out single file flying around the course. I would be looking intently at the wheel in front of me to stay as close as possible when out of the corner of my eye a rider coming off the front. It was amazing to see them rocketing backwards as we went by at maybe 20mph faster than they were going with their job for the day done.

On the last lap, unfortunately, people immediately in front of me also started giving up. I had to come around several riders who lost the wheel in front of them. I ended up catching a few more riders in the final sprint to finish 26th. I was pleased to finish in the top 30 in a really hard race. Up ahead of me, Isaac Howe (Kenda) came out of the final corner 2nd wheel and took the sprint for the win.

By the end of the race the temp had dropped down into the 50s with a howling wind – it was very cold on the “cool-down” lap. This was Kristine and Josiah watching the race:

Josiah and Kristine bundled up watching the race.

Sunny King Criterium data

			Power (watts)
Lap	Time	Mile	Avg	Max	HR	Spd (mph)
1	01:38	0.7	367	897	159	25.4
2	01:28	0.7	317	948	173	28.3
3	01:28	0.7	279	839	173	27.9
4	01:28	0.7	236	767	172	27.8
5	01:27	0.7	282	970	174	28.6
6	01:27	0.7	316	900	177	28
7	01:27	0.7	272	855	179	28.3
8	01:26	0.7	303	1013	180	28.6
9	01:28	0.7	238	934	179	28
10	01:30	0.7	268	822	175	27.5
11	01:30	0.7	253	917	176	27.2
12	01:34	0.7	260	804	176	26.3
13	01:29	0.7	271	820	177	27.6
14	01:29	0.7	282	928	180	27.8
15	01:29	0.7	265	814	177	27.5
16	01:27	0.7	289	853	177	28
17	01:28	0.7	246	780	179	27.8
18	01:31	0.7	276	879	175	26.9
19	01:31	0.7	256	874	174	26.9
20	01:26	0.7	326	935	180	28.5
21	01:28	0.7	260	884	180	28.3
22	01:28	0.7	252	945	176	27.8
23	01:30	0.7	251	717	175	27.6
24	01:30	0.7	256	807	177	27
25	01:28	0.7	246	852	177	27.7
26	01:28	0.7	289	916	178	28
27	01:26	0.7	291	872	179	28.8
28	01:26	0.7	295	827	179	28.5
29	01:30	0.7	250	870	178	27.6
30	01:34	0.7	272	882	174	27.4
31	01:28	0.7	274	898	175	28.2
32	01:29	0.7	249	910	176	27.5
33	01:31	0.7	250	679	176	27
34	01:32	0.7	252	735	172	26.6
35	01:34	0.7	233	821	170	26.5
36	01:28	0.7	265	897	175	27.8
37	01:34	0.7	240	869	169	26.5
38	01:31	0.7	247	855	171	27
39	01:28	0.7	274	896	174	28.2
40	01:28	0.7	260	657	175	28
41	01:34	0.7	258	789	171	26.2
42	01:27	0.7	261	893	175	28.1
43	01:28	0.7	276	900	176	27.9
44	01:29	0.7	259	812	174	27.6
45	01:31	0.7	242	900	174	27
46	01:29	0.7	251	825	174	27.7
47	01:29	0.7	242	793	175	27.8
48	01:32	0.7	247	744	171	26.7
49	01:26	0.7	266	720	176	28.6
50	01:29	0.7	276	880	176	27.7
51	01:29	0.7	238	744	178	28
52	01:32	0.7	294	873	179	26.9
53	01:31	0.7	269	819	178	27.1
54	01:33	0.7	253	825	178	26.8
55	01:30	0.7	246	788	174	27.4
56	01:28	0.7	277	791	177	28
57	01:26	0.7	278	886	179	29
58	01:25	0.7	264	965	177	29
59	01:24	0.7	322	867	181	29.6
60	01:23	0.7	330	744	185	29.6

Heartrate summary – look at all the time in zone 5!

Annotated Sunny King pro criterium heartrate/power plot. Power shown has 30second smoothing filter applied (click to enlarge)

Foothills Road Race
This was my “target” race for the weekend – I was hoping to be in the top 10. I ended up missing an early move and a later move. So on the third of four Cat 4 climbs of the day, I attacked and got away solo chasing a group of about 10 riders up the road with all major teams represented. I was fighting a head/crosswind early on, but then had a nice tail/crosswind until late in the race. I kept the field completely out of sight for a long time. Once I made the left turn onto the rougher road to start heading towards the final climb, I was now faced with a strong head/crosswind again. I quickly lost time, and the field caught me at the base of the last climb. I gave it one more burst to try and stay with the group over the top, but even with a friendly push from fellow Alabamian Mike Olheiser (Competitive Cyclist) I couldn’t keep up. My legs were done. I ended up coming in with a small group a couple minutes back of the field sprint.

Strava map and statistics for my nearly 30 mile solo chase effort (click to enlarge)

Heartrate summary – zone 4 must have been feeling left out after yesterday’s crit.

Foothills Road Race annotated heartrate and power data (30 second smoothing) – click to enlarge.