Hopefully it doesn't rain

Last weekend I did another race. Although I am fresh (too), my fitness is not great. I an still trying to build up to let's say what's left of a descent form this season. 

The race was at a small industrial park and was a ride of 1.3km (38 laps) with 4 cornes in which you could pedal if you wanted. 

First objective I had was to get a preme. There was bad weather coming up and if it would start raining I would stop. Anyway, I got that preme so first objective achieved. 

Then after some attempts to escape one guy rode off and had quite a gap. Two others then also left and they had quite a nice gap too. I just gave it a try and with one firm "interval" I got to the two (almost crushed my 2 minute power record). 

There is just one but. One of the two guys had to let to just at the moment I came there. I looked behind and saw the peleton coming. The first guy was like 20 meters away from the other guy. Because I saw the peleton coming I just let it go. 

Now. How stupid was that because yes, the two guys rode off again and became 1 and 2 of the race. Aaaaarrrgghh. I shouldn't have written this down, it's that stupid. 

Anyway. About 15 laps before the end I got away with a group of 9 and the peleton never came back. Last 5 laps it started to rain but since we were so close to the end I decided to stay on the bike. Last lap I did not sprint: just rode in the front position at a descent speed so the others could do their sprinting. Therefore I ended up 9th. The feeling wrt riding in the front, closing a gap and then to be in the chasing group again did however give some perspective.

In race 6 below you see the race stats compared to the previous ones:

Race 1: 1.12h, VI 1.05, NP 297, AP 283, IF 0.928, AR 22%, Anaerobic 11%, Neuro 9%
Race 2: 1.03h, VI 1.12, NP 273, AP 243, IF 0.854, AR 51%, Anaerobic 7%,   Neuro 19%
Race 3: 1.27h, VI 1.14, NP 292, AP 255, IF 0.911, AR 44%, Anaerobic 10%, Neuro 17%
Race 4: 1.28h, VI 1.13, NP 296, AP 262, IF 0.926, AR 37%, Anaerobic 11%, Neuro 14%
Race 5: 1.17h, VI 1.13, NP 290, AP 256, IF 0.983, AR 46%, Anaerobic 8%,   Neuro 24%
Race 6: 1.11h, VI 1.12, NP 296, AP 266, IF 1.004, AR 31%, Anaerobic 14%, Neuro 18%
 
Here's that spikey chart again:

IF is 1 because I set my FTP at 300. Maybe slightly too low but that's OK. It certainly isn't at 320 or higher anymore.

Wrt to racing in my category you get a good idea of what it takes in terms of overall power. Most of them are between 290-300 watt NP and depending on the course between 250 and 280 AP for let's say one and half hour.