Sunday, September 14, 2014

Classic time

After 18 years or so I did a classic race again yesterday. It's called the Zeeland Classic and it's a race of 114km with 2 laps of 45km and 3 local laps of 8km. To be honest I did not train many 'base' kms / endurance kms lately so I was kind of affraid how my body would hold it after 1.5 hours (my training rides and crit times). The indicator at the moment wasn't too bad as I did a nice ride of 2 hours last Wednesday at 4.5w/kg. FTP is in the 310-320 range. Anaerobic power is at season's best. 
 
 
When you've ever done a classic race you know that it is quite a nerve wrecking thing. Everyone wants to be in the front and everyone wants to be in the right group (i.e. out of the wind). There was a fair amount of wind and of course everyone wanted to be in the front.....There were 147 participants and some are good at steering and some of them are not. My first objective of the race was not to hit the pavement and finish.
 
As soon as the neutral car (after 2 km) drove off it's quite hectic and you really have to just rely on people in front of you not to do any stupid things. Because if they do, before you notice, you're on the pavement. I must say I am quite good at peeping through every whole in the group and going around people without too much effort. Mind the 'too much effort'. I was really keen on not to move the legs when I didn't have to which resulted in 45% active recovery for the whole 114km.
 
There was quite some wind and there were several attempts for breakaways. But the thing is that there are a lot of guys who can race hard and can close gaps so basically every attempt was doomed to fail.
 
I was quite continuously riding at the first 20-30 rides which was good. The first lap went quite fast. 42.9 km/h with 239 AP and 278 NP. In that first round I also tried once in a group to ride off, but we were captured again just before the first time we crossed the finish line. The result of that was however that quite some people got dropped because of everyone riding after one another and that's not nice when you're riding in the wind.
 
The second round I tried again but again with no result. I didn't throw in a lot, because I already felt that it was going to be very hard to get away if you wouldn't get an initial 10-20 seconds. So after that effort I tucked myseld back in the group. The second round was done at 41.6 km/h, 204 AP and 237 NP.
 
Then the 3 local laps began and besides people who got dropped (and people who did hit the pavement or had flat tires) the group was still together. First lap was done at 40.6 km/h and 199 AP and 224 NP.
 
You could sense it became more nervous and to be honest at that moment I just wasn't alert. The whole race I had been riding among the first 20-30, but in that second round I let it go just a bit to let's say around position 40. A huge mistake, because 11 riders rode off just like that. My legs were still very good, but at the time I got in the front again they already had 20 seconds or so. I was riding by myself after a short attack and very quickly realised I was certainly not going to make it alone to that group nor any backup from the back showed up. Second lap went at 41.7 km/h and 218 AP, 257 NP.
 
By that time the only thing I focused on was staying in the front and to be as alert as possible. That is not trying to do too much work, but still try to rely on a good sprint since I did feel I still had a good one in my legs. Anyway, to keep it short I did do a good sprint - 4th of the peloton- and ended up 18th. Mixed emotions about it, but eventually I was OK with it.
 
So after 18 years, 18th place.

Next week one more race to go; season ends. Hopefully I get more time again to write some more on this blog, because lately I was simply too busy.
 

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%
Race 7: 1.09h, VI 1.12, NP 296, AP 263, IF 0.97   ,AR 32%, Anaerobic 12%, Neuro 15%
Race 8: 1.22h, VI 1.23, NP 308, AP 249, IF 0.984 ,AR 46%, Anaerobic 8%, Neuro 20%
Race 9: 2.45h, VI 1.18, NP 259, AP 219, IF 0.826 ,AR 46%, Anaerobic 9%, Neuro 10%

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