The Heckler
You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
Yeah, uh every race.@The Heckler - stupid question, ever wonder how you'd fair if you just said fuck it and tried to see how hard you could go? Just go balls out from the whistle and just keep pushing until you either finish the race or die?
kinda
I've only done 5 of these UCI things so far. In summary:
Nittany 1 - so/so start bleed spots like blood letting was in style. Hung 1/2 lap.
Nittany 2 - Solid start, wheel ahead of me lost the train, died trying to reconnect. Fell totally off after 2 laps
KMC - Decent start - was so slow up the run up i moved back a whole group everylap. Forced myself to push up it and legs literally couldn't respond. Hung everywhere else on the course fine for 3/4 of the race until the dark sketchness totally turned me off.
Gloucester 1 - Good start, great 1/2 race smashing, crash, pit, pop, pit, pop, retire to tempo.
Gloucester 2 - 8th row call up, what start, meh.
Basically each one of these races is 'go as hard as you can for as long as you can and hope for the best.' The whole field is so fast that if you don't get to the front there is no chance of riding up to it later. It really is about seeding yourself into the fastest possible group and holding on. People like Jonathan Page can crash, pit, and ride to the podium from DFL (Clevland last weekend). I don't have the power to do that. I make basically just enough to do what I'm doing. I know if I can string together a great start (low 20's) and a good clean race there is no reason I can't finish up in the mid-low 30's. Gloucester 1 was looking really good. I need to create the most possible steady state race for myself for as long as possible.
Back where I am it's also super stop/go. There was a great video in Instagram of the charm city first lap. There was a 180 corner and the front of the field just flows through. Around 15-20 the single line becomes 2, then 3 wide and everyone is late braking and sprinting out. When you're forced to to that 20 times in the first lap fighting to move up every spot it really takes it's toll.
The whole thing is slightly discouraging to deal with mentally. I've never been so under powered for a category and I fear I am kinda reaching the point of diminishing returns training wise. For a working dude I can't ride or recover much more then I am, but there is something kinda exciting about that. At least, exciting and thrilling enough to keep me coming back.
One last note, definitely being forced to push harder for 45th place in UCI then I ever was for 10th in any Cat 3 race.