Its dark out, I am sitting outside in the very warm Pennsylvania evening heat in a desk chair on the sidewalk with a wireless connection watching the local fireflies and listening to the orchestra of crickets jamming in the ditch across the way. It is quiet and peaceful, I am relaxed and comfortable...for the first time today.
Today was what you might call the first hump of this 7 day tour of Altoona. The stage saw 155 km, rolling and hilly terrain and 35 degree heat. The two KOM climbs of the day were substantial with the second being a 5 mile epic to the top of Blue Knob state park on a twisting forest road in the sapping heat. The first KOM of substantial enough to lead the peleton to descend at 100km/hr coming off of it. That is the fastest I have ever recorded on a bicycle, and it was in the group, it was an amazing sensation.
It was a long day with a break of ten going very early. All of the big teams were represented up the road so the pace was mainly brisk, but steady. From the first rollers I could feel the legs alot more than I wanted to. I was preparing for the worst and focused on staying in the top 50 and staying in. After the first KOM I was feeling more confident as I didnt really struggle to stay in position. However, after a few hours of racing and limited feeds (I only had three bottles the entire day) the fatigue and heat were setting in. With only a few km to go to the final climb up blue knob I was fighting to get near the front and cycling in the top 60 trying to hit the climb at the front to get in a good group as I knew it was going to blow to bits. I hit the climb in about 100th and after filling holes, bridging small gaps and suffering like never before this year I cleared the top in a group of about 50 with only about 40 riders up the road including the break. The last 30 km to the line were the hardest of the day with the group driving it single file down a long twisting descent and then along a heavily poppered road to the finish in Altoona.
I ended up 65th on the day which brings my GC placing up to a crit safe 91st. Bicisports performance of the day came with Trevor making the second group and finishing 40th, moving him into the top 50 overall. Bicisport also climbed into 23rd on team GC. I am now tenth Espoir on GC aswell which is a good motivator considering many of North Americas top domestic pros are here.
Tomorrow is a fast 100 circuit race, another 9 am start. On that note its time to think about hitting the hay and charging up for another day at the races.
1 comment:
Good job Per. Why such limited feeds?
Post a Comment