2023 Boulevard Road Race, 4/29/23. Category 1-3 35/40+, race together, scored separate. 1st/5 in the 35, 3rd out of 12 total. Turns out a hard, climb heavy road race in remote San Diego county doesn't draw a big crowd! (too bad)
The course has a 22 mile lap with about 1,800' of elevation in the second half of each lap. The start/finish is at the top of the climb. The climb has a stair-step profile that never exceeds 7% for extended periods, but wears you down after a while. There is an intersection with a right-hand turn about halfway through the climb where the wind became a tailwind, and the temperatures reached a "cool" mid/high 80's. The bottom of the climb was 91-92 F, and the heat certainly played a major factor in the race for all.
The first lap was fairly tame. One the first half of the climb, my heart rate was a bit higher than I'd like, which I chalked up to nerves, but later attributed to the extreme heat. In the second half, I did some pulling on the climb at ~350 or so (~5.3 w/kg for me) for the last kilometer to stretch things out. A friend (Adam) in the 40+ race attacked over the top and I joined him. It was fairly short lived, but given the lack of cooperation on lap 1, seemed like a good idea.
On the second (penultimate) lap, the eventual race winner (a 40+ racer) made a huge attack in the second half of the climb, and only Adam and I were able to join. I told him that I'd work once my HR went down a bit, which never really happened. It was hot as hell and this guy also just didn't slow down.... he was very fit. He had me riding at threshold on his wheel for nearly 10 minutes, which did not do great things to my HR in that heat. I eventually had to just let the wheel go, as did Adam. Adam seemed to be doing better than me in the heat, but recognized that he would get to the next climb much faster with me, so he shepherded me over the final 2k, where my HR was at threshold, but my power was low z4.
On the first half of the last lap, Adam and I worked well together and surely put more time into the field. At one point the race official told us the leader was 40 s up, there was a lone chaser
4 minutes behind, and a group of 5-6 a couple minutes behind that. Wow.
At the start of the final 11 miles climb, I let the wheel go instantly and was on my own. I knew that I had a podium or even a win in the bag, and that I had minutes up on any sort of chase, but man was it awful. I could not make more than z3 power without my HR getting dangerously close to threshold. On the short mini descents my HR would come back down, but in that heat, as soon as I started digging, my HR was just not doing great things. At one point, I saw a rider from the P/1/2 field standing on the side of the road and cooling off under a tree.
I was pretty mentally dejected and just wanted it to be over with TBH. If I was out of podium placing at the time, my motivation would have been low and I would have been in a fairly dark place mentally. I was out of water. Towards the end of the final climb, I actually was able to see the first chaser on the road who was starting to gain on me, but fortunately I had enough breathing room to cross the line without having to hammer. To be honest, hammering probably would have been dangerous at that point due to my heat exhaustion.
So in retrospect, yeah it kinda felt more like surviving than winning. I was dropped from the front of the race and had 1-2 minutes between me and adjacent finishers. My performance on the day was more limited by heat management than it was by my physical fitness, but I suppose that was the case for all racers that weren't exceptionally heat-adapted. I do think that the best rider on the day won. If it was cooler, maybe Adam and I could have stayed with him over the top, which means the race would have played out on the final climb. If he did that again, I'm not sure I would have been able to match it, and maybe I would have raced for second overall vs Adam, but still win the 35+ age group. So, really it wouldn't have been that different, it just would have felt more like a race, than like a survival slog lol.
Fortunately for me, the field was just large enough (5 starters in 35+) for me to collect several more points towards my cat 1 upgrade. I am now quite close, and will be focused on earning that final point by the end of my road season.