TMonk

I also raced TdM this weekend! Didn't go exactly as planned, but still I'm happy to have raced it and had a good time overall.

Sat - M 35+/45+ 1-4: outside of top 10

I started the weekend with the master's race. My first one! I knew the riders to look out for and felt fairly confident in my ability to make the selection, which always happens in this race. Except I didn't... I did attack at one point for ~1 lap and almost lost it with two corners to go. There's a strip of smooth concrete in the middle of the brick corner and if you hit it at the wrong spot, it can be quite slippery for the rear. I unclipped and was able to keep it upright, and that's 'all she wrote' for that move.

Fast fwd a few laps, it's a prime, and I'm planning on surfing wheels and countering the prime. Except a move goes on the back stretch on the right, and I'm boxed in on the left. I failed to recognize the significance of the riders in the move, and thought that I'd let others bring it back. I also thought it was a prime lap and they'd slow down, too many riders (~10) to work cooperatively, blah blah. Robbie Alvarez (Tucson winner) did an awesome job in the field of pulling at the right level of effort, discouraging attacks and going slightly slower than the split. It took a lap of that before I realized that we were screwed. Damnit. I was sort of pissed b/c I had plenty of legs and energy. Once we got to the cards at least I broke away with two other strong-ish riders and we did start to gain some ground, but didn't get back up there. Lesson learned, I needed to be more vigilant in this race.

Sat - P/1/2, DNF

OK this ride was hard AF and I felt like total crap lol. I had an hour to rest between the races but I did not recover well, I guess. It was 88 degrees at the start, my HR was jacked at the line (~40 bpm over starting a morning training ride), too much coffee, and super windy. Like 0 recovery on the long stretches. Either doing 600w or 0 the whole race. And I wasn't the only one! I think there were 20 finishers, so under half the field.

I seriously thought I was going to get dropped 20 min in. Then I felt ok, then like crap, then great (weird), then like crap... We hit the lap cards and I thought "OK, I'm going to finish the race". At 5 or 6 to go, we round corner one and it's just shattered, gaps everywhere and groups of 2 to 3. I soft pedaled the rest of the lap and pulled out after, feeling a bit dejected.

Sun P/1/2 circuit race, field finish

The forecast called for 10 degrees cooler on Sunday, and I remember feeling better on day 2 the previous year. So I did feel more optimistic for that reason. I had some more teammates come out as well, one who could go on the attack and another with a decent sprint finish so that made things more interesting. The one teammate did attack up the slight climb on lab three which lined things out and made it sorta hard which was cool.

The field split randomly after we passed a neutralized M 35+ 3/4 field on Sunday, which sorta sucked. Again I'm on the wrong side. This time, I was able to work and organize a chase and bring it back after an entire lap of chasing (~4.2 mi). We were racing like cat 3's... Guys pulling through way too hard, gapping the group, then being too gassed to pull through next rotation, noobs. Not pulling off into the wind to leave a smoother/faster line to advance, dumb stuff like that. After doing the lions share of the work, and some yelling, we were able to get back.

Not a ton to say after that, other than that I finished the race feeling fine. I almost considered attacking at a few points when I had some momentum on the field and a clear line to open road, but didn't. Maybe next time!