I planned to ride the crits at Hog Hill on Saturday and Monday. Yesterday I rode the first and tomorrow the second. Yesterday's race had a number of juniors, who went off from the gun. For the first 5 laps I rode forward in the bunch, around 8-9th wheel. I was riding hard into the corners, and starting to pedal later than others around me, but not losing position.
A break formed with our strongest rider in it, and I sat up in the bunch. I sat up too much and a gap opened up in front of me. I closed it down, but it opened again when we reached the hill. I spent the next two laps falling off the bunch, and then regaining it. I ten gave up and rode the final! 15 laps on my own. I was relatively pleased that I past most people as they were spat out of the bunch, but that was small commiseration for a lacklustre performance.
Looking back on the power file, the average watts were 306 (my threshold is 277) and normalised was 340. It is no surprise that I found it tough, but I need to raise my threshold and drop some weight (the hills killed me).
At the moment my weight is 75.5kg, which would give an average watts per kg as 4.05 for yesterday's race. If I dropped 5.5kg (70kg is my target weight - in around 5 months) I would only need an average of 283 watts to be at the same watts per kg. Only moderately above my current threshold and if I was riding in the bunch (or at least sharing the work with a couple of others) I could be under my threshold.
A small raise in my threshold would be good, as would losing the weight. Both are achievable, but not before tomorrow's race!
Today, I rode out to see the start of the Paul Simon Homes Race. I got there early and rode the course the wrong way round. Odd course - goes through traffic lights and a residential estate.
Gave me an average of 211watts and normalised power of 245watts for three hours. A fair day, all done before 10am! It had an intesity factor of 0.885, so I should be fine for racing tomorrow.
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