Morning Walk

Sub-max AdZ (near PB), extra Oh Hill No, hitting Lv 91

Warming up, legs & HR feeling great!

Tour de Beautiful 26: Horrible conditions, a wheel behind on the sprint  🥈

Higher Z2 + sprint openers x3

80mg Caf / 700 Cals / 1.3L Water
NP 365W

Elevation is cooked from the constant rain (my Garmin always looses the plot when it gets soaked), definitely more than 200vm 😂

Driving out to race start, the weather kept teetering between miserable and "maybe hopefully not too wet?". But sure enough once at Waipak the drizzle settled in and so we just had to get on with prepping in the wet & cold.

Didn't bother with a warmup and rocked up to the start line eager to get moving, neutralized through town and then once the lead car pulled off I went to the front for a few minutes to warm up and wake up the legs.

The trip out was fairly uneventful as the strong S wind meant no one was too keen to fight it solo. While there was no real issue with the descents and it seemed everyone was feeling cautious, I was even more so (having not been out on my road bike in over a week, and much longer in proper wet conditions).

Things picked up once we turned left and started the big loop, the hills got bigger and the U-19 boys were pushing hard up them. Almost cooked myself by trying to open a gap between 2 of the hills, then being flush with fatigue as we hit the second and had to respond to another surge.

Finally my Garmin beeped to say we were at the last big climb before the flat beach section. With all the rain, I could barely see anything on screen but knew this was a longer climb so settled into a seated hard pace.

Of course the young guys shot off once the climb got steeper and opened a decent gap on the rest of us, with the pack now properly strung out. I waited until I could see there was maybe 40m of climbing left in the hill, then stood up and layed on some power.

I surged past a lot of the strung out riders and was closing nicely back to the lead ~6 younger riders as we crested the hill and began the longest descent of the day. Luckily the group ahead were being sensible (we had been warned the road was in rough condition) and with them as a reference point, I was able to hold good speed on the descent and catch back on.

Once on the flats the pace eased as we were again going directly into a headwind, several riders caught back on and our front group swelled to about 13 or so. Managed to get some good rotations going to share the windbreaking duties, but took a few tries (and fell apart a couple times) as cohesion in our group wasn't amazing.

Mercifully we turned out of the headwind at the base of the loop, then turning again to get a proper tailwind as we started our way back. At one point along, one of the younger WCNI lads managed to get a little gap and he did really well to extend that out quite a bit! Our bunch gave chase but were hindered by the other WCNI guys clogging up the rotations and slowing us up.

Nearing that final big climb (~150m), we could see the WCNI rider just starting the climb and I figured it was at least 20~30secs on us. However with our strong group I was figuring on that closing significantly, and sure enough the U-19 lads attacked the hill hard.

Managed to mostly stay with them, but as we crested the hill the WCNI rider was just ahead and was just being caught by two U-19 riders. Myself, Robert and another rider were just behind (maybe ~20m) and the rest of the bunch strung out behind us. I kept up my power over the top and went to the front of my group of 3, getting us up to speed but was soon spun out as we hit >55kph. I eased off and caught my breath, letting the others pull but the gap to the 3 ahead wasn't really closing. Finally I pulled up from behind and closed the gap with what felt like a massive effort at ridiculous cadence, but it ended up just being 30secs @ 520W but at 105-110rpm.

A couple more riders managed to bridge up over the next few mins, but then the young riders began attacking and making moves. Nothing stuck but there was some hard accelerations and I put in a dig or two of my own.

With 15K to go, we hit the final right turn of the day to come into Waipak a different way. I was sitting at the back of the pack and clearly saw the lead car make the turn (and marshalls were out on the road). However it seems some of the front riders didn't and kept going straight, only to realize late and attempt to turn. Unsurprisingly a few slid out and hit the deck, while the rest of us took the turn wide and slow with no issues.

With the tailwind still pushing us along, I went to the front and pushed the pace almost all the rest of the time back into Waipak as I hoped this would keep the attacks in check and tire some legs.

As we came into town, I knew from past years that we make a few turns and then suddenly the finish line appears around one of the bends (as there's no signage or 1k to go markers). I stayed on the front and upped to ~340W, suddenly a bend in the road and I could see the trailer/road cones at the finish!

Already in my top gear, I stood and sprinted hard to hopefully get the jump on anyone caught unawares. Felt like I was dialed in those first dozen seconds, rocketing along and I couldn't hear/see anyone behind.

Then slowly a wheel came up on my left, creeping up and coming equal with me. I tried to spin faster but couldn't seem to generate any more speed, and the other rider kept inching past to cross the finish just barely in front.

Definitely a bit frustrating to miss out on the top spot, needed an extra gear or two and I reckon I could've sealed the deal. Luckily it won't be long until my new bike (with proper road gearing!) is ready, so then I won't have any excuses 🙃

Still the day was good fun even in these conditions, had a blast and massive respect to all those who toughed it out in the cold, wind and rain!

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Alexander Glenn

Tour de Beautiful 26: Horrible conditions, a wheel behind on the sprint 🥈

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Morning Walk

Sub-max AdZ (near PB), extra Oh Hill No, hitting Lv 91

Warming up, legs & HR feeling great!

Tour de Beautiful 26: Horrible conditions, a wheel behind on the sprint 🥈

Higher Z2 + sprint openers x3

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