Lunch Ride

Z2 through 4" of snow

20 min intervals

Morning Ride

68f, 15 mph S wind. Raining at the start and the end. All aeroed out, road aero helmet, 50mm wheel due to wind. Trevor and Carter were there.
1. Tristan (Platteville fame), Corey Burton, and Connor Burton showed up. Hit the hill not too fast (headwind). Tristan started going hard, so I got on his wheel. He flagged me through and I took a pull, ensuring I wasn't dropping Trevor and Carter. I thought the hill was kind of easy, but I'm light.
2. We've got a group of about 12 at the top, and we ride to Pioneer road. I see Tristan skips his pull, then goes to the front for the corner and attacks afterwards. I was on the back and had to close lots of distance and that sucked.
3. Joel Naumann noodled off the front and no-one did anything. I started pulling up a little kicker and then realized no-one went with me. When in Rome... I started TTing. I gapped Joel but he got on my wheel. We worked together for a few mins but the group eventually caught us.
4. Tristan was acting twitchy, and I thought an attack was coming, so I got on his wheel and he went on a series of small hills. It hurt, but after a min I realized we had a significant gap. I worked with him a bit, and then we got caught ...by the Burtons. They said there was a big crash and I realized what happened to my teammates. Now I'm in the winning move with the strongest rider in the race and two teammates that can 1, 2 us. Great.
5. We keep pulling through, and for the first few mins way, way too hard. I'm trying to do pulls at 240-280 watts in the 90 elbows hoods position for 20 seconds, while Tristan takes long pulls, Corey takes long pulls, and Connor takes reasonable pulls. My average watts goes from in the 180s before the attack to 220. We eventually start going "normally" hard instead of way too hard.
6. I'm hurting, and I'm not getting any better. I sit on Tristan's wheel because I'm most scared of him, but that means that one of the Burtons can let the other one noodle of the front whenever. Connor lets Corey go just before an uphill and Tristan starts getting on his case about it. Connor says that we can let Corey go and see what happens. I think that sounds like a really bad idea. Tristan stomps up the hill to close Corey down and Connor didn't counterattack, so that was good.
7. 15 miles to go and the back/outside of my legs is getting really sore. That's bad. I start taking even more wussy pulls at 220 watts and hoping that the other 3 feel as bad as I do. I also notice that Tristan is taking 30 seconds pulls. 
8. Suddenly, Tristan slams on his brakes with Connor and me behind him. He thought we had a turn but didn't. No big deal, but Corey now has a gap. I really didn't want to, but I got aero and started pulling ...slowly bringing him back. I wanted to ask Tristan to come through, but if Connor was on my wheel, then that could screw up the chase, so I just brought him back, then rested. Ow.
9. Finally we got to the divide at 4.4 miles in. I'm still on Tristan's wheel. Tristan finishes a pull and both Burtons fly by us on the left. I see it, call it out, and Tristan puts the hammer down. This hurts, the downhill is very tortuous, it's raining, and we have a big tailwind. I'm spun out in my 50x12. They get a 4 second gap then Tristan holds the gap steady. On a less steep part, he signals for me to go through. I had no want to do so for so many reasons, but if I don't the race is over. I spin the gear up to 46 mph and hold the gap steady. That's fine, when I let Tristan through, we should catch them. I do and he flies around me stupid fast. I stand into almost a full sprint and he gaps me. At that speed though, the draft is massive, so when I was totally spun out, I got aero and caught his wheel. His acceleration pretty much closed the gap down so we all sit up.
10. There are lots of corners and ups and downs and there was much distrust in the front group. I keep checking what gear I'm in and counting shifts. When I look down, I get gapped and have to close it down. We hit a bit of an uphill and that sucked. Tristan pulls over with such force that I find myself on the front and I take a 0 watt pull (there was much distrust). I get back on his wheel.
11. Finally, we get to the short finishing straight. I'm waiting for my sprint point, get into the 14, and decide to go just a bit early (tailwind). I jump and shoot by almost on the yellow line and give it everything. The sun comes out and I can see my shadow, so when I looked down I could see if anyone was catching me. A bit of downhill, then flat ...I'm surprised no-one is passing, I hear a shout from behind. So much pain, I hit the uphill, the line is right there, wait, am I going to win? No shadow, and I hit the line. YES! (Connor's chain slipped, which threw his bike almost into Tristan and that was the shout.)
How many races on the form of my life, how many flawless executions of the entire race, and how many times did I lose because of running into people way better (or just bad luck)? Lots. I realized afterwards that had I not kept getting my butt kicked over and over I wouldn't have had the strength to win this one. 
When the Burtons were making the move to run Tristan and me down, Carter saw they were going and stood up to go with them. He was a bit too early, crossed wheels with one of them, and they moved over into his wheel. He crashed right in front of Trevor. They were OK, one cut, some bruises, some road rash. Carter learned something today.
Anyhow, team First or Last finally accomplished their namesake. Also, I have won every northern Wisport race now.
Data: 220 watt average, 24.1 mph. Sprint at 748 watts for 14 seconds hitting 41.9 mph. I "only " hit 47.2 mph on the downhill due to running out of gear (at 140 rpm).

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Andrew Arends

Grand View Road Race

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Z2

Lunch Ride

Z2 through 4" of snow

20 min intervals

Morning Ride

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