EV Spring Series - Zero Ave - 6th in C group

Seven and a (approx) half lap race. We got to do the 500m at 6% climb at the finish eight times. About 8k per lap with about 50m of climbing.

Two guys went off the front almost from the start, but never got more than about 20-25 seconds away from the group. Two EV guys bridged over to them just past the climb on the second lap, taking about 20-25 people with them. Unfortunately I was too far back at the time, so had to ride up to the front of that group and then bridge over to the breakaway group. That took a bit of work over a couple of minutes.

The breakaway (about 25 riders) kept away from the main group (about 40-50) for the rest of the race. I managed to get towards the front in the kilometer before the final sprint (a bunch of small climbs and turns) and was about 7th or 8th at the final corner. Bill Riley (VeloVets) managed to come around me and get a nice gap, about 5 bike lengths.. I fumbled looking for a gear to climb and sprint in and never quite managed to get up to him over the 300m to the finish. He went across in 5th place and I followed (about 2-3 bike lengths back) for 6th.

This was a better result than last year. The first time I did see the sprint, almost, from the bottom of the last hill, 300m away :-) The second time I was behind a small crash in the peleton in the last lap and got blocked (but wouldn't have done much better than the first time anyway.)

So results from last weekend and this seem to confirm better conditioning this year. PMC says I am currently about where I was by end of April last year (CTL about 70, compared about 48 last year, FTP about 305 compared to probably about 295 last year.)