Race the Ridge RR - too fast for me

I went out at a reasonable pace for the first lap... I.e. something that I could have replicated five times if I had to. And that amounted to 40TSS points... and got me well and truly dropped...

I did the big climb in just about exactly five minutes, NPavg 381. At a guess the lead Cat 4/5 riders did it in about four minutes. I could have kept up (I think) for at least the first lap. But I was fairly certain that above these numbers it would be a stretch to another four laps the same. And even at this slow speed the total race would have been about 200 TSS points.. Which would have left my legs toasted for tomorrow.

So I very quickly turned the pace down. The Cat 3's (five minute head start) caught us in lap 3. Their lead group was down to about 15 (from 30 starters.) Very quickly after that the lead group of about 5-6 Cat 4/5 riders caught us as well. They where definitely less than five minutes behind the Cat 3's at that point (i.e. they where catching up...) The rest of the Cat 3's and Cat 4/5's where spread across the course in mostly small bunches. Except for one largish group of Cat 4/5's (about 10-15).

Now if I don't do well in the TT tomorrow I will be peeved.