WTNC - off the back again

I took most of a week off two weeks ago. A bit of a virus, work etc... Which killed me for WestSide. Just couldn't convince myself to get out of bed. 

But then felt better two days later and had a great WTNC last week. The Cat 4 group averaged about 41kph and I managed to stay with them until the last lap. Positive TSB probably helped.

Tonight was not so good. Smaller group, slower. But that gave me ideas, I tried getting to the front to see if I could stay there for the climb. Yes I could. The bad news they rang the bell for the preme and that meant the next lap was fast and I was out of breath and then out the back.

What is the distance from last turn to top?


Was discussing the length of the climb with Ryan C. and Mark W. before the race. Ryan thinking (for him) there was some advantage to going for a preme from just before the corner. If you are in the first few riders around the turn then you get an advantage, possibly a small gap and then you should be able to sprint to the finish from there.

The distances, to the turn circle,  just over 100m, to the finish line about 170 (total about 270m). Another 200 or so to the top.

Overall about one minute for the whole climb at a reasonable pace.

I expect a "winning" sprint from the turn to the finish line would need to be well under 30 seconds. 

Which means probably within the AWC (anaerboic work capacity) for many people. Pretty much the same as a two lap final sprint on the track. Doable, but only just....  Well actually,  not quite for C, barely for B, and typical for A. Which kind of delineates quantitatively the difference between the abilities in the different ability categories (read novice / Cat 4 for C, Cat 4 / Cat 3 for B and Cat 1/2 for A.)

One of the interesting things I have learned is that (at least for me...) just following the conservative follow at the back and suffering a bit from the rubber band effect at the bottom corner still leaves me in better shape overall than attempting to get towards the front by working along SW Marine then sagging back during the climb. 

When done properly (last week, not this week) I hit the bottom turn with a heart rate at about 152 and by the top I'm at 166. If I do an extra 10-20 seconds work to get forward in the group, I start at about 160-162 and am at about 170 by the time I get to the top. 

And that means over several laps I start getting even less recovery, so hit the bottom higher, and end up spit out the back...