Sunday, March 27, 2011

Aldergrove by the numbers (never let a time trialist get off the front with less than 15km to go!)

Jumped at the top of the small hill (entrance to parking lot) with 2.5 laps to go. Got 300m gap by the time I hit Zero ave, never saw the pack again :-)


They finished about 2-3 minutes after I did. The A's helped a bit by coming past the C's just after I got off and that probably helped confuse and confound them. I kept thinking I was about to get caught, sit up, and then it's a bunch of A's. First the break. The the main group. I actually had to play cat and mouse with their main group for most of a lap, pass them on the downhill ("neutral, single C break coming through") and then getting caught on the small hill, then pass them again, then get passed on the 272nd climb... Didn't take any advantage drafting wise but certainly they where a nice carrot to pace myself from.


My average speed wasn't that high actually, 34.6. Which was very close to the overall average for the C's to where I jumped. But in fact they had dropped down to about 33 for the preceding two laps. I was watching the average speed. We peaked at about 35.2kph at the end of lap 3, but then the overall average started falling. So I figured the main riders where starting to slow down. With 3 to go slowly started moving to the front, getting there at the bottom of the small climb. Got to the top of that about 4th or 5th wheel back, jumped and didn't look back until Zero.

2 comments:

Mark said...

nice job!

Anonymous said...

Nice work, Stuart. I've seen you try it before (just last year, wasn't it)and get caught, so I'm happy for you to have stayed away...well away, apparently.

I'm riding again, but have some work cut out for me after 4 months off the bike. I've been riding on the North Shore and sitting on any fast groups that come by me. I'll try to start climbing soon.

The glute is still in spasm, but I hope to have it all fixed by the end of April. Don't target me as your TT or climbing competition this year, but I am still aiming for 3:45 on the Gran Fondo.

Congratulations on a great win.

Bill Riley