Mike's Bike Blog

When I got to the start there was a hint of sun breaking through the clouds. I foolishly thought the weather would hold, I later found out that is the nasty trick that Walburg likes to play. By the time I rolled up to the start the cloud cover rolled in along with dark menacing clouds. Then came the rain. It rained just enough to get the roads wet and cause the back wheels to kick up a stream of water and gravel pelting the rider behind. My goal for this race was to ride in the pack as long as possible. On the way out I was situated in the middle of the pack, but I was on the far right of the road hugging the shoulder. I was on the lookout for opportunities to move up. I had to warn a couple of guys from weaving into me. The worst was the guy in front of me, he would stand up on the rollers, but instead of pushing harder before standing and throwing his bike forward he'd just stand up and slow down and go backwards. On a couple of occasions I almost ran right into the back of him. After the second time I had enough following him so I made my way over to the far left.

From here I was able to work my way up the field and found myself about 3 rows back. Unfortunately the way the wind was coming I was totally exposed and couldn't get behind anybody's wheel. I was just hanging out into the wind. Right before Schwertner it happened, the pack surges and I couldn't match. I think this is because I was pushing 311 watts on average while I was stuck unprotected.

As I made the turn in Schwertner there was one other rider that got spit out that I rode with. We were joined by one other rider. They were hauling, I had a hard time to stay on their wheel. The 3 of us started to get strung out. Then it happened, my legs refreshened up and I got my second wind. Or I finally got warmed up. I passed one of the riders and pressed on towards the other rider who got up to another rider and they were doing a 2 man echelon. I could still see the main pack up ahead. Of course it's flat and no trees so you can see for miles.

I made the hard right turn onto 972 for the final 8 miles. As I made the turn it hit me. The wind gave me a nasty right cross. It hit me right on the chin, I was lucky not to go down. To let you know how bad it was, on one down hill section I had to get off the saddle to keep momentum, it was as if I was climbing up a hill. I was slowly closing the gap on the riders in front of me. As we were getting into the rollers I finally caught up to one of the two. He had popped off the back from his companion. Onward I pushed and caught up with the other rider #504. For the next 6 miles we worked together in a 2 man echelon. There was a point near the finish I lost him, but he was able to bridge up to me. We worked together till a bit after the 1K marker and then climbed the final hill to the finish as all bets were off. I finished in front of him. He thanked me for working with him and I thanked him. Without working together I still might be out on the course. It was not fun to be out in the stiff wind by yourself.

In the end my normalized power was 274 watts and 1191 kJ burned. I placed 36th finishing in front of a few others. Tomorrow is the Pure Austin Road Race my race starts at 8am.