Tonight I was out NW of Calgary taking part in Crankmasters' Wednesday Night racing series. Speed Theory actually put on this race and it was very enjoyable. An eight kilometre loop was designed in the Bearspaw area just outside Calgary's city limits. We did one lap to preview the course, a one lap individual time trial to seed the riders and then a three lap team race.
I felt good during the time trial and I think I pushed fairly well. My data seems to tell another story. I finished the 8 km in 14 minutes for an average speed of 34 km/h with a top speed of 50.5 km/h. I averaged 173 bpm with a maximum of 180.
The road race was three laps; the team leaders won points based on their order finishing the second lap and the team's finish would be determined by their fourth rider across the line at the end of the race. The first lap was supposed to be neutral but there were still people at the front pushing the pace. There's definitely an advantage to being in a pack because I didn't feel like I was working very hard, my pulse averaged 153 bpm, yet the average speed was 34.5 km/h; 0.5 km/h faster than my time trial. The second lap was even faster. Team Purple was reduced to just three riders in the main pack as we started the second lap. One team mate had already recognized we had lost our important fourth rider but I'm not a strong enough rider to go back and pull someone up to the main pack. As we headed towards the end of the second lap, I started to move forward so I could lead out my team leader for the sprint. Instead, he attacked with 500 m to go and opened up a large gap on the field. I sat up and crossed the line at an easy pace but still averaged 35.6 km/h for that lap. We had three team mates and we needed our fourth. We rode a very easy pace until we were finally caught by our fourth. Unfortunately, he had sat up to wait for our fifth member. We decided to get our whole team assembled and finish together. I was surprised that I could do most of the work for our team to finish the race. The last lap averaged just 27.8 km/h. All told, the race averaged 32.3 km/h over 24 km with a maximum speed of 55.7 km/h. I had an average heart rate of 155 bpm and hit 175 bpm on the second lap.
It was a fun format and I enjoyed staying in the pack and feeling good for the entire race. I wish I could feel like on of the stronger members of the main field in all my races.
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