Pigeon Lake road race

I was out at Mulhurst at Pigeon Lake on Sunday. The ERTC hosted its big, yearly race. Due to construction, they weren't racing around the lake like usual. I've been riding a bit but, once again, haven't been training super-seriously. My weight-lifting has taken a hit due to some hip problems for the past month. It hurts constantly and sometimes I cannot walk well but it feels good to cycle. I've had a few chiropractic adjustments but nothing has worked yet.

My race started out well. I stayed towards the front of the pack but nicely sheltered as we were lead through the town towards the main loop of the race. I can see from my data that my heart rate was low, for me, because the pace was slow as we headed into the wind. One of my teammates came up beside me and tried to encourage me to go to the front with him and push the pace but I knew that wasn't a good strategy for me. If I'm ever going to do well in a race, it's because I hid in the pack and waited for the final sprint.

Despite feeling well, I got dropped by the pack at 30 minutes. We were just finishing the southern portion of the loop where there were a few little climbs when someone just a few riders in front of me lost their chain. A few of us on the left side of the pack had to almost stop as this rider lost speed and swerved out of the pack. A climb, a gap and a headwind and I was done. I tried to get back on but the pack slowly pulled away. Five minutes later, two Juventus riders passed me and I joined them. 15 minutes later as we turned south on our first loop, we picked up my teammate, Bruce. Despite feeling good along the northern part of the loop and even pulling my little group up the climbs, I started to tire and hide at the back on the southern part of our second loop. I lost contact with them just before turning north again and rode alone for the last 45 minutes. I was passed by four riders after I left the main loop and headed for the finish but I was able to get back ahead of one of those riders in the last kilometre to ensure I wouldn't finish last.

I covered the 62 km course in 1:53 for a pace of 32.78 km/h with 479 m of climbing. My average heart rate was 163 bpm and I hit a maximum of 185 bpm. I ate a CLIF bar, a package of CLIF bloks and had one CLIF shot before the race. I was drinking water from my bottles. I don't think I was running out of energy when I was dropped but it was about 20°C, sunny and windy and I was feeling quite thirsty. I don't think I had drunk 500 mL of water before I was dropped. I don't think my weight-lifting at home has been very effective but I think it was helping me. Having worse than usual hip and back pain since the end of April stopped my weight-lifting and has affected some of my other training. My back did stiffen up towards the end of my race but my hip felt okay. I'm going to seek some more answers about my hip problem soon.