Thursday, July 21, 2011

Road Atlanta Circuit Race Report

Date: Wednesday July 20th
Time: 5pm 
Distance: 20 miles
Goal: Under 1 hour

Well, outside the sun coming out and one bastard of a hill this was a fairly nice course.

I knew during the first lap (2.5 miles mind you) with the group I could not continue to average 24 mph so shortly after the first lap I was unceremoniously dropped.  I proceeded to ride the next 6 laps alone.  I am used to riding alone in triathlon, however this constitutes a ton more work for a lone rider.  I wanted to finish all 7 laps so I had to race my own race.

The Climb
I climbed this section on each of the 7 laps.  It was barley 2/10 mile but it was 100 sharp vertical feet up.  I rode the climb on pride. I repeated to myself during this climb... I will not walk I will ride.  Needless to say this one climb took my average speed down to 18.6 mph.  Without this one climb I averaged 22mph.

The other 2.25 Miles

The rest of the course was rolling hills that I was able to gain momentum on the downhills and power on the uphills. The last mile of the lap was a nice downhill to a 1/4 mile false flat before "ascending" into that climb again.

Overall 

I liked the race, but I need to master very steep uphills.  Total 17.5 miles in 56:22 / 18.6mph average.  Place 47/68

Next up I need to get my Crit on...

1 comments:

Carolina John said...

Nice! way to hit a good goal time. And I know dealing with that heat wasn't easy either. Good luck in the crit!