So I rode in another O-cup this weekend. It was my third race and to be honest my most disappointing. I didn’t really prepare for it the way I should have. I wasn’t eating the way I should have and should have spent the day before on the couch but instead ran errands and gardened.
I was up at 4:30 am and rode to Dave Chong’s place since we were heading out from there. I knew on the ride over this was not going to be a good day. It was already hinting at how hot it was going to be plus my legs didn’t really seem to be awake.
When we got to the start at Kitchener there was a a lot of riders, 85 to be exact. The lapdogs lined up early so the four of us were near the front. When the tone sounded, and all the riders pushed off and clipped in I found myself in third place which was not where I really wanted to be.
The course is fast at the beginning. A 90 degree left turn leads to this false flat followed by a descent into an S curve. The pace was fast with some sections reaching over 63km/hr! The course has a little hill which is a bit deceiving as it has a little respite followed by a kicker. After four laps the pelaton began pulling away from me.
There is no more sickening feeling than watching that gap between you and the group widen. You need to put in the extra effort to catch since we know drafting can save up to 30% of the energy. Once that gap opens however it is difficult to close and then after you buried yourself to catch up you still need to have the energy to match the groups pace. Once or twice I managed to catch up but I wasn’t able to keep up.
Once you fall off the back, you find yourself in “no man’s land”. This is a sorry place to find yourself. If a number of people have fallen off you can sometimes form a chase pelaton and work together to try and improve your times. Sadly I found myself completely alone.
Several time I considered quitting but didn’t want a DNF. Especially after the group lapped me with three laps left. However, I figured since I paid to ride, I would treat this as a grinding training ride.
As you can see, my heart rate hit threshold and stayed there even after I was descending and minimizing effort. I spend the whole ride at threshold or above burning around 1700 calories.
In the end I finished 59th out of the 85, several riders knocked out of the race due to crashes. I finished in 1:47:39, 16:14 slower than the pelaton. When I finished I was supposed to do one more lap but the O-Cup rules are everyone finished on the same lap meaning they just extended my time out. That was fine by me.