Day 14

I am posting day 14 on day 15. Sorry for the delay. Day 14 started GREAT, ended so-so. The ride was awesome. We did a 73.5 mi ride, 85% of it was on the race course, with another 2,000 feet of climbing. We rolled through the stage start, conquered the Cat 3 climb, and rolled through to the feed zone to watch the race shortly past the feed zone. The pace was hot, we averaged 21 mph across the 73 miles. For a normal club ride, this is a pretty good pace. Including a Cat 3 climb in the mix as well makes me feel pretty good about the ride. I actually feel I am getting stronger through the last couple of weeks. I took enough rest days (2) to recover from the extremely hard rides to make the longer days with moderate climbing a day on which I can get high productivity from the legs.

So what is a Cat 3 climb, relative to the monsters I climbed earlier in the week. It is climbing 1200 feet in elevation on a 3.0 mile climb, an average grade of 8%. It is short in length, steep at the beginning, softens at the end. It was a great climb and I felt really comfortable. I think my average speed was in the 6-8 mph range, which is pretty good, for me.

The ego boosting event of the day came prior to the climb. We steamed along at a strong pace of 22-24 mph on the mostly flat route. I was throwing water down regularly, but there was no break in the pace. At about mile 56, my bladder finally cried mercy. I pulled off the back of our 12 man group and stopped to relieve the bladder pressure. I was a little discouraged because I believed there would be no way to catch back on. Another rider, Ben, had the same idea, but perhaps a mile or so earlier. As I was getting back on the bike, he was passing me. I jumped to his wheel and suggested we hammer as hard as we can to catch back on. He agreed. We took turns mashing the pedals for 2.5 miles at an average pace of 25-27 mph, 1 km of which was a modest climb. We caught the group of 10 who were well up the road. We were impressed with ourselves and the group was surprise to see us. While pleased to be back on the group at mile 58.5, the climb started at mile 60.5. Only 2 miles of recovery, at the same hot pace we maintained for the first 56 miles prior to the climb. So, not really a great opportunity to recover. I felt great on the climb and rode hard. Very pleased for what I determined was my last ride of the trip.

The so-so part of the day was the hotel in Cleremont-Ferand (sp?). It was a Holiday in Express, ugh! It was a room for 2, with an added bed. It was crowded for 2, let alone 4. We piled in, but determined pretty quickly that this was not the place for us. We called an audible on the play and began planning the deviation to the travel plan before dinner. More to come on the updated plan.