6 November-
I came into this race hungry! Getting taken out at the crit after riding really strong was frustrating. I wanted to end the season on a strong note so I put in a big week after my crash and had some solid workouts. The week leading into this race went quite well also. The other objective for this race was to score as many points for our team so that we could win the team event as well. Well this race is in Korea, and well of course it had to have some weird rules to it. So this blog may be a little long trying to explain how the race worked.
The race was going to be "net time" (
Net Time: Participant's unofficial time from when they cross the starting line until they cross the finish line.). What this meant was they were going off of the time you crossed the line at the start to when you crossed it at the finish. Your time didn't start till you crossed the line. At least I knew this going into the race unlike at the hill climb back in April. Then on top of that there was going to be a timing stop point at the top of the first climb, then your time would resume at the bottom of the hill. Someone had died a few years back on this descent so they wanted to make it a safe neutral descent with people not racing down the hill. At the bottom your time would resume and you would race to the finish. The person with the lowest combined time would win.
They started the race in age group waves, not a mass start. Well that is how we thought it would work. Come to find out the waves ended up just going one after another with no separation. I waited about 15 seconds after Derek started, he was in my opinion my biggest competition in the Age Group. He was yelling at me to go thinking I didn't know we were starting, but in all actuality I was "playing" the system. I had been screwed by the Korean system in the past, partially my own fault on not knowing the rules. So I took full advantage of it this time. Took a few minutes to get to the main group as they actually went out quite hard, but used the slingshot method and slowly worked my way up. We had about 10K of flatish section and then we hit the first climb. It was 8.6 miles long and gained 1,800ft. The goal was to put 15seconds into Derek and anyone else in my AG. One guy got up the climb about 6 seconds ahead of me and I was about 6 seconds ahead of Derek, which put me 21 seconds up at that point.
We waited at the top and got a decent size group before we descended. It was cold and rainy so I put a garbage bag on to use as a wind breaker. It worked for the most part but I was COLD! We got to the bottom and had a group of about 15. We got to the timing mat and I waited once again, but this time there were guys there with wands trying to swipe our numbers(that is where the timing chip was). I thought it was a backup system as they also had a timing system set up. Well this is where Derek got some of the time back as I got swiped way before him, probably those 15 seconds, so much for playing the system at the start. So off we went.
The second climb is where I had planned to attack to break the group up a bit. I got up the road and probably opened up about a 30 second to 45 second gap. I held that gap till about 3/4 of the way up the climb then Mr. Lee(the guy who was on our team during the TdK and prior Olympian, who is also 50) and Derek came by me. I stayed with Derek up the rest of the climb and then we were off on the downhill. We ended up with 5 in our group and we started working really well together. The goal was to now hammer to the finish. I had Elmer from my team with me and Derek had a teammate, and then Mr. Lee was riding for himself. With about 10k to go I talked with Elmer about our plan. He was solo in his AG and I convinced him to lead me out when we got to the home stretch. Derek thought I was talking about breaking away and got a little pissed and told us to stay with the group. We all kept working hard and with about 1k to go Elmer got to the front and drilled it hard out of the last corner. I sat on his wheel and with about 500m to go he came off the front. I knew this was a little far out for me but I had to give it ago, well I thought I did. All of the sudden Mr. Lee comes from 3rd wheel back and attacks like a bat out of hell. I got on his wheel luckily and held on till 200m to go and came around him. He performed a perfect un intentional lead out for me and it worked liked it was planned out ahead of time.
So with 200m to go I was out of the saddle staring down the finish line and well I was first across the line :) But with Net timing you never know if you actually won the race or your AG. When the results came out I was the Age Group winner, but we never saw overall placings. I know there were a few guys that had "faster" overall times than me, but we weren't racing for overall placing we were racing for AG. I still feel like I was the strongest guy on the day and raced really smart. I think I shocked quite a few people who hadn't raced with me since the TdK and opened up some eyes.
Overall it was a great day. I got home that night and this was the quote on FB
"Picked
up my first Road Race Win today! At a loss for words, other than the
fact that the US Military is leaving an impact on the Korean Cycling
scene. The only 2 races in 3 weekends WE have put those colors on the
podium! Proud to serve and even prouder to represent those great colors!
Congrats to everyone else on Team Rapha STORCK for a great performance this weekend!"
It was a great weekend. So what did I win? 44kg's of rice! Yes, that is a LOT of rice! Our team actually won a total of 194kg's of rice, 428lbs! We are all doing different things with it and some is going to an orphanage. I donated some to a Korean lady who cleans our work building and she broke down and was so grateful for the rice, it is touching to see someone appreciate the small things in life to me, when they are big things in life to her. Our team ended up taking 2nd Overall, another Korean crazy thing. We had 6 people which accumulated: 2 wins and 3 2nd place finishes in our respective Age Groups. By the numbers we were the strongest team, but we got beat by a team who had 50 riders, and each rider got a point for finishing so they beat us. It was weird that they didn't cap the amount of members but O well.
Thanks for all of the support from everyone. Special thanks goes out to Jeremy Moon our Team Manager, Pablo the team owner and Elmer for a great early lead out. Then to Alex for driving and finishing the race in the horrible conditions to get our team points. To Chae, Megan and Stephen for all getting on the podium and getting us those needed points!
For those of you interested in the ride data, here is the garmin file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/126814746activity/126814746
and for those of you Power folks here are the power numbers are at the bottom below the pictures:
Coming up the second climb with Derek pulling me in.
Right next to Derek further up the 2nd climb.
On the 1st descent with my garbage bag. Come to think of it I should of just put it inside the jersey ;)
Right before Elmer came to the front to lead out.
The sprint finish, Mr. Lee on my right side, Dereks teammate behind me and Derek back in 4th and then Elmer exhausted from his great leadout
After the finish just rolling through.
The Podium with the great colors of U.S. Military Cycling on TOP!
4 of the 44kg of rice. Derek is bringing me the rest when he comes down for Thanksgiving.
Entire workout (255 watts):
Duration: 2:15:46
Work: 2021 kJ
TSS: 199.9 (intensity factor 0.958)
Norm Power: 307
VI: 1.2
Pw:HR: -4.18%
Pa:HR: -30.78%
Distance: 43.89 mi
Elevation Gain: 3417 ft
Elevation Loss: 3393 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (19 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 991 255 watts
Heart Rate: 40 237 128 bpm
Cadence: 9 129 87 rpm
Speed: 0 49 19.5 mph
Pace 1:14 0:00 3:04 min/mi
Altitude: 339 2240 1021 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1711 253 lb-in
Temperature: 44.6 53.6 49.9 Fahrenheit
Peak 5s (931 watts):
Duration: 0:05
Work: 4 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: 0.96%
Pa:HR: -5.71%
Distance: 208 ft
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 837 991 931 watts
Heart Rate: 156 156 156 bpm
Cadence: 98 109 104 rpm
Speed: 27.2 30 28.9 mph
Pace 2:00 2:12 2:04 min/mi
Altitude: 368 368 368 ft
Crank Torque: 707 828 759 lb-in
Temperature: 53.6 53.6 53.6 Fahrenheit
Peak 10s (744 watts):
Duration: 0:10
Work: 7 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: 40.33%
Pa:HR: -3.78%
Distance: 430 ft
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 445 991 744 watts
Heart Rate: 156 156 156 bpm
Cadence: 98 111 107 rpm
Speed: 27.2 31.1 29.5 mph
Pace 1:56 2:12 2:02 min/mi
Altitude: 368 368 368 ft
Crank Torque: 339 828 593 lb-in
Temperature: 53.6 53.6 53.6 Fahrenheit
Peak 20s (641 watts):
Duration: 0:20
Work: 12 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: 29.42%
Pa:HR: -2.75%
Distance: 890 ft
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 254 991 641 watts
Heart Rate: 156 161 158 bpm
Cadence: 90 112 102 rpm
Speed: 27.2 31.7 30.2 mph
Pace 1:54 2:12 1:59 min/mi
Altitude: 368 368 368 ft
Crank Torque: 191 920 535 lb-in
Temperature: 53.6 53.6 53.6 Fahrenheit
Peak 30s (600 watts):
Duration: 0:30
Work: 17 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: 5.03%
Pa:HR: -6.32%
Distance: 0.249 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (0 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 254 991 600 watts
Heart Rate: 155 161 158 bpm
Cadence: 90 112 99 rpm
Speed: 26.2 31.9 29.7 mph
Pace 1:53 2:18 2:01 min/mi
Altitude: 368 368 368 ft
Crank Torque: 191 920 514 lb-in
Temperature: 53.6 53.6 53.6 Fahrenheit
Peak 1min (463 watts):
Duration: 1:00
Work: 27 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: -72.19%
Pa:HR: -17.06%
Distance: 0.452 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 10 ft
Grade: -0.6 % (-14 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 182 991 463 watts
Heart Rate: 148 161 154 bpm
Cadence: 54 112 95 rpm
Speed: 22.2 31.9 27.1 mph
Pace 1:53 2:42 2:13 min/mi
Altitude: 368 383 371 ft
Crank Torque: 162 920 408 lb-in
Temperature: 53.6 53.6 53.6 Fahrenheit
Peak 2min (408 watts):
Duration: 2:00
Work: 48 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: 24.8%
Pa:HR: 7.81%
Distance: 0.417 mi
Elevation Gain: 161 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 7.8 % (171 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 218 551 408 watts
Heart Rate: 98 135 114 bpm
Cadence: 84 106 94 rpm
Speed: 9.9 15.7 12.3 mph
Pace 3:50 6:02 4:52 min/mi
Altitude: 680 850 770 ft
Crank Torque: 179 520 369 lb-in
Temperature: 50 50 50.0 Fahrenheit
Peak 5min (385 watts):
Duration: 5:00
Work: 115 kJ
TSS: 12 (intensity factor 1.199)
Norm Power: 384
VI: 1
Pw:HR: 22.8%
Pa:HR: 24.99%
Distance: 0.965 mi
Elevation Gain: 383 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 7.6 % (388 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 218 556 385 watts
Heart Rate: 98 153 129 bpm
Cadence: 76 109 89 rpm
Speed: 7.8 17.5 11.4 mph
Pace 3:26 7:40 5:16 min/mi
Altitude: 678 1065 879 ft
Crank Torque: 179 573 368 lb-in
Temperature: 50 50 50.0 Fahrenheit
Peak 10min (360 watts):
Duration: 10:00
Work: 215 kJ
TSS: 21.8 (intensity factor 1.143)
Norm Power: 366
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: 27.73%
Pa:HR: -1.44%
Distance: 2.144 mi
Elevation Gain: 680 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 6.0 % (682 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 131 627 360 watts
Heart Rate: 98 167 142 bpm
Cadence: 74 109 90 rpm
Speed: 7.8 25 12.6 mph
Pace 2:24 7:43 4:46 min/mi
Altitude: 678 1358 1041 ft
Crank Torque: 114 670 340 lb-in
Temperature: 48.2 50 49.5 Fahrenheit
Peak 20min (350 watts):
Duration: 20:00
Work: 420 kJ
TSS: 41.6 (intensity factor 1.117)
Norm Power: 357
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: 14.56%
Pa:HR: 22.41%
Distance: 4.039 mi
Elevation Gain: 1335 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 6.3 % (1336 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 131 627 350 watts
Heart Rate: 98 170 150 bpm
Cadence: 64 109 86 rpm
Speed: 5.3 25 11.8 mph
Pace 2:24 11:22 5:06 min/mi
Altitude: 673 2008 1360 ft
Crank Torque: 114 670 348 lb-in
Temperature: 48.2 50 48.9 Fahrenheit
Peak 30min (320 watts):
Duration: 32:07
Work: 576 kJ
TSS: 56.2 (intensity factor 1.067)
Norm Power: 341
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: 18.72%
Pa:HR: 41.62%
Distance: 5.428 mi
Elevation Gain: 1654 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Grade: 5.8 % (1661 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 793 320 watts
Heart Rate: 64 170 141 bpm
Cadence: 11 117 86 rpm
Speed: 0 25 11.7 mph
Pace 2:24 0:00 5:09 min/mi
Altitude: 550 2211 1491 ft
Crank Torque: 0 761 316 lb-in
Temperature: 46.4 50 48.4 Fahrenheit
Peak 60min (282 watts):
Duration: 1:00:12
Work: 1016 kJ
TSS: 99.3 (intensity factor 0.996)
Norm Power: 319
VI: 1.13
Pw:HR: 19.06%
Pa:HR: -47.38%
Distance: 21.641 mi
Elevation Gain: 1438 ft
Elevation Loss: 1920 ft
Grade: -0.4 % (-488 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 991 282 watts
Heart Rate: 71 188 131 bpm
Cadence: 15 129 86 rpm
Speed: 0 49 21.5 mph
Pace 1:14 0:00 2:47 min/mi
Altitude: 356 1678 734 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1711 285 lb-in
Temperature: 48.2 53.6 51.8 Fahrenheit
