GP Crit - Masters (My Ride Report)

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/activities/8285801

I knew it was going to be a long day given the wind conditions when I walked out of work today.  Have I mentioned I hate wind?  Nevertheless, I made my way to the GP crit to test out the Masters class with my newly acquired racing license on their shorter 1.8 mile course.  

When I got out to do some warm up laps, my first one was a sighting lap just to see where the dangerous sections of the track are.  Overall, the track wasn't bad but upon heading south east on the track, the head wind was ridiculous.  Even at a moderate pace, the power outage for that section was upwards of 300 watts. Yikes!  I did 12 miles for a warm-up, and felt decent when it was time to line up. 

When the race started, I was really interested in getting in as much of the draft as possible given the solo warm-up.  However, for the most part, I didn't realize it was best at the outside part of the group during the windy sections until a few laps in.  When I would try and move out to them, it would be hard to do so but I got in a couple laps this way. 

Overall, I didn't do too bad and stayed in the pack for most of the ride.  Since I would somehow fall back toward the end of the pack on some segments, there was a lot of accordion effect going on making for some serious sprints to close the gap.  At some points, I was thinking if they sprinted again I would be done but I think us old guys had the same rest cycles where I was able to recover adequately.   I did have to close a few gaps watching people pop off in the process, but then I know there must have been a few people cutting the track since they'd be back in front of me where I had to get around them. 

On the last lap I did, trying to close on the windy section was just too much where I fell off with a few guys.  I was able to chase and pass some of the guys who had popped ahead of me, so I wasn't ready to cut the track yet to jump back in the peleton.  I wanted the workout, so I pushed on.  However, as I was approaching the front stretch just ahead of the start/finish, I could see a large group of guys stopped where it obviously was a crash with someone down.  You could see people coming off the track after where it looked like they canceled the race just after this.  Thank God!  My left calf was on the verge of going anyway, so this worked out for me. 

It was nice to be able to do more laps in the Masters class with the peleton, so if no one joins me, I'll continue to run in this class.  It's still a tough race and definitely with some strong guys out there, but I'm actually starting to enjoy the punishment.   I'll be back for more.