GrantT
Maximum Pace
- Oct 2, 2012
- 1,913
- 1,616
Ride report from Kawasaki Marine Enduro (Strava activity). Entered the 3hr solo category. Solo and group riders all started together, but group and solo riders used different timing tags so it was easy to tell who I was really racing against. Course was pan flat on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, 5 km total with a few 90 degree corners and two 180 degree hairpins, with the second hairpin literally 100 metres from the finish line. I was lucky to line up near the front and rolled out with the fast group without much trouble. In the group those hairpins were the only times I needed to do any real work - sheltering was easy in a bunch of nearly 100 riders.
After about 40 minutes (8 laps) the rotation of the pack placed me at the front of the group. I took a bit of a turn, looked behind me and... no one was on my wheel. Two options at this point, calm myself down and return to the group, or wind myself up and do a solo to bridge to another fairly fast group about 2 km up the road. I hit out solo #yolo. I put everything on it for 2 laps with my heart rate on the limit (170s compared to 140s in the pack) at 40+ km/hr.
I made the junction, and was absolutely knackered, but had no time to rest. The new group was much, much smaller and I needed to do regular turns to keep things going. Since the course double-backed on the same roads I could see the main pack and we were only just holding them. The rest of the group saw them too, and upped the pace accordingly, which thinned the group leaving just the stronger guys. 2 hours 30 minutes in, and there was only 5 of us left, holding off a pack of still nearly 100 riders. The main group took us with just 5 laps to go. My legs were smashed, but I stayed near the front, cos they weren't that quick to be honest. Winning now came down to group sprint round a 180 hairpin plus 100 metres. 9th. Damn.
Looking back, I probably could have taken them if I'd Tony Gallopin'd it with 2 laps to go, instead of Tony Martin'ing it with 2 hour 20 minutes to go. Ah well, it was fun to try.
After about 40 minutes (8 laps) the rotation of the pack placed me at the front of the group. I took a bit of a turn, looked behind me and... no one was on my wheel. Two options at this point, calm myself down and return to the group, or wind myself up and do a solo to bridge to another fairly fast group about 2 km up the road. I hit out solo #yolo. I put everything on it for 2 laps with my heart rate on the limit (170s compared to 140s in the pack) at 40+ km/hr.
I made the junction, and was absolutely knackered, but had no time to rest. The new group was much, much smaller and I needed to do regular turns to keep things going. Since the course double-backed on the same roads I could see the main pack and we were only just holding them. The rest of the group saw them too, and upped the pace accordingly, which thinned the group leaving just the stronger guys. 2 hours 30 minutes in, and there was only 5 of us left, holding off a pack of still nearly 100 riders. The main group took us with just 5 laps to go. My legs were smashed, but I stayed near the front, cos they weren't that quick to be honest. Winning now came down to group sprint round a 180 hairpin plus 100 metres. 9th. Damn.
Looking back, I probably could have taken them if I'd Tony Gallopin'd it with 2 laps to go, instead of Tony Martin'ing it with 2 hour 20 minutes to go. Ah well, it was fun to try.
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