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Tsukuba Eight Hours Endurance Race 3. May

Hi Mob,

Yes, would have been good to have been battling this out with the TCC team.
Our club makes teams based on current form and availability. Most likely will be different riders doing this next time. First time for me to be in a mixed team as well.

We had a plan drawn up based on each riders abilities and form.
I was scheduled to do 11 lap shifts (3 of) and we had leeway to do more or less based on what was happening. If we were in a good group, stay out longer..if we were struggling get off. I usually get slower throughout the day and didn't want to lose time so my shifts ended up being 11, 10 and 7. The last 7th lap I did I got dropped off the fast bunch and I was going to go by myself as I thought it may be too early to change...but then realized it may be a good time to change anyway and a fresher rider would have a better chance of jumping on the next fast group so I gracefully exited...
We had 2 mini shifts to just get out there and power away.....a 1 lap shift at the start and a 4 lap shift just before the final 30 minute cut off...

With our club fielding 12 teams and my training team fielding 9...there was always help to be had.... I was a bit disappointed in the end though that 4 of our guys almost sabotaged our win by drawing in the second group in the last 30 minutes... They should have been supporting my team. :eek:

A few guys did longer than planned shifts and we were right on target throughout the day. We planned for 15 change overs and that's exactly what we did. We knew that 15 change overs (or less) was the usual count for good teams that did well.
My heart rate data had me averaging 40kph on the first two shifts and 39kph on the 3rd shift. Not once did I have to ride alone. As you can see on the video, I'm good at wheel sucking. :bike:
Our strongest rider did 4 shifts with the first one 19 laps.

They key is the first hour and then consistency for the rest of the day...Having a fresh rider for the last 30 minutes stops you losing places then as well. A change over loses you about 40 seconds...don't change over too much. People should be able to ride at near their max for 25 minutes....30 to 35 will put you in a better winning situation.
 
Good info on the strategy. Being able to get into a fast group seems to make a big difference to the times, especially if you manage to hang onto one that is too fast for you to take turns at the front...

Are you doing the Saitama TT next week?

Yep, in the next grade up this time. Goal is to podium, but my time from last year would have only put me in 10th in this category. Not sure if I can improve on that, especially as they got rid of the 20km for the unregistered riders, so more competition... Is your Semas guy grading up too?
 
Sorry, not sure which race he picked...
He's done a lot of riding this year but his TT bike has not been used much at all.


I hope to ride up there via Sekiyado to watch it all.
I'm guessing it is about 25km up the river... (45 from my place).
The race is actually on the river cycling path isn't it? There is no way I can ride past this even without seeing anybody on the Tone river?
 
The race is actually on the river cycling path isn't it? There is no way I can ride past this even without seeing anybody on the Tone river?

It's on a road inside the levees, overlooked by the bike path on the, er, right bank? (Never remember, do you decide right and left looking upstream or downstream?) Anyway, looking downstream, the right bank, at the 利根川河川敷緑地公園. Our group starts going out at 10:30am.

Good luck to your guy--is this him, by the way, in the middle of the shot?
 
Yes... that's him. He takes most of the great photos for our club when he's not riding/racing.

I may have to make use of my Garmin to make sure I find this...
 
Training Ride

Phil, Alan, Naomi,

how about a training ride in preparation for our great show at Hitachi Naka? I have off from teaching at the ICU on Saturday May 16th, so I would be available both days on that weekend. Chiba could be a good training ground plus we could discuss our race strategy and whatever.

At least we need a big sound system in the pit.
Possibly a generator to power it.
 
I'm in...

for the training ride, although I think Alan and Naomi won't be around that weekend. Maybe start a new thread? Think I've already hijacked Pete's victory celebrations quite enough...

:beer::beer::beer:
 
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