So, new Vitoria tainer tire, active rest day and cool morning effort (instead of hot afternoon with tired legs from work day.) and with 8 failed attempts but deep knowledge of every bit of this course, so started attempt number 9.
I was going against an effort of Cassie Baldi, who is very fast in her own right, maybe one of the fastest with the exception of Rachael Elliot who is at the very top of world class (as proven in CVR race in London). Add to that, she was drafting the entire first half and you have a deep record that is hard to match.
The start must be full speed with a rest on the downhill., just over 400 watts for 1:15 with a big spurt to get the downhill speed high from the start. Then the flat section (James River bumps section at 340 with a big spurt on the rise just leaving the city section. The first half at 5:50, 20 seconds down on Cassie.
Libby Hill must be fast, but not too hard with a following flat about 30 seconds more after the banner. 1:29 at 380 but cutting back on the flat to 340 or so and again a dig to start he downhill. I made my downhill dig about 2 seconds longer than my other efforts.
23rd Hill at 39 seconds at 410 but a small crest and a dig or almost a minute at 400. It's steep so you have to go hard and try to recover heart-rate on downhill. Started back at 320 on the flat section before Sagan's Hill.
This is it. Go hard all the way to the crest, one deep breathe and start the final sprint. Sagan Hill at 400 watts, for 1:20. Hitting the crest with about 400 meters to go. Usually I'm panting and doing 360-380. Once I died with 300 to go, or faded in the middle. today, I felt good at this point. While trailing at the first half, I can only match, almost exactly, Cassie on the first to hills. But on the following two flat sections, I managed to gain 7 seconds on my PB of 12:55 going into the final section. but more important, I'm dead even with Cassie's record. This was my only peek at my stop watch.
Granted, Cassie wasn't going all-out for a record here and didn't do a full finishing sprint. but, I knew I can loose about 10 seconds if I don't have my sprint. My long sprint< I call the Zee Sprint.and here with 400 to go, you need speed fast. I averaged 500 to the line, about my race finish best. (I can do 600 or more fully rested). I hit it hard and kept thinking, "You can loose it here and tie at 12:54. so I paniced myself and got it to 600 with 200 to go. I saw my speed get way up there, well over the 42 I know I need. turns out I hit 48 by the line, but I was just blurred vision focused on getting to the line.
I almost quit at the one minute mark, it hurt so bad. I said, just race at least half-way, then see if you can do Libby, then I had gone too far to quit. 12:39 on my watch but 12:38 on Zwift verified Strava time. I knew I needed about 370 average to beat the record, and I was over that when I got to Strava.
Finally!!!
One more tin on Strava compare, it says I only passed Cassie halfway up te last climb. Most of te time was in te final sprint. (my key just broke)
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