What's left to do? Maybe repeat Domancy and Pike before August.
But instead, I looked at some old routes and rode the London Loop Reverse. I had the second fastest effort for a long time. Let's do it today. I smashed the first half, just absolutely rode like the finish line was at the top of Fox Hill. Then I tried to just not die on the finish. My legs were about to quit. I could not believe the finish time at 22:11. I was one second faster! I'm still in shock. I thought I was too slow to make it. I just couldn't recover fully on the descent. I averaged 160 heart rate for most of the effort.
Just now, I ran the clock for myself versus V. Whitelaw. Despite my super effort, Vickie was still ahead by 20 seconds at the top of Fox Hill. Wow. She is really good. Going into the finish, she was still up by 13 seconds. But, as a short puncher, I pulled up even at 21:42 and up by one second at 21:52. I just barely held on to finish up by one second. I averaged about 300 watts for the finale of the race. I went from back a second to ahead one second with a 10 second sprint over the top of that last incline. One or two pedal strokes at 550 and that's all I had left to give. I was completely spent and just coasted on the last downhill meters to the finish line.
It all comes down to, I sprinted early at the top of the crest out of the tunnel and she sprinted the last 300 meters. With her speed in the last 100 meters, she almost beats me. It's amazing. I think I would have lost the battle had we raced side by side. Even her holo replay would have defeated me mentally. Of course, I was on a time trial bike and she may well have drafted a good bit. My bike was a good bit slower on the climb but I knew I needed the disc wheel for the last half.
One thing I almost forgot, she did three laps. I only raced a single all-out lap. She had one more lap to go. It is apples to oranges a bit. In the end, it is all challenging fun. Pure and simple, the game of Zwift. And, lots of sweat.
